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Just as in summer our thoughts turn to the seaside and sunny, spacious hotels filled with light, so in the chilly depths of winter we dream of cosiness and creature comforts. As clouds roll across the sky and a nip in the air becomes an ache in the bones, our thoughts turn to warmth and shelter, long soaks in hot baths, log fires and hearty food served in surroundings full of character. We dream of deep armchairs and oak beams; home-baked cakes and crumpets for tea; and inviting, homely bedrooms. Whether a traditional inn, country house or shooting lodge, whether in sight of crashing waves or lost in countryside, the hotels we crave in winter have to entice us with something more than facilities and amenities: they need heart and soul.
You might think that Britain is stuffed with hotels where one can play out this seasonal fantasy, but in reality, they have until relatively recently been surprisingly hard to find. In the last couple of decades, many previously cosy, traditional inns and modest country hotels have been given stylish modern makeovers. They are cool and attractive for sure, homes-from-home for urban dwellers who are more used to drinking at zinc-topped city bars than oak ones dripping in pewter mugs, but hygge – to use that splendid Danish word for conviviality and comfort – they are not. These premises may still have open fires and original features but they’re just not cosy any more. Very often, their public spaces are entirely given over to dining; in essence, they are restaurants posing as country pubs.
However, I detect a change. Perhaps owing to the pandemic, the cost of living and even climate crises, landlords and owners are quietly but noticeably returning their inns and country hotels to a more community-based, inclusive and welcoming style of hospitality, where the local, the natural and the sustainable take centre stage. In difficult times, people look for reassurance and kindness as much as fine food and fancy fittings, especially on a winter break. After all, that’s the essence of hospitality.
There’s another reason why winter makes such a great season for escape: it’s a good time to ring the changes, avoid the obvious and choose somewhere to base yourself that’s lesser known, less busy and less expensive. Now is the time to dive under the radar and seek out destinations that you may not consider in spring and summer. Travelling somewhere unfamiliar and finding warmth, cosiness and creature comforts is a pleasure that only a winter break can supply.
With the windswept Penwith Moors to one side and the pounding Atlantic on the other, the vivid yellow visage of the Gurnard’s Head stands out as a beacon of comfort in what can be a bleak and unforgiving winter landscape. The 19th-century inn, situated on the winding coastal road that leads from St Ives to Land’s End, is just as warm and welcoming on the inside, with a crackling fire in the hearth of the wood-panelled lounge, a menu of delectable dishes with ingredients sourced from nearby farms and harbours, and seven snug bedrooms stocked with blankets, books and Roberts radios.
Doubles from £125, including breakfast (01736 796928; gurnardshead.co.uk). Read the full review here.
As winter sets in, there’s no better view of the atmospheric swathe of saltmarsh that fringes the North Norfolk coast than from the first-floor Look Out or fire-warmed Boat Room lounges of the Blakeney Hotel. Around a dozen bedrooms have estuary views too, and the restaurant at this long-established quayside hotel, in one of the region's prettiest seaside villages, offers panoramic window tables. Stride out on bracing walks along the coastal path to the flint-built villages of Cley-next-the-Sea or Morston or, if the rain sets in, take a dip in the large indoor pool and delve into the hotel’s collection of board games.
Doubles from £174, including breakfast, best rates for stays of two nights or more (01263 740797; blakeney-hotel.co.uk). Read the full review here.
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This historic country estate on the Cheshire-Shropshire border is a rural idyll with plenty of warmth for winter. Set in 1,000 acres, it combines high-end B&B at two suites in the manor’s (adults-only) North Wing with more casual, cosy cottage stays for families and four-legged friends at 10 holiday rentals. It’s perfect for crisp strolls in the sprawling, wooded grounds, while the refurbished Edwardian Glasshouse is the new centrepiece of the Walled Garden. Beyond the estate, the Three Wrens Gin Distillery has tasting rooms at the end of the drive, but you’ll need a car for a cheese-buying run into nearby Natwich, or supper at the perennially popular Cholmondeley Arms.
