Gravetye Manor

Deep in the Sussex countryside, a romantic Elizabethan manor house, built by an ironmaster for his bride, stands amid 1,000 acres of historically important gardens, pleasure grounds and woodland. It is a ‘magnificent venue’ to enjoy Michelin-starred cuisine; ‘it is expensive but that is a choice’. Oak-panelled public rooms are filled with antiques; staff are ‘effective, friendly, well trained’ and ‘luggage was whisked away’. In the dining room, George Blogg’s elegant menus ‘continue to excel’, featuring produce from orchard and kitchen garden in dishes such as cod, caviar, baby gem and seaweed, or Herwick hogget with sweetbread, turnip and leek. A reader notes that during the ‘three-night stay the menu was not changed’. Beyond glass walls, flowers overspill borders laid out by William Robinson, pioneer of wild and natural gardening, who lived here until his death in 1935. ‘Gardens as impeccable as the interiors.’ Bedrooms are ‘deeply traditional English’ perhaps with dual-aspect windows, a four-poster bed. ‘From arrival to departure, our stay was magical.’ It is a Relais & Châteaux hotel. (Ian and Francine Walsh, Anthony Bradbury, and others)