Lucknam Park

England
Europe

The Experience

Just six miles from the historic spa town of Bath, this is a hotel to live out your Mr. Darcy fantasies as you gaze out on the 500 acres of parkland that surround this Palladian manor. After a milelong avenue of lime and beech trees, you'll enter into the elegant hall with a welcoming fire crackling in the fireplace and be swept back into Jane Austen's era. Every care has been taken to ensure the decor fits the period of the building, from the elegant bow-fronted Drawing Room to the wood-paneled library overlooking the so-very-English croquet lawn.

The Rooms

The eye for detail is ever-present throughout. Each room is individually designed in different fabrics and furnished with period antiques. There are three different areas--the Main House, Courtyard and Cottages--and while standard rooms in the Main House and Courtyard are fairly basic, upgrade to one of the suites for the real prizes of Lucknam. Here the true old-fashioned four-posters have matching footstools to make clambering up into them that much easier--especially after a day of horseback riding.

The Service

Impeccable and punctilious, the service is perhaps this beautiful country house hotel's strongest suit. Nothing is ever too much trouble for the personnel here, whether they be the highest manager or the lowliest chambermaid. From saddling up your horse to answering detailed horticultural questions about the garden, the Lucknam Park people will never let you down.

The Highlights

This is a fine English estate that your reservation here allows you to treat as your own. The Walled Garden, the Rose Garden, the Herb Garden and the arriviste Arboretum (created in celebration of the millennium) are all magnificent. You can even sponsor the planting of a new tree in your name (and in due course, perhaps, your memory). Dine at the Michelin-star Pavilion restaurant on delicious dishes like roast rump of organic Welsh lamb. Then wind down with a spa treatment in the Walled Garden or a gentle game of croquet. For the active, the Cotswold countryside offers wonderful equestrian opportunities, and the hotel's staff are very well equipped to show you how to make the best of it. The spa (including the enormous indoor pool) was undergoing a major renovation as of summer 2008, due for completion in early 2009.

 

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