I spent last weekend in Cheltenham and the Cotswolds with my other half and wanted to recommend the Hotel du Vin in Cheltenham as a romantic place to stay.
We stayed in the Junior Suite, which was a stunning room, with traditional but luxury town-house styling. Features of the room include an enormous bed (really, the most important thing to me in a hotel), a separate seating area separated from the bed area by back to back TV screens, a roll top bath AND a walk-in monsoon shower.
We also had an evening meal in the hotel’s bistro, which had a fantastic atmosphere and a stunning chandelier of crystal wine glasses. I didn’t think the menu was particularly good value – the rustic food was good quality and well-prepared, but a little overpriced, as was the wine. However, the ambience was lovely, and particularly noteworthy was the outdoor “Cigar Shack”: a heated wooden hut with open sides for the smokers. I’m not a smoker myself, but still enjoyed a glass of wine in candlelit shack and in the comfort of leather seats.
As a point of comparison this hotel actually reminded me of the Great John Street hotel in Manchester for its look and feel, which I can also highly recommend.
Cheltenham’s Montpellier district and Promenade are nice places to walk around on a sunny day or pleasant evening, with boutique shops and plenty of restaurants and wine bars. During our stay we also took a country drive along the “romantic road”, which was a fantastic thing to do. The scenery along the drive is stunning, and this is possibly the best way to see it all. Also, I found that although each of the little villages were charming in their own right, I wouldn’t have found much to entertain me for the whole day in any of them, so being able to drive though plenty of them and stop off when it took our fancy really suited us!
All in all, a very sophisticated “English” weekend!
English Rose from Manchester's Blog 