Cowley Manor

A through-the-looking-glass sort of place, this hotel playfully inverts the traditional country-house theme, with bold interiors created for new owners the Experimental Group. Modelled on the Villa Borghese, it overlooks Italianate gardens with lakes, fountains and statuary. It’s a hotel ‘for the young and the young at heart’, say our inspectors, who warmed to the ‘hip vibe and style’ despite a lack of comfy chairs. A main-house bedroom had ‘luxurious sheets and towels, a fabulous bathroom’ with a large bath and rainfall shower. Some rooms have a four-poster, a balcony or terrace. Annexe family suites are set over three floors. An ‘Alice’ theme with chequerboard and rabbit motifs recalls that the author Lewis Carroll drew inspiration from the grounds. After cocktails in the buzzy bar, a French-inspired meal in the panelled dining room includes abundant home-grown produce. ‘We had a delicious crispy lettuce salad, a courgette salad, sea bass’, and ‘unusual’ white and dark chocolate mousse. Breakfast brought ‘local breads, fresh juices, home-made granola with honey from the estate bees, perfect poached eggs’. Spend days in the ‘wonderful spa’, wildlife watching or hunting the snark.