Editors' Picks by Adrian Mourby

Here are the editors' picks for Britain's Finest chosen by Adrian Mourby.

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Adrian Mourby

Adrian Mourby

Adrian Mourby is a UK-based travel writer who has published four novels alongside two travel guides and a book of humour based on his award-winning Radio 4 series Whatever Happened To...? He has travelled to most parts of the world but would cite Cambodia, Antarctica, Istanbul, Finland, Venice, Luxor, Zanzibar, Burma, Namibia and Sinai amongst his most interesting journeys. Adrian also writes about the UK for European and American publications. His travel journalism has appeared in every UK broadsheet and numerous in-flight and luxury magazines.

Total of 17, showing 1–17

Hotels Near Britain’s Finest Festivals

Does any country in the world have so many festivals per square mile? These days Britain’s arts festivals run from early spring to late autumn and cover pretty much the entire country. It can sometimes seem that there are very few cities - and even villages - that haven’t... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: April 2013
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Ten Historic North Midlands Hotels

North of Birmingham rises the Peak District, an area of outstanding natural beauty - and architectural gems. It’s a pleasure to motor round this landscape of farms, villages, stately homes and historic towns like Duffield, Matlock Bath and Ashbourne. To the east of the... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: March 2013
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Ten Historic Hotels in the North West

I find the northwest corner of this country is a curious mixture of three distinct areas. In the far north stands the Lake District, a hilly and desolate area until tourism took root belatedly in the early nineteenth century. Then in the far west rise the hills and mountains... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: March 2013
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Ten Historic Hotels in the Highlands

The history of the Scottish Highlands has a very different narrative from the rest of Great Britain, even from the rest of Scotland. The clans ruled this rugged landscape for centuries, based around powerful families like the Mackenzies, Urquharts, Campbells and Frasers,... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: March 2013
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10 Historic Hotels along the English Riviera

Travel through Hampshire, Dorset and Devon and you rapidly leave behind those seaside resorts that owe their existence to day-trippers from London. Christchurch, Lyme Regis and Torquay are old coastal settlements along what has chosen to promote itself as the English... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: February 2013
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10 Historic South Coast Hotels

The British seaside holiday was invented on the south coast of England when George III’s family, and then the aristocracy, left London to go seabathing for their health. Once a new fashion had been created, the middle and working classes followed in full force as railways... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 8
  • Date: February 2013
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Ten Historic Hotels in the Lake District

The Lake District wasn’t always a tourist attraction. Daniel Defoe called this pastoral landscape “the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over in England, or even Wales itself.” But by the end of the eighteenth century the first guidebook, A Guide... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: January 2013
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Ten West Country Hotels of Character

For me, the West Country begins in Bath and extends down to Bristol and into Somerset. It’s an area of beautiful cities and gentle countryside framed by the M4 to the north and the M5 to the west. As soon as you leave either, you’re into a gentler way of life, a landscape... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: January 2013
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Ten of the Best Historic Welsh Hotels

Until the nineteenth century Wales was underpopulated and undervisited. Consequently it never developed a sequence of coaching inns as in England. Tourist hotels when they came to Wales arrived with the railways, large Victorian structures many of which have since been... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: December 2012
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The Top Ten Historic Hotels on the Scottish Border

The borderland between Scotland and England takes in Hadrian’s Wall, the fortified city of Newcastle Upon Tyne and many well-defended manor houses. This was for centuries a ‘No Man’s Land’, open, wild and dangerous as armies campaigned and raiders made off with cattle. In... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: November 2012
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Ten Historic Hotels in East Anglia

In the days when Britain's trade was almost exclusively with Europe this country's east coast ports were important and wealthy. Some of the merchant towns like Lavenham (which has three of Britain's Finest hotels in close proximity to each other) have hardly changed since... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: November 2012
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Ten of Britain’s Finest Gloucestershire Hotels

Gloucester is the UK's Cotswold County with strings of charming villages built out of this mellow limestone. The wool industry has been kind to Gloucestershire leaving behind lots of attractive, pre-industrial towns and the Regency spa city of Cheltenham, a rival in... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: October 2012
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Ten of the Best Hotels in North Yorkshire

The historic wealth of the north of England has given rise to some beautiful cities and also swathes of country houses, many of which have been converted into hotels. I used to live near the North York Moors and found exploring Helmsley, Harrogate and York itself a great way... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 10
  • Date: October 2012
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Ten of The Best Hotels in Shropshire

I find Shropshire one of England’s loveliest counties. For century this green, castellated landscape was part of the Marcher Lands, border territory where Welsh armies clashed with the English king’s representatives. Sending a Welsh king to London as Henry VII bought peace... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 9
  • Date: August 2012
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Ten Welsh Hotels with Walks

To me Wales is synonymous with walking. I was once told the principality would be bigger than England if it were flattened out. Certainly there are plenty of hills to clamber up and valleys to saunter down, something that made Welsh tourism take off big time in the early... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 9
  • Date: July 2012
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Top Ten Historic Hotels in the Midlands

Britain is full of old manor houses and monasteries that have been turned into hotels, as well as coaching inns that date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Some historic hotels – like the Randolph in Oxford – were purpose-built but the majority are conversions, and are... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 9
  • Date: May 2012
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Ten of The Best Historic London Hotels

London’s hotels are younger than many historic buildings in the city. Until the end of the nineteenth century, British hotels were often considered rather disreputable—even in the capital. But these great structures have lived exciting lives since. Writers, movie stars and... more

  • Editor: Adrian Mourby
  • Records: 9
  • Date: April 2012
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Total of 17, showing 1–17