Holiday Romance: Our Best Valentines Mini-Breaks Recommendations
Take note, knights in open-topped sports cars, these are your best Valentines mini-breaks crib notes from the Hotel Guru.
The Best Valentines Mini-Breaks in London
The Rookery is a jewel-like and intimate City bolthole full of curiosities and charms - including open fires, flagstone floors, antique beds with superb mattresses and sheets, and bathrooms with roll-top baths and original brass and copper plumbing.
The Levin in Knightsbridge has just 12 rooms, all beautifully arranged and decorated and complete with mini-bars stocked with all you need to make champagne cocktails. There’s also a lovely basement bistro which has the inviting look of a Viennese tea room.
Best Valentines Mini-Breaks in the UK
Beautiful Bath is a fine choice for a mini-break, the surrounds are extremely elegant and there are plenty of ways to treat your Valentine - visit the Roman Baths before enjoying a spa treatment to two and calling it historical research? Follow it up with a night in Thornbury Castle, the mini-break choice of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - can stay in the same room they did for around £300 per night.
Every knight needs a castle and Amberley Castle in the South Downs is a particularly charming choice, once owned by Elizabeth I and complete with a working moat and portcullis - sit up until midnight and watch it being closed for the night - push interiors and an exceptional restaurant.
Packed with history, drama and grandeur, Edinburgh is a great choice for a short city break, and The Witchery by the Castle will really make your stay. Intimate, Gothic and smothered in velvet, you’ll sleep in four poster beds in theatrical suites, enjoy complimentary champagne and you’re right by the castle gates.
Best Valentines Mini-Breaks in Europe
An obvious choice for romantics, Venice has a number of extremely romantic hotels, but you can’t really go past the Gritti Palace, a former Doge’s palace and classic hotel for special occasions with its canal views, traditional luxury and fine restaurant.
If you’re looking for privacy the Ca Maria Adele might be more your style with its rich furnishings, lagoon views and themed rooms.
Paris is the other ‘oldie but goodie’, here our Guru’s favour L' Hôtel when they’re in the mood. It offers Parisian charm at its most authentic and was once Oscar Wilde's bolthole in Paris. It now offers jewel-box rooms and themed suites (if you can bear the tristesse you can sleep in the room in which Oscar Wilde expired beyond his means), and a candlelit plunge pool.
Enjoy!
Written by Kat Parr Mackintosh