Suites from £195, including breakfast (01948 660 345; combermereabbey.co.uk). Cottages sleeping four from £650 for three nights. Read the full review here.
This modern, stylish hotel perched on the bluff of a hill near East Portlemouth is well geared for weather-defying winter breaks, with facilities that include a spa, cinema, heated indoor and outdoor pools and a glass-fronted restaurant overlooking the sea. The lounge has contemporary statement log burners and comfortable sofas, while bedrooms feature rattan lampshades, block-print armchairs, pom-pom-fringed throws and rough timber feature walls. Most have balconies, terraces or gardens with sea views, and all have bathtubs with salts provided to soak aching post-walk limbs. The South West Coast Path is on the doorstep, the town of Salcombe is nearby and you’re spoilt for choice with beaches.
Doubles from £225, including breakfast (01548 845946; gararock.com). Read the full review here.
With intimate beamed rooms lit by log fires, roll-top baths in five of its nine decadent bedrooms and a restaurant that gained Michelin recognition within a year of opening, Boys Hall is very much a destination in itself. This tastefully renovated Jacobean manor house with three acres of rambling gardens has a somewhat incongruous location in workaday Ashford (just 37 minutes by train from London St Pancras), but this is gratefully forgotten once you’re ensconced in its warm embrace. While away rainy afternoons with Scrabble and freshly baked brownies by one of the Hall’s six roaring fires, sample Kent’s finest wines in the 17th-century wood-panelled bar, and feast on the likes of Romney Marsh lamb in the restaurant before soaking in a tub for two and sinking into a four-poster bed.
Doubles from £160, including breakfast (01233 427727; boys-hall.com).
Firelit alcoves, low beamed ceilings, log burners and garden pods overlooking beautifully lit gardens make this 14th-century thatched inn on Devon’s Jurassic coast a top Devon pick for a romantic winter retreat. Set in the pretty seaside town of Branscombe, it’s a higgledy-piggledy maze where each corridor leads to another enticing nook. The newly refurbished rooms are sublime – think burnt orange velvet cushions; thick, soft carpets and huge upholstered headboards. Many have super-king beds and freestanding bathtubs. The huge open fire in the pub, complete with the original meat-roasting ironmongery, is a highlight. Branscombe beach and the South West Coast Path are a 15-minute walk away.
Doubles from £110, including breakfast (01297 680300; masonsarms.co.uk). Read the full review here.
There is something truly spoiling about escaping to a fine country manor during winter, especially one with a sumptuous spa. Grab some lungfuls of crisp air on a stroll around Lucknam’s mist-covered, 500-acre estate just outside Bath, then warm up in the sauna or steam room. The indulgently long indoor pool has a flickering fire cut into a polished stone wall, while the outdoor hydrotherapy pool steams on a cold day. The hotel’s rooms are lavishly comfortable or there are well-appointed cottages for families to snuggle up in. Celebrate long, dark nights with dinner at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Hwyel Jones.
Doubles from £375, excluding breakfast (01225 742 777; lucknampark.co.uk). Read the full review here.
It’s been 18 years since Simon Page and Jason King took a run-down pub and made it special. Nowadays they close after breakfast on a Sunday to allow family time with their two children, so book in for a Friday and Saturday night instead. Expect four lovely rooms; a menu that includes grouse ragout, and marmalade and ginger sponge with custard, brilliant breakfasts, homemade jams, honey from their five hives, winter veg from the garden, salads from the polytunnel, a flock of 150 pedigree Jacob sheep and Simon’s mum’s gorgeous hand-knitted tea cosies for sale – just the job in winter. Nearby, you might spot otters at the Bombay Sapphire Distillery on the River Test, walk in Pamber Forest, or visit Roman Silchester.
Doubles from £130, including breakfast (0118 9820110; thewellingtonarms.com). Read the full review here.
