"The Greenway just outside Cheltenham is refurbishing but can only do it gradually as this 21-room country house hotel is often full. The new dining room is a great improvement with a wooden floor replacing carpets, some lovely embossed Italian wall paper in Morris's Strawberry Thief pattern and silver cushioned spoonback chairs. The bar now has tall tables at which you can stand, lean or sit on high leather-backed bar stools. This is a much better use of space than the old armchairs. And new rolltop baths are being added in all the bedrooms, perfect for luxuriating in. As an unashamed fan of The Greenway for its food and its warm welcome I was delighted to visit recently and find nothing spoiled and everything improved. The log fire in reception has been burning since the beginning of October and certainly makes arriving on a chilly Friday evening exciting.

Come the morning there are extensive grounds to walk around and a bracing ascent of Crickley Hill if you’re feeling energetic. At the top of the hill the Air Balloon is a pub that surely gets its name from the altitude to which you have just climbed. If you want more exercise still the hotel can hire bicycles for guests at £5 an hour. Cycling into Cheltenham is a mere 20 minutes on flat roads. Here, especially among the boutiques of Montpelier and the expensive stores of The Promenade there is some fun shopping to be done.

When you return, have a dip in the hotel’s outdoor hot tub which is at the Elemis Spa, the only heath club I’ve seen that’s decorated with champagne bottles. Definitely my kind of place."

"Oh, oh! Four poster bed with swagged curtains alert! Yes, if you are after luxury fabrics, beautiful lamps and comfy armchairs in velvets and silks by the fire, look no further than this country house hotel. Nestled in the western fringes of the Cotswolds, close to stunning Crickley Hill, this 400-year-old manor house is the sort of place that should have featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral and we wouldn’t be half-surprised if you spotted the Cotswold set (Kate Moss, Clarkson, Lily Allen) lurking in the superb Marcus McGuinness restaurant. Rooms are all exposed beams, feature wallpaper and horse portraits – all beautifully higgledy -piggledy in situation, randomly dotted along warren-like corridors. A delight!"

"The Greenway is a sixteenth-century Cotswold manor house set in eight acres of grounds just outside Cheltenham. Inside there’s a real sense of the English country house. There’s a wood-panelled dining room, board games in the lounge and just nineteen bedrooms upstairs with two more at the lodge. There are lots of long country walks to be had nearby with the opportunity to flop down in one of the sofas either side of a roaring fire.

But there is more: inside the walled garden there is a small modern spa with its own hydrotherapy pool, treatment rooms, enormous wooden hot tub and an outdoor fireplace which you can sit in front of and be cosy. Treatment of the month for December 2016 is the Festive Reviver, which aims to get you revitalised in time for a truly indulgent Christmas. Contact the hotel direct to find out what they plan in January to put everything right again."

"The buzz of the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a wonderful feeling – and you won’t get it from watching those gee gees from home. Come March 10-13, saddle up and take off for The Greenway Hotel and Spa in Cheltenham, a quintessentially English accommodation experience. This typically Cotswold 16th century Elizabethan manor house, with ivy clinging to its every honey-coloured brick, is a stunning sight to behold and the perfect place to get dressed up to the nines for Ladies’ Day. And when you get back after a hefty day’s gambling (and winning hopefully), there’s cosy open fire and afternoon tea to welcome you, along with gorgeous Gloucestershire views and great service."

"A 16th century luxury Elizabethan Manor, only five minutes from the centre of Cheltenham, this picturesque hotel has beautiful views over the rolling Cotswold Hills. Luxury and privacy are the key elements here combined with lots of natural light, stunning vistas and relaxing décor. With idyllic gardens the hotel can easily place a marquee in its eight acres of grounds."

"Southwest out of Cheltenham on the A46 a small lodge guards the entrance to an Elizabethan-style manor house covered in ivy. Expect four posters and log fires inside and you won’t be disappointed. The Elan Spa by contrast looks very modern indeed in amongst its exposed brickwork and old beams. The Orchard Brasserie is even more contemporary with hardwood floors and OTT chandeliers."