The hotels on our travel editor's wishlist this summer
Let’s not dwell on the likely complications we may face in travelling abroad this summer and concentrate instead on the pleasures on our door step. Much, too much perhaps, has been written on the subject of the ‘staycation’ during the course of the pandemic, to the point where this lacklustre word completely fails to convey any sense of allure in the prospect of holidaying on home shores. So chuck that ugly word in the bin, along with the British climate for fear it dampens our spirit, and focus on the manifold blessings this country has to offer – not least our brilliant but beleaguered hotel industry which, from today, will be crying out for our renewed support.
Of the many UK hotels I have visited over the years of course I have my favourites. Equally, there are others which I have never had the chance to stay at which are high on my wishlist and more still, new to the scene for 2021, where I’ll be hoping to get to. Here are the openings and reopenings to know about this year, including four exciting ventures much further afield.
Wild Atlantic waves, sand dunes and pine trees provide a beguiling backdrop for Areias do Seixo, an eco resort an hour north of Lisbon, on Portugal’s Costa de Prata. The latest addition to the hotel is a hippie-chic canvas tent, known as the Shelter, which sits in a private spot alongside the dunes. There is no Wi-Fi, of course, but the tent is sumptuously appointed and comes with all those essentials required for blissful isolation – a wood-burning stove, a hammock, bicycles and yoga mats, plus picnic baskets brought to the door.
The Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, has the kind of mid-Atlantic, far-flung appeal that feels so on trend right now. The nine islands, divided into three distinct groups, are best suited to adventurers and nature lovers, with epic scenery and wonderful walks and diving. São Miguel, the main island, has the best restaurants and hotels, including the sleek Santa Bárbara eco-resort. Temperatures stay pleasant all year round, but the best months are May to September.
Staycationers
While big-ship cruising remains a difficult market, small-ship bookings – particularly for private charters – are booming. The Majestic Line, which operates out of Oban to cover the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides, has four small boats (two purpose-built and two converted former fishing boats), each one sleeping 11 or 12 passengers and small enough to reach remote bays and anchorages. The season runs from April to October and there are a number of itineraries on offer, with a choice of three, six or 10 nights. A three-day private charter costs from about £11,500, including all food and wine.
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Experiential private travel specialist Pelorus was quick off the mark when the pandemic hit, joining forces with glamping pioneers Camp Kerala to offer off-the-beaten-track luxury camping adventures in the UK. While Pelorus’s eyes are firmly on Europe and beyond for 2021 – with adventures available in Spain, Greece, Norway and Italy – its UK offering remains in place. Dorset, Somerset, Yorkshire, Pembrokeshire and Scotland are the favoured locations and every holiday is tailored – in minute detail – to the needs of the client (skydiving? no problem). This is mega-budget, bucket-list stuff but promises a UK holiday like no other.
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If you would like to explore Britain in a campervan, Quirky Campers acts as an online agent for campervan rental throughout the UK. As an owner, you can rent out your vehicle (as long as it meets the high standards of craftsmanship and cleanliness) and as a renter you gain access to campers in all shapes and sizes for the ultimate road trip.
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‘Demand for wilderness destinations is on the rise,’ says Jonny Bealby of Wild Frontiers, which has built up an excellent reputation for its group tours to adventurous corners of the globe. 2021 will see the launch of trips to three western European destinations: northern Greece (‘Along the Via Egnatia’), plus Italy and Spain. Group tours rarely exceed nine guests, but Covid-conscious travellers can arrange private ‘bubble holidays’, for six to 10 people.
MAY WE SUGGEST: Houses to rent on the Greek islands
The film Mamma Mia! put Skopelos firmly on the map, but little attention has been given to nearby Alonissos, a beautiful island in the National Marine Park of Greece’s northern Sporades. There is talk, in our new world, of travellers wanting to spend longer in places, with the chance to work remotely while overseas. Alonissos ticks the box for a peaceful, longer stay. The Thinking Traveller has Kolokithi Bay, a top-of-the-range property, which sleeps 14, with direct access to the sea. The Villa Collection from Greek Islands Club has more modest options, including the rustic Sea Horse Cottage, which sleeps just two and has steps straight onto the beach.
