Mount Haven, Cornwall
On the coast in Marazion by St Michael’s Mount, the boutique Mount Haven hotel has been extensively refurbished and reopens on 7 April. An additional bedroom brings the total to 20, while the new restaurant and terrace have sweeping ocean views – the perfect backdrop to modern, seafood-rich cuisine. It’s on the South West Coast Path, so ideal for walkers, and there’s plenty for art lovers too, with the galleries of Newlyn and St Ives nearby. Rooms range from the “Snug” category to spacious “Blissful Bay”.
• Doubles from £100 B&B, mounthaven.co.uk
St Michael’s Resort, Falmouth, Cornwall
This Cornish spa hotel relaunched in September after a £50m transformation. The new Beach House has 32 rooms – many with sea-view balconies and walk-in “rainforest” showers – adding to the existing 52 rooms in the main house. There are two new restaurants, too: Brasserie on the Bay specialises in Cornish seafood such as grilled mackerel with oyster cream (£9), and the casual Garden Kitchen serves salads, sharing boards and pizza. The new three-storey health club has an outdoor fitness terrace, a gig rowing studio and more than 100 classes a week, including sunrise yoga, beach workouts and paddleboard fitness sessions in the sea. The spa now includes facilities such as a huge hydrotherapy pool with 21 massage stations and heated poolside loungers, and a Cornish sea salt steam room.
• Doubles from £98 B&B, stmichaelshotel.co.uk
YHA, Street, Somerset
The YHA has refurbished several hostels over the winter. Reopening with a modern look in April is YHA Street, two miles from Glastonbury. The oldest