Chef Tommy Banks, of the Michelin-starred Black Swan at Oldstead, set about creating the platonic ideal of a cosy country pub when he opened the Abbey earlier this year. And the Great British Menu winner has succeeded with a smart makeover of the 19th-century inn where he washed pots as a boy. Wake up to views of the ruins of (an ideally snow-dusted) Byland Abbey opposite before setting off on a ramble up to the White Horse landmark at Kilburn. Return to a pint of local ale and a superlative burger made with beef from the Banks family farm down the road – the perfect reward.
Doubles from £350, including breakfast and £50pp towards dinner (01347 868204; abbeyinnbyland.co.uk).
An unexpected alliance of traditional stone farmhouse and sophisticated Scandinavian design. Handmade furniture sits alongside Arne Jacobson chairs, creating a restrained yet luxurious, aesthetically pleasing setting. Guests treat the house as a home – albeit one with handmade Swedish mattresses. After a day exploring the Cairngorms National Park on foot, bicycle (available for hire) or skis, ease tired muscles in the sauna yurt and plunge pool before nodding off over an honesty bar dram or cocktail by the fire (indoors or out). Meals at the kitchen table are first-class comfort food celebrating local game and seafood, with cake and scones further fueling frosty days.
Doubles from £425, including breakfast and three-course dinner (01540 661619; killiehuntly.scot). Read the full review here.
If you have to hole up anywhere during a storm make it the Bell & Crown. Step in from the A303 to this 200-year-old pub on the edge of the village of Zeals and you can immediately envisage spending a few hours here. Adjust to the light of tall candles on each table, duck beneath overhead beams and friendly staff will settle you in a characterful nook amid wood panelling. The food is very good and provides fortitude against the cold. Sometimes, the pavement chalkboard advertises nothing but “pints and fire”, yet upstairs are six cosy and quietly fashionable bedrooms.
Doubles from £115, including breakfast (01747 840404; bellandcrown.com). Read the full review here.
In a plum-perfect position on the shores of Ullswater, and looking across to fells, this Lake District hotel – a Georgian country house with bold slate and glass extensions – does all it can to encourage guests outside. Daily activities – from walks to stand-up paddle boarding and open-water swimming – are chalked up on a blackboard at reception, and the hotel has its own jetty. After all that activity you can hunker down around the fire in the lounge (where you’ll find plenty of board games) or relax in Swim Club, which includes an outdoor wooden hut tub overlooking suitably snowy peaks at this time of year. Style throughout is designer-casual with a few rustic touches – in particular, the shepherd’s huts, which come with log-burners, roll-top baths and rugs to snuggle under around their fire pits.
Doubles from £240, including breakfast (017684 86442; another.place). Read the full review here.
In the heart of pretty Kingham near the Cotswold market town of Stow-on-the-Wold, this enclave of eco-elegance and gourmet excellence must be the ultimate pub with rooms. The current incarnation of this old inn is the creation of Carole Bamford, founder of nearby Daylesford Organic (shop, deli, farm and more) and it exemplifies her style of mellow and meticulous rustic-chic. The long bar has crackling fireplaces and inviting leather chairs; the glamorous dining room is fashioned as an idealised farmhouse kitchen and serves such winter delights as smoked venison with game sausage. Upstairs are 13 bedrooms where appealing design features range from four-posters made from birch branches to bathrooms panelled with little dry stone walls. Explore Burford a few miles south and stroll over to Daylesford to enjoy treatments at the Bamford spa.
Doubles from £189, including breakfast (01608 692866; thewildrabbit.co.uk). Read the full review here.
It’s all about the spa at this glamorous seaside retreat favoured by A-list celebs for its top-notch facilities and air of discreet luxury. For a touch of rest and relaxation to get you through the cold winter months, there’s no finer place in Cornwall. You can soak in an open-air hot tub atop the cliff or sweat it out in the sauna cabin while enjoying the sweeping view over Mawgan Porth’s pristine beach. For those who like to get the blood pumping, the South West Coast Path is just yards away, while the 37 bedrooms are perfect for those who’d rather curl up with a book and a glass of wine.