1/13Cliveden
For sheer grandeur, nowhere beats Cliveden, the ultimate special occasion hotel set in fabulous grounds and parkland (now owned by the National Trust) that rise through woodland up from the River Thames – between Windsor and Maidenhead - to the stately plateau over which the historic mansion presides. Should the weather be warm enough to swim, the outdoor pool in the walled garden, is fabulous.
Paul Massey2/13The Star at Alfriston
Also opening in Sussex and up there, too, on my hit list is The Star at Alfriston, the latest UK venture from Olga Polizzi and her daughter Alex. This old inn, at the heart of a classically picturesque medieval English village, is only a short walk from the sea and the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs. How do I know it will be good? Because Olga’s Hotel Tresanton at St Mawes in Cornwall is an absolute gem – not somewhere I’d rush to in high summer, but at its best in those golden days of autumn.
3/13The Pig
Like many, I’m a Pig Hotel fan, having watched this brilliant mini-chain grow over the years, expanding from the original outpost in the New Forest to include hotels in Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Kent and Cornwall. Behind each is the winning combination of a beautiful house, great design, the best of locally-produced food (much of it grown in each hotel’s enormous vegetable garden) and an atmosphere of laid-back, low-key ease. It’s hard to choose a favourite, though the Pig at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall holds special significance as being the only new hotel I managed to visit in 2020. High on the list, therefore, for this year will be the Pig’s latest venture in West Sussex, which opens in the Grade II-listed Madehurst Lodge on the South Downs.
4/13The Lord Crewe Arms
Pubs and old country inns are often what this country does best – a unique feature of British life not just in terms of food and drink but often accommodation, too. Just before lockdown began in March last year, I spent two days on the Durham/Northumberland border in the tiny village of Blanchland on the edge of the Derwent River. The Lord Crewe Arms was my base, the kind of superlative hotel that encompasses everything you could want or need – a rip-roaring history, huge open fires, a large garden for post-Covid conviviality, comfortable bedrooms and hearty food to follow days spent yomping the moors.
5/13The Double Red Duke
One couple I have been following with interest are Sam and Georgie Pearman. They have moved on from their Lucky Onion collection (which still includes their brilliant No. 131 Cheltenham) to form Country Creatures, a small collection of Cotswold pubs. The Swan at Ascott-under-Wychwood, a sixteenth-century coaching inn with eight bedrooms oozes charm but the one I’m holding out for is the Double Red Duke at Clanfield, near Oxford, which has been delayed and delayed, for obvious reasons, but will throw opens its doors on May 17th with 19 bedrooms furnished from top-to-toe with British design.
6/13The Bradley Hare
Sticking to theme of inns, The Bradley Hare, set in the beautiful Wiltshire village of Maiden Bradley (part of the Duke of Somerset’s Bradley House estate) will open in June. Behind the interiors here is James Thurstan Waterworth, the ex-European design director for Soho House, so we can expect an elegant blend of antiques and art, wallpapers and striking fabrics. Food is key here, too – local, seasonal and fresh, of course – with ambitions to run a zero-waste kitchen. Hidden amongst the grounds of Bradley House itself will be a small ‘Potting Shed’ treatment room.
7/13Callow Hall
Another bright young star of hotel design is Isabella Worsley who trained under Kit Kemp at Firmdale Hotels. Isabella’s first project is for the new Wildhive brand where she has refashioned the interiors of Callow Hall in Derbyshire as well as the hotel’s 11 one-bedroom woodland hives dotted throughout the grounds. This is definitely on my radar.
Alicia Taylor8/13The Newt
But, if there’s one hotel I’m ashamed to admit I have never been to, it’s The Newt in Somerset – probably England’s most talked-about hotel of the last couple of years. Once the glorious Hadspen House estate (the Georgian house and stable block are still the crux of the operation), The Newt has been lavished with untold money and love: its interiors are beautifully stylish; its gardens and woodland cultivated to perfection; its café, cyder bar, gelateria and farm shop filling column inches with boundless praise. So this year, top of my list, will be a visit to The Farmyard, the former dairy farm which will provide 17 more bedrooms when it opens this summer. I’m counting down the days for, dare I say it, my first, post-Covid staycation.
