Travel 2 minutes 04 March 2024

Proper English: Exquisite English Country Hotels

Perfected over centuries, the great hotels of the English countryside offer a peerless mix of service, comfort, and coziness, with a view back into the beginnings of modern hospitality.

The hotels below are part of the MICHELIN Guide hotel selection. Each of the 5,000+ hotels in the selection has been chosen by our experts for its extraordinary style, service, and personality — and each can be booked on the MICHELIN Guide website and app.

Grantley Hall

Ripon, North Yorkshire

You couldn’t ask for a more classic example of the English country-house hotel than Grantley Hall, a 17th-century Palladian gem in the Yorkshire Dales. The exterior, electric lighting aside, remains just as it was, and the public spaces match its period architecture, while the rooms, some of them in a newer addition, have been renovated in a more contemporary, but still suitably grand, style. They’re all luxe, but the suites are positively jaw-dropping.

Book Grantley Hall on MICHELIN Guide →

The Wheatsheaf Inn

Northleach, Cotswolds

England’s coaching inns are the ancestors of today’s pubs, and the Wheatsheaf is as true as can be to the classic, slightly utopian ideal of a public house as a welcoming place for a drink, a delicious bite to eat, and an attractive, comfortable room for the night (plus decidedly non-pub amenities like a spa in the garden and shooting or fishing outings).

Book The Wheatsheaf Inn on MICHELIN Guide →

Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons

Great Milton, Oxfordshire

A stone path leads past the green grass, hedgerows, and delphiniums to a honey-colored fifteenth-century manor house. The damp air is sweet with the scent of hydrangea. In the lobby, chintz cushions soften the flagstone floors, fireplaces, and wood beamed ceilings. It couldn’t be more English, except for the fact that Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is the brainchild of a Frenchman, two-star Michelin chef Raymond Blanc.

Book Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons on MICHELIN Guide →

The Old Quay House

Fowey, UK

Perched dramatically at the water’s edge, with boats passing by and little to disturb the near-perfect quiet, The Old Quay is as restful as can be. Several of the rooms look out over the estuary from private balconies, as does the restaurant and a sun terrace, where guests can take in the river views and the breeze. Inside, a comfy fireside lounge stands ready when you need a warm up.

Book The Old Quay House on MICHELIN Guide →

The White Horse

Dorking, Surrey

It seems there’s a White Horse of some description in just about every town, village, and hamlet in England. But only the one in Dorking is the Victorian-era coaching inn where Charles Dickens wrote part of The Pickwick Papers. It’s also the only one that recently underwent a £4-million refurbishment to bring it up to modern standards that even Dickens couldn’t have imagined.

Book The White Horse on MICHELIN Guide →

No 131

Cheltenham, Cotswolds

The slightly sleepy Cotswolds town of Cheltenham might not be the first place you’d think to look for a lively and self-assuredly stylish boutique hotel. But that’s just what you’ll find in No. 131, a grand Georgian villa facing the town’s Imperial Gardens, once derelict but lovingly restored over the space of several years by restaurateurs and hoteliers Sam and Georgie Pearman.

Book No 131 on MICHELIN Guide →

Langshott Manor Hotel

Horley, Surrey

Though it’s not strictly a country house hotel — the town of Horley has grown up around its three-acre grounds — the 16th century Langshott Manor offers country-house atmosphere by the spadeful. The Elizabethan architecture no doubt contributes to that sense of peace and quiet, all beamed ceilings, mullioned windows, and great heavy doors that are particularly conducive to privacy (and deep sleep).

Book Langshott Manor Hotel on MICHELIN Guide →

Bailiffscourt Hotel & Spa

Climping, West Sussex

A mock-medieval mansion, built today, might come off a bit déclassé; a mock-medieval mansion built in the Thirties, however, has had time to accumulate a history all its own. Architecturally, it helps that it was built from salvaged medieval-era stones and beams. And in terms of atmosphere, it certainly doesn’t hurt that Bailiffscourt Hotel & Spa has played host to England’s brightest stars.

Book Bailiffscourt Hotel & Spa on MICHELIN Guide →

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Top image: Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons — Great Milton, Oxfordshire

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