Doubles from £235, including breakfast (01637 861800; scarlethotel.co.uk). Read the full review here.
Old-world farmhouse combines with flamboyant Scandi-chic at Dormy House hotel and spa, set on a rural lane by rolling fields in the northern Cotswolds. The 17th-century property oozes appeal, with original panelling in the hall, three wonderfully cosy yet stylish sitting rooms, excellent dining options (Mo for a state-of-the-art chef’s table and the Back Garden for imaginative brasserie fare) and 39 beautiful bedrooms, including two hot tub suites. Add to this mix one of the best hotel spas in the Cotswolds and you get a top-notch winter retreat. There’s much to explore nearby, too: handsome Chipping Campden is six minutes’ drive east, famously pretty Broadway seven minutes’ drive west – or walk there through the outlying Farncombe Estate.
Doubles from £309, including breakfast (01386 852711; dormyhouse.co.uk). Read the full review here.
For dark skies, quiet nights and a lingering waft of woodsmoke, book a stay at this revamped 18th-century hunting lodge in a tranquil deer park just inland from the seaside resort of Cromer. Owned by art dealer Ivor Braka, stylish rooms are furnished with intriguing antiques and stand-out contemporary artworks. To be in on the action, reserve a table in the Elk Room for a grandstand view of chef Stuart Tattersall cooking ribs of beef and crunchy roast potatoes on an open wood fire – and try out the tasty tapas served at sister restaurant the Suffield Arms nearby.
Doubles from £120, including breakfast (01263 832010; theguntonarms.co.uk). Read the full review here.
The Albion, set in a handsome former warehouse on the river, is alluring and atmospheric. Traditional woven Welsh blankets and original 19th-century sketches preserved on lime-washed walls whisper of Cardigan’s rich history, while antique wooden armchairs were tracked down from Norfolk. Bedrooms are snug, dark and moody, like the captain’s cabin of a ship. Cardigan, on the border of Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, is a great spot from which to explore West Wales. Sister “outdoor hotel” Fforest Farm is a half-hour walk away, where you’ll find barrel saunas and Wales’ tiniest pub.
Doubles from £189, including breakfast (01239 623633; albionaberteifi.co.uk). Read the full review here.
Lavishly decorated in a staggering reproduction of Victorian decorative excess, it is hard to imagine a cosier winter bolthole than this one, owned by Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth fame. With open fires (and art, of course) at every turn, you'll struggle to decide between the grand drawing room, fireside snug or Flying Stag public bar – chefs even cook over wood fires in the Cluanie dining room. Outdoors, Royal Deeside provides fairytale castles at every turn, glorious walks and two ski areas. Take advantage of the night skies with astronomer-led stargazing then warm up in Bertie's whisky bar. And as for the pretty village of Braemar, when it snows you'll think you're in Narnia.
Doubles from £434 including breakfast (01449 720215; thefifearms.com). Read the full review here.
The former home of the Armstrong-Jones family, whose son married HRH Princess Margaret and went on to become Lord Snowdon, is the epitome of North Walian country-house style. Located just outside Caernarfon, complete with Unesco-listed castle, it’s home to 10 stylish bedrooms, three self-catering cottages and a destination restaurant, the Gunroom. The Princess Margaret Suite is the signature room, while corridors are alive with Lord Snowdon’s photographs of, among others, David Bowie. Take pre-dinner drinks by the roaring fire in the Drawing Room before fine dining with a seasonal twist. And, if you can’t tear yourself away to explore nearby Anglesey, then strolling in the manicured grounds offers elevated views across the Snowdonia range.
Doubles from £189 per room, including breakfast (01286 830214; plasdinas.co.uk). Read the full review here.