9/13New rooms in Cornwall
All set for another bumper summer season, Cornwall is filling up fast. Luckily, there is a raft of new accommodation for 2021 including: four Whittington Suites (from £1,000, B&B) at The Nare, with panoramic views of Carne Beach and Gerrans Bay; seven beach lofts (from £545, B&B) at Watergate Bay Hotel; and Three Mile Beach, a collection of three- and four-bedroom houses a stone’s throw from Gwithian Beach (from £150 a night for a minimum of three nights).
10/13Parcel Tiny House
Slow living and slow tourism are the watchwords for Parcel Tiny House, an eco-friendly cabin that opened in an organic vineyard near Saint Émilion last summer. There are no neighbours, no WiFi, no television – just the simple pleasures of a glorious setting (reached only on foot) and easy access to some of the finest wine money can buy. Designed for minimal environmental impact, the cabin has a double bed, shower and dry loo, fully equipped kitchen and wood-burning stove. Breakfast, from local suppliers, is also included. Three more ‘tiny houses’ will be rolled out – literally – during 2021. The other locations are under wraps, but will be ‘perfect, rural spots where gastronomy plays a big role’, says founder Geraldine Boyer. From €140 a night, B&B.
11/13Baobab treehouse
The metamorphosis of Xigera Camp to Xigera Safari Lodge has been exceptional: a labour of love, you might say. While the location on the western side of the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s Okavango Delta remains as sublime as ever, it is the focus on working almost solely with local designers and artisans that really stands out. There are 12 rooms in the main camp and then this – the standalone Baobab Treehouse suite, which takes inspiration from Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957). He was South Africa’s most iconic landscape painter, whose work included the study of trees, particularly baobabs. The architectural translation of the tree incorporates steel branches, which will, over time, rust to blend seamlessly into the surrounding bush. The treehouse has four floors; the central two have canvas walls that can be rolled up to bring the outside in. On the top, 10 metres up, is a viewing platform and an outdoor bed, for full immersion in the African night. One night in the treehouse costs an additional US$250 on top of the daily room rate (US$4,600 based on two adults sharing) and can be booked only as part of a stay at the main safari lodge.
12/13OKU
A breakaway hotel brand born from the ashes of Thomas Cook’s demise, OKU has cleverly cherry-picked the tour operator’s two best properties – one on the Greek island of Kos and one on Ibiza – as flagships for a new chain with global expansion plans. (Bali, Miami and other Mediterranean destinations are all currently on its radar.) OKU Kos, shown here, captures the essence of what the brand aims to be all about – a peaceful, adults-only, village-style retreat where guests can enjoy great design and great food in a so-called ‘soulful environment’. On trend for a post-pandemic world, health and wellness are key aspects, too, with complimentary yoga and fitness classes – some in a beachside pavilion, some in the spa. Of the 100 rooms, the suites with private pools are likely to be most in demand, along with the hotel’s three private two-bedroom villas. Doubles from €180, B&B.
13/13Villa Igiea
The Sicilian capital has long been a cultural melting pot – a city at the end of Europe, at the beginning of Africa and at the centre of the ancient world. Arab-style souks rub shoulders with Baroque churches; narrow, labyrinthine streets open onto citrus-filled cloisters; and grand architectural flourishes trace history through the ages. Ten minutes’ drive from the historical centre, Villa Igiea, designed originally as a private house at the turn of the century and built in the art nouveau style, overlooks the Gulf of Palermo with tiered gardens reaching to the waterfront. Now in the hands of Rocco Forte, the hotel has recently undergone a meticulous restoration and refurbishment, overseen by Olga Polizzi in collaboration with the Paolo Moschino for Nicholas Haslam studio. Due to open in June, it has 104 bedrooms in total. Show-stealers will include the Liberty-style, frescoed Salon Basile, the grand mirrored ballroom – now the restaurant – and the Mediterranean-inspired garden spa, where local botanicals, picked from Villa Igiea’s Sicilian sister property, Verdura Resort, will enrich the treatments. From £360 a night.
