Whatley Manor Hotel and Spa

Whatley Manor is a picture-perfect country-house hotel, one whose aesthetic may be slightly rustic owing to its Cotswolds setting, but whose hospitality is polished to a high sheen. It’s smallish, with just 23 rooms and suites, but each one is generously sized, and furnished to exacting 21st-century luxury-hotel standards. The sensibly named Dining Room offers the kind of culinary experience people drive halfway across England for; the more casual Grey’s Brasserie is also excellent. Further inducements include the Aquarias spa, as well as the hotel’s grounds, which contain seemingly endless gardens.