28-08-2024
You and your dog will love the beaches in Dorset. The Jurassic Coast – England’s only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site – spans much of the coastline and is home to a limestone sea arch, Durdle Door, the chalk stacks of Old...
30-07-2024
Oxfordshire also has some characterful hotels, including probably the best prison conversion in Britain. Sometimes the place you stay in is just a means to an end, a way to get away for the weekend. Here however are ten Oxfor...
15-05-2024
With so many chains of “cookie-cutter” hotels around the British Isles it’s worth celebrating the idiosyncrasy of our unique places to stay. Idiosyncrasy is something the British do particularly well, whether it’s a hotel in...
25-03-2024
In search of a weekend escape that both you and your dog are guaranteed to love? The Cotswolds has got this one in the bag. This designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) – spanning 800 square miles – is famed for...
25-10-2023
Britain’s southernmost counties hold on to summer longer than anywhere else in the UK. Choose your location well and you can still swim and sunbathe in October. Even as autumn grips the rest of the country, Devon and Cornwall...
28-09-2023
Surprisingly the term “a pub with rooms” only dates back to 1979 when The Daily Mail made reference to this very British phenomenon in an article about UK staycations. Until then pubs always had a bar and maybe a lounge, but...
27-07-2023
With August upon us the time has come for a glorious weekend getaway but summer holidays need not necessarily mean the seaside. In fact given that we all have cheap access to Mediterranean beaches these days why waste your ho...
27-02-2023
Tourism came to Wales during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. With Europe far too dangerous a destination for English gentlemen who longed for towering mountains, serene lakes and plunging chasms, adventurous to...
30-01-2023
From fairy tale castles and country house estates to award-winning spas and English vineyards, West Sussex is one of the UK’s most diverse counties. What’s more, it spans both the rolling South Downs National Park and quintes...
31-10-2022
Christmas definitely comes around more often these days. It hardly seems a year since I was writing about the best places in Britain to head off to before the season to be merry for a restorative break and now, I’m back with...
30-09-2022
Cornwall is almost synonymous in the British imagination with the word “holiday”. True, it takes forever to get there but the journey is well worth it – picturesque villages and broad beaches with soaring cliffs on the north...
30-08-2022
From royal boltholes fit for frolicking to ancient spa towns with awe-inspiring architecture, the East Midlands has a little black book of hotels with a rich, full-bodied history.
28-06-2022
We do seem set for wonderful summer holidays in Britain this year - even if train travel may prove unpredictable. Personally I enjoy weekend breaks away just as much as a weeklong holiday by the sea or somewhere in the countr...
26-05-2022
Looking to holiday with your hound? Head to England’s largest National Park, The Lake District. This World Heritage Site offers endless walks, soaring mountains and breath-taking views.
26-01-2022
The Peak District is one of Britain’s oldest national parks. It was created in 1951 out of the non-industrial area at the southern end of the English Pennines. Most of it is in Derbyshire but it also includes parts of Cheshir...
17-11-2021
Britain’s best hotels are always fully-booked at Christmas time. This is, after all the happiest -and most expensive- time of the year and what better place to put your feet up and be waited upon over the Christmas holiday th...
18-10-2021
Rolling countryside, ancient woodland and 230 miles of coastline – Hampshire’s got the weekend break in the bag. Beyond the landscape, there’s the local produce - Buffalo mozzarella, watercress and eye-watering wasabi. Not fo...
26-05-2021
If you're off to the coast with your four-legged friend, you'll definitely want to stay at one of these locations! Travel writer, Natalie French picks out her top ten dog friendly hotels and pubs with rooms.
25-02-2021
I don’t know about you but until recently when I stayed in a hotel I tended to just stay in it. And quite rightly so. Many British hotels are so beautiful they’re a holiday in themselves, regardless of what is going on beyond...
13-01-2021
Today a visit to a British whisky distillery – be it in Scotland, England or Wales – is a delight. Adrian Mourby takes us on a trip to ten of Britain's Finest distilleries and where you should stay during your visit.
25-11-2020
From twinkling tunnels of lights and giant luminescent sculptures; to gently flickering fire gardens - get your much-needed festive fix at some of the UK's best Christmas garden light trails.
29-07-2020
Britain’s pubs and hotels are back! We’ve missed them and they’ve missed us. Here are ten of my favourites which are great fun and perfect, not just for spending the night but – in case you’re not ready to sleep away from hom...