A cashmere cardigan of a pub that overlooks the green in Nun Monkton, one of Yorkshire’s prettiest villages. The low-beamed restaurant serves elevated gastropub fare (think local venison with blackberries and warm Yorkshire parkin), but the stone-flagged bar remains a place for locals to pop into of an evening. Eight modern bedrooms built at the back, constructed out of corrugated iron and home-grown Douglas fir, feel more Norway than North Yorkshire, though they could pass for very chic farm buildings. There are plenty of long walks to be taken along the river nearby but it's equally enjoyable to simply wander around Nun Monkton fantasising about buying property.
Doubles from £150, including breakfast (01423 330303; thealicehawthorn.com). Read the full review here.
There’s something soothingly timeless and reassuring about this Edwardian hotel in Beaulieu, the sort of place where Miss Marple might stay, and solve a murder in the village while she’s there. With a choice of sumptuous bedrooms, both classic and contemporary, and formal and informal dining, plus an oasis of a garden, this is one of Hampshire’s finest hotels. Stroll along the river to Buckler’s Hard for a pint at the Master Builder’s Inn, then back to cosy, wood-panelled Monty’s for hearty pub classics. Muddy paws and wellies welcome.
From £185, including breakfast (01590 612324; montaguarmshotel.co.uk). Read the full review here.
This is a handsome inn in the handsome village of Romaldkirk – Saxon church, three village greens, desirable stone-built houses – so everything feels right even before stepping inside the creeper-covered Georgian building. Here you’ll find a well-judged balance between tradition and contemporary smartness, with raftered ceilings and bright tartan carpets, dado panelling and pale-grey walls, stone-flagged floors and colourful cushions. Both an open fire and wood-burning stove keep things toasty in the bar. Choose between characterful bedrooms in the pub or more modern courtyard rooms with patios. Food is a mix of smarter dishes and pub classics served in the candle-lit, oak-panelled dining room. Outside there are moorland walks including the 92-mile Teesdale Way.
Doubles from £140, including breakfast (01833 650213; rose-and-crown.co.uk). Read the full review here.
Once a rambling vicarage, this Palladian mansion sits near the top of a vertiginous hill in the centre of the pretty Cotswold village of Painswick. The views, particularly on a crisp frosty morning, are spectacular. Step indoors and you’re in an exemplary boutique hotel with original features offset by contemporary-cool furnishings. There are quirky flourishes, too; the bar, for example, is in the tiny old chapel. There’s a snoozy parlour with a roaring fireplace downstairs, a chic sitting room upstairs, and a much-acclaimed restaurant. The 16 bedrooms (some with claw-foot bathtubs) are set around the main house and in a garden wing. This is a great base for walking in Laurie Lee country, exploring the magical Miserden estate nearby and on a Saturday morning enjoying the vibrant Stroud Farmers Market.
Doubles from £231, including breakfast (01452 813688; thepainswick.co.uk). Read the full review here.
In the pin-neat estate village of Blanchland – all honeyed stone and hanging baskets – and surrounded by the bracing North Pennines moorland, the Lord Crewe Arms ticks the boxes for good looks, atmospheric setting and a peaceful retreat at the end of a windswept walk. Formerly the abbot’s lodging of a 12th-century priory, original features – thick walls, stone-flagged floors, quirky-shaped rooms – have been carefully combined with a stylish modern country look. Open fires, wood-burners and candles keep things cosy in several dining areas where food is robust and punchy. Bedrooms (some with wood-burning stoves) are dotted around the village. Walk, cycle or fish (gear is available to borrow), then return to a pint of Lord Crewe Brew in the barrel-vaulted bar.
Doubles from £184, including breakfast (01434 675469; lordcrewearmsblanchland.co.uk). Read the full review here.
