Kings Head,
Gloucestershire
FOR STARTERS: This 13th-century coaching inn on
Cirencester's market place re-opened last autumn,
from the crack team behind Berkshire's Vineyard
at Stockcross. Cool, neutral colours suit the town's
Farrow Ball vibe. Flop around in a thick cotton
robe lapping up the in-room indulgences before
tootling down to the even newer spa, complete
with sauna, steam room and hot tub.
MAINS MORE: A Zuma-style robata grill is the
kitchen's pride and joy. Bookend your steaks, burgers and chargrilled
chicken with scallops with cauliflower and bone marrow, and
peanut butter brûlée. Finish with a post-prandial
snifter from the bar's extensive selection of gins.
SIDES: Soak up the honey-toned gorgeousness
of streets still intact from Cirencester's medieval
heyday. Pack your swimming costume for the
elegant lido, fed by spring water. Appetite worked
up, graze around the numerous delis, pop into the
Twelve Bells for a pint of Bells Bitter brewed on-site,
and pick up some provisions from the Chesterton
Farm Shop on the drive home… and maybe some
designer bargains if you detour to Swindon's
McArthur Glen outlet village.
BILL, PLEASE: Double rooms from £135 per night.
CONTACT: 01285 700900; kingshead-hotel.co.uk
St Mary's Inn, Northumberland
FOR STARTERS: Newcastle's respected Jesmond Dene team has
turned a former hospital near Morpeth into the very essence of a
modern-rustic pub-with-rooms: think iron bedheads designed by
a Scottish Borders blacksmith, antique wardrobes and desks, bang
up-to-date bathrooms and soft carpets to curl your toes into. Extra
beds for kids and dogs can easily be accommodated.
MAINS MORE: Chef Shaun Hurrell is ex-Marcus Wareing and
Fergus Henderson. Good pub grub from great local ingredients
includes mince and dumplings, beer-battered fish and chips, and
maple-glazed pork chop, washed down with house brew St Mary's
Ale. Best of all: Craster kippers for breakfast.
SIDES: Explore the windswept
Northumberland coast - fairy-tale
Bamburgh Castle; mystical Lindisfarne;
crab sandwiches and seal watching - it's
like north Norfolk without the smugness.
You're in no-nonsense Border country
here: pull on your walking boots
for Hadrian's Wall and saddle up for
mountain biking in the Kielder Water
Forest Park, where you can be dazzled
by stars in the darkest skies in England.
Or whizz down the A1 for NewcastleGateshead's
cosmopolitan quayside.
BILL, PLEASE: Double rooms from £90 per night.
CONTACT: 01670 293293; stmarysinn.co.uk
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The Bear, Powys
FOR STARTERS: Ex-human rights worker David Gibbon turned
his back on London and moved back to his roots to open this
three-room BB in a 16th-century
coaching inn in the centre of
bookworms' heaven Hay-on-Wye.
Expect all the metropolitan modcons
of multimedia TVs, free Wi-Fi
and wood-burning stoves.
MAINS MORE: Wake up to locally
sourced breakfasts, served in a walled
garden in summer: crusty loaves from
Jones the baker at the end of the road;
sausages and bacon from Gibbons
butchers round the corner; and
homemade veggie tarts, gooey with
the local Little Hereford cheese. Dine at St John's Place, in Hay's
old medieval parish hall, where David says that chef/proprietor
Julia's menus 'are always excitingly different and experimental':
think John Dory with squid, cauliflower, sorrel and cider.
SIDES: Had your fill of second-hand books? Poke among the
antiques and interior shops (the retro Old Electric Shop hosts
pop-up cocktail bars); stride along Offa's Dyke for views from Hay
Bluff; learn to canoe or meander on foot along the river bank.
BILL, PLEASE: From £75 a night for a small double bedroom
with a private bathroom.
CONTACT: 01497 821302; thebearhay.com
three-room BB in a 16th-century
coaching inn in the centre of
bookworms' heaven Hay-on-Wye.
Expect all the metropolitan modcons
of multimedia TVs, free Wi-Fi
and wood-burning stoves.
MAINS MORE:
sourced breakfasts, served in a walled
Jones the baker at the end of the road;
The Crescent Turner,
Kent
FOR STARTERS: Inspired by Timothy Spall's
turn in Mr Turner but find the artist's bolthole of
Margate a bit end-of-the-pier? Head to Whitstable
instead and ask for one of this boutique hotel's
rooms overlooking the oyster beds immortalised
in oil by the Victorian painter, or stay in the hotel's
Sundowner hut on the sandy beach.
MAINS MORE: Local boy Mark Kember cooks
the kind of pretty-as-a-picture Brit fare that would have made
Mr Turner smile: fillet of beef with potato fondant, smoked garlic
and mushroom purée, say. Eat like an eminent Victorian and take
afternoon tea, too, with homemade scones and
local berry jams, and don't leave town without
downing a dozen Whitstable natives at the
legendary Wheelers Oyster Bar (est. 1856).
SIDES: Wander down to the working harbour
through quaint passageways with names like
Squeeze Gut Alley. Peruse the estate agents'
windows and dream of swapping your Hackney
two-bedder for a seaside cottage. Take a turn
around the gardens of 18th-century Whitstable
Castle before making like a modern-day pilgrim,
cycling the Crab Winkle Way to Canterbury.
BILL, PLEASE: Double rooms from £110 per night.
CONTACT: 01227 263506; bespokehotels.com/crescentturnerhotel
windows and dream of swapping your Hackney
two-bedder for a seaside cottage. Take a turn
around the gardens of 18th-century Whitstable
Castle before making like a modern-day pilgrim,
Twelve Bells for a pint of Bells Bitter brewed on-site,
Farm Shop on the drive home… and maybe some
designer bargains if you detour to Swindon's
McArthur Glen outlet village.
Ale. Best of all: Craster kippers for breakfast.
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