26-02-2020
Being green is now a priority for tourists, so more sustainable and eco-friendly places are becoming available throughout Britain.
29-01-2020
Who says that 14 February has to be spent with a romantic significant other? Say goodbye to Cupid and pack a bag with your chum. This year, here at Britain's Finest, we're celebrating with our besties.
11-12-2019
Here we are again; it's approaching Valentine's Day and you haven't planned a thing yet. Don't worry! We've gone all Cupid and picked out our favourite spots to enjoy a touch of romance with your partner this February.
Britain is a country of eccentricity and individuality, and this is reflected in some of its more unusual hotels. Adrian Mourby chooses ten luxury hotels, dotted around Britain.
06-09-2019
If you're starting to consider the impact that your holiday has on the environment, you're not alone. More and more of us are opting for more sustainable travel these days but some of us are still left a bit unsure as to how...
24-04-2019
Once upon a time Britain's pubs and hotels were places where you stayed the night if you lacked friends or relatives nearby. But you certainly didn't go to a pub or hotel to eat. That's what cafés and restaurants were for. Bu...
25-02-2019
Walking is good for us. When Bill Bryson hoofed it along the Appalachian Trail, he was delighted how much wisdom he gained and how much weight he lost. Wordsworth used to tramp all day composing poems in his head and Rousseau...
28-12-2018
Many hotels in Britain were once the homes of lords and ladies, barons and dukes. When Evelyn Waugh published his <i>Brideshead Revisited</i> in 1945 he did not believe that the English country house would survive in new post...
26-07-2018
We lead busy lives, with no escape from the trill of the mobile, the tyranny of the work email arriving on a Sunday and the commuting chaos every Monday. We all deserve a break from this, right? Course we do. So here are my t...
21-02-2018
Not long ago taking a room over a pub was what the traveller did if there were no hotel or boarding house nearby. In the twenty-first century however the British pub with rooms has taken off as a place to stay. The transforma...
29-01-2018
The world is far too full of cookie cutter hotels so this month we thought we would celebrate the different, the quirky and the sweetly unusual in our ten fave accommodation options round up. Who said sharing the bar with cat...
31-08-2017
Fancy hearing what Ian Rankin has to say about his Rebus novels? Or maybe listening in on journalist Emma Freud chatting with actor Bill Nighy? October (6th - 15th) means Cheltenham Literary Festival time – and we've got ten...
28-06-2017
Summer is finally upon us which means, if you are British, that you'll probably be thinking of a trip to the seaside. This nation has a curious relationship with our storm-tossed coast.
10-04-2017
My home is in Oxford which can sometimes feel like living in a film set. It's a familiar experience to find the road you want to walk down closed off by a lighting van and location caterers. But the whole of Britain is a gift...
25-01-2017
I proposed to my first wife above a launderette in Middlesbrough and to my second in the tiny kitchen of my Oxford flat. Neither location was inherently romantic but the end result - in both cases - was positive.<br><br> T...
02-01-2017
Soon it will be New Year and all over the country Drinkcember will give way to the hairshirt self-denial of Dry January. Anything that seemed celebratory over the Christmas period is out, and we will become a nation of herbal...
01-09-2016
Autumn is the only British season that gets us all quoting poetry. Keats put it well with his “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” and all those “gathering swallows” twittering in the skies.
01-08-2016
These days our dogs are not just our pets, they are family members. And you wouldn't want to go away without a member of the family, now would you? Well, there's actually no need, anyway. Britain's Finest is packed with place...
23-02-2016
One of the best ways to see the British countryside – if not the best – is from the back of a horse. The view is different up there, you can see over hedgerows and walls, you can go through fields without getting your feet m...
27-07-2015
It wasn't until I had two cats of my own that the words “pet friendly” suddenly began to leap out at me from hotel web pages. What a discovery! While most hotels usually mean well-behaved dogs when they say “pet”, there are...
05-06-2013
For many Brits, donning wellies and dancing carefree in a field is the epitome of summer! But if the thought of roughing it in your two-man-tent sends shivers down your spine, why not ditch the muddy campsite and retreat to y...
12-02-2013
If you're in search of a weekend destination for lusty debauchery and, perhaps even the first flutters of love – Edinburgh can provide. This city is sexy: from the dramatic silhouette of the old town dotted with medieval turr...
12-07-2012
Great food, log fires, a sense of community and armchairs that you can sink into; the list of things that makes a hotel cosy are varied but always have comfort at their core. Most of them are small, but are run with real pass...
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