Fabulous food is the draw in this small hotel, although on arrival it's hard to pass the welcoming wood-burning stove and first-class cocktails in the bright Tully bar, nor the whisky library/lounge and shop beyond. Upstairs you’ll find eight stylishly simple, colourful rooms – four with cast-iron roll-top baths. Then just follow the clink, clatter and hum to the informal, buzzing dining room. Book a day cookery course at the Ballintaggart Farm cookery school where it all began, explore the appealing towns of Aberfeldy, Pitlochry and Dunkeld, shop at the House of Bruar and walk it all off at the Hermitage – a stunning, sheltered riverside/waterfall walk.
Doubles from £165, including breakfast, with winter deals available at quieter times for £119 (01887 447000; ballintaggart.com/grandtully-hotel). Read the full review here.
There is something irresistibly romantic about a dolphin-spotting walk along the endless silver sands of a Highland winter beach, particularly when you return to a classical Scottish Regency house where fire and candlelight cast dancing shadows, even at breakfast. The look is an elegantly simple mix of past and present, with art provided by an artists-in-residence programme. Warm up in the garden sauna or sipping champagne in side-by-side baths overlooking the ornamental lake. Explore the ancient fishing village of Burghead, be tempted by cashmere at the Johnstons of Elgin mill shop or tour a distillery (or three) in nearby Forres.
Doubles from £280, including breakfast, with tariff reductions available January to April (01667 45489644; boath-house.com). Read the full review here.
This grand country-house hotel, perched on a hill overlooking the Fowey Estuary, is said to have been the inspiration behind Toad Hall in Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel, The Wind in the Willows: “The finest house on the whole river… or anywhere else, for that matter.” The rambling Victorian house is full of snug spots to settle into when the weather sets in: the elegant lounge where afternoon tea is served, the cosy library with soft sofas and an extensive stock of books, and the large spa with its heated indoor pool and treatment rooms.
Rooms from £139 a night, including breakfast (01726 833866; foweyhallhotel.co.uk). Read the full review here.
John Ilsley, Dire Straits bass guitarist and long-time owner of this idyllic backwater pub, has gone back to basics. No more fine dining; now there’s a simpler, heartier menu in keeping with this simple but charming bolthole. If you want to mix with locals, this is the place: the much-loved Public Bar is unchanged but for the addition of a squashy sofa and warming bowl food such as pork belly and bean stew or bubble and squeak. Upstairs, there are five chic and comfortable bedrooms and outside, bracing walks along the Solent shore, with Georgian Lymington close by.
Doubles £125, including breakfast (01590 626223; eastendarms.co.uk). Read the full review here.
If any city could be considered cosy it’s York, with its Harry Potter-evoking cobbled streets, and higgledy-piggledy pubs lining the river. And smart boutique hotel Grays Court has arguably the best address, tucked between the Minster and the Roman walls. With a history dating back to the 11th century, it positively vibrates with the past, from the mediaeval stone-flagged entrance hall and leaded windows to the Jacobean, oak-panelled gallery on the first floor. For an 11-bedroom hotel, there's a disproportionate number of nooks in which to relax and a little library. Rooms have fireplaces and are dotted with antiques – book one with a copper tub for maximum indulgence.
Doubles from £210. Breakfast included (01904 612613; grayscourtyork.com). Read the full review here.
Winter makes us think of Christmas, and Christmas makes many of us think of Charles Dickens, who was a regular at the Angel hotel in Bury St Edmunds, which is pretty cosy as towns go. The town has plenty of good food to enjoy, including at the Angel itself, and many of the hotel’s rooms have big, deep bathtubs that are perfect for a long soak. Some of them overlook the ruins of Bury's ancient abbey. The bar is nice for a cocktail, while the lobby lounge has lots of comfy corners if the weather turns frightful.
Doubles from £180, breakfast included (01284 714000; theangel.co.uk). Read the full review here.
Contributions by Gabriella Le Breton, Natalie Paris, Tom Mulvihill, Suzy Bennett, Martin Dunford, Sophie Butler, Emma Beaumont, Helen Pickles, Harriet O’Brien, Linda Macdonald, David Atkinson, Hattie Garlick.