Spa Hotels

In the grounds of an Arts and Crafts country house, the Elan Spa has a fitness room with static bikes, treadmills and exercise pool – or facials and massage for those who simply want to unwind. Perhaps a hot stone massage, or a chakra well-being ritual.

Fun time, mucking-in time and adult ‘me time’ are all part of the deal at this rambling Jacobean manor turned child-friendly and dog-friendly hotel, with extensive grounds.

An impressive list of famous guests, including both Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, have stayed at this rambling Tudor coaching inn with beams and inglenooks, panelled walls and leaded windows.

Fragrant herbs and flowers from the renowned herb garden infuse signature treatments in the Secret Garden Spa at this Georgian mansion. There’s a pool with floor-to-ceiling windows, a thermal suite, an outdoor hot tub.

From the ozone-treated pool and outdoor hot tubs, to crystal steam rooms and aromatherapy saunas, this spa sets the standard. There are top-to-toe beauty treatments, yoga and Tai Chi, all in a lovely New Forest setting.

It’s all about the sublime seaside setting at Keith Makepeace’s family-centric, dog-friendly hotel with ‘amazing views to take your breath away’.

Overlooking the racecourse and surrounded by gardens and parkland, this gem of a William and Mary house with its ‘stunning exterior’ feels deeply rural yet is just over a mile from York.

Set in 220 acres of parkland, this antique-filled Elizabethan mansion has plenty to impress, from the oak-panelled hall and 13th-century tower to the modern spa and ‘lovely’ gardens.

Built for a bishop in about 1760, Rathmullan House has been a beacon of Donegal hospitality since the early ’60s.

‘The Nare’s description of itself as “the country house hotel by the sea” sums it up nicely.

Perfectly placed to explore the New Forest, this Victorian Arts and Crafts inn, on the Beaulieu river near Lord Montagu’s home, is a mix of cosy bolt-hole, luxury hotel and fine-dining restaurant, with a pub in a 1920s wing.

This country hotel ticks all the boxes – historic building, beautiful gardens, smart bedrooms, relaxed dining, spa and pool – while retaining a homely feel.

Trefeddian Hotel has closed, but hopes to reopen in February 2021. It may have a four-star rating, but there is nothing too swanky about this child-friendly, dog-friendly hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay, across the road from dunes, golf links and white-sand beach.

A tunnel leads from the hotel to the Serenity Spa, creating a heightened sense of escape. Extensive facilities include a hammam, an Indian steam room, outdoor hot tubs, an ice fountain and a Zen garden with infinity hydrotherapy pool.

On a cliff-side above a secluded south Devon cove, this stylish hotel is just the place for seaside de-stressing. A sun terrace at the spa looks over Babbacombe Bay; inside, there’s an aromatherapy shower, a hydrotherapy pool, a sauna and steam rooms. Algae-based beauty and well-being treatments are available for face and body – and a duo massage room means double the repose.

It’s hard to believe that this boutique hotel, in a Grade 1 listed town house, at the corner of one of Ireland’s most perfectly preserved Georgian terraces, was once a youth hostel.

On the South West Coast Path, this former Edwardian gentleman’s retreat has ‘wonderful’ cliff-top views over an expanse of sea and sand.

Jan and Adam Moore’s relaxed, pet-friendly country hotel is in an 18th-century sporting lodge surrounded by mature gardens and woodland.

Guests don robes and flip-flops to relax and sip champagne with lunch at this luxury hotel’s spa garden. The bath house has a relaxation pool, vitality pool, salt- infused sauna and a blossom steam room.

On the quayside overlooking the estuary and salt marshes, in the luminous landscape of north Norfolk, Emma Stannard’s ‘lovely, comfortable’, child-friendly hotel gets another thumbs-up from a trusted reader.

New England meets Newquay at the UK’s most westerly hotel, a stylish coastal retreat 30 miles from the Cornish mainland, on the smallest of the inhabited Isles of Scilly.

In 1952, Gerald Milsom stopped at some Tudor tea rooms beside the River Stour and liked them so much he bought them.

A Georgian dower house extended to designs by Thomas Hardy, this luxury hotel and spa (Relais & Châteaux) stands in landscaped grounds adjoining a deer park.

At the entrance of this village in the beautiful Val d’Annivers, Anne-Françoise and Claude Buchs-Favre’s large white, blue-shuttered hotel dates from 1859.

There are grandparents who today cherish childhood memories of holidays at this family-friendly hotel.

Surely one of Britain’s most beautiful spas lies within old brick walls in the gardens of this Italianate mansion. Facilities include an indoor and (notorious) outdoor pool, a gym, hot tubs – an easy drive from London.

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s luxury hotel has come a long way since starting life as a 17th-century inn.

This decadent Art Deco grande dame, set on its own tidal island, ‘harks back to a more glamorous age’, and a recent refurbishment has been given the thumbs up by faithful regulars.

Perched in the tree canopy, the Swedish- style Jetty Spa offers treatments for Lake House guests. Or stay in a Spa Lodge with steam room, outdoor sauna and hydrotherapy tub, and book in-room treatments. Gilpin guests have use of nearby Choices Health Club.

The claim that Clan Leslie ‘can trace its ancestry back to Attila the Hun’ might give you pause, but fear not: the warmest Irish welcome awaits at this baronial-style Victorian pile on a 1,000-acre estate with three lakes and an equestrian centre.

It’s one long round of fun at this family-friendly hotel, centred on a Georgian manor house overlooking Chesil Beach and the Fleet Lagoon.

There are lots of good things to report about this family-friendly spa hotel this year.

Lawns run down to the pool in sub-tropical gardens ‘which, with their climbing geraniums, are magnificent’ at this cliff-top hotel overlooking the esplanade.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of Robin Hutson’s mother Pig, in a New Forest hunting lodge, and it seems ‘on better form than ever’, writes a trusted reader after an annual visit.

With the shiny promise of a cruise ship, Robert Wilson and Tim Lloyd’s spa hotel by the River Stour is as family- and dog-friendly as you please.

This Dartmoor country house hotel’s spa draws inspiration from Tibet, with soothing sounds, scents and music. There’s a hydrotherapy pool, steam room, sauna, and poolside ‘kubel dusche’ – a bucket of ice water to tip over yourself.

A contemplative, adults-only space, this Ayurvedic-inspired spa has an inside- outside feel, with cliff-top hot tubs, an indoor pool with sea views, a reed-filtered outdoor pool. Herbs and heat, salt and seaweed are all deployed for your well- being.

Spa days and holidays are spent in luxury at this New Forest hotel. There is a mud house, an outdoor hot pool, sauna and rooftop gym, with healthy food in Raw & Cured, all in a tranquil forest setting.

Fallow deer roam parkland around a part-Georgian house that has been converted into one of the Pig hotels in Robin Hutson’s Home Grown collection (see index).