Chic hotels for grown-up weekends away within couple of hours or so of London

[bossykate]

Am planning a w/e away with dh on our own next month. Hooray!

Am searching for chic not chintz and have found the following:

Babington House

Cowley Manor

Hotel du Vin Brighton

Whatley Manor

Cotswold House Hotel

The Grove

The Crazy Bear

Westover Hall Hotel

any views on these appreciated, especially the last five. the first three have been discussed a few times on mumsnet before.

also would be grateful for any chic and cheap suggestions - the above are quite pricey!

thanks in advance

Hi Bosseykate. I work for a conference/travel maagement company and we are always booking hotels. We use The Grove, Hotel du Vin, Cowley Manor and Babbington House. They are stunning bu v expensive.

I would also reccommend The Vinyard at Stckcross, Newbury. Very Chic! www.the-vinyard.co.uk

HTH

thank you, northerner, that is helpful

i notice lastminute.com have deals at the vineyard...

i posted these hotels as this topic seems to come up fairly often, and it could be useful to people searching the boards...

so i will add one more for reference The Place Camber Sands .

hope this info might be useful to someone else in future

Here is another idea Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire. We went there pre DS and had a great time.

Bossykate I can definitely recommend the Hotel du Vin in Brighton. It's gorgeous. Very modern and chic bar, great bistro and lovely individual non fussy bedrooms which are modern but luxurious. Also plenty of great places to have lunch in Brighton and good shopping to do. Would definitely go back there.

thanks, louli, some great four posters there!

tillysmummy, hotel du vin is in my top two, not least because it seems positively cheap - compared with some of the others that is! i love brighton...

I can really recommend Pennyhill Park just outside Camberley. There are some great deals on lastminute.com and the special bathrooms are amazing!

hi nursie, thanks for that. no room at the inn with my tries so far... does pennyhill park have an indoor pool?

thanks in advance

There is also hotel du vin in Tunbridge Wells.... very posh (as a continental I think) too pretentious but I know loads of people who think it's great.
And you can come and have coffee with me... talk about romantic

ditto - the vinyard. Michelin stared restaurant, spa facilities (DH even had a foot massage becasue he got to have a champagne cocktail at the same time) and the largest wine cellar (from the affordable to the ridiculous) you can imagine.

The Waterside Inn in Bray is v nice, lovely rooms but prob not quite hip, fab food (only place with 3 michelin stars since the 70s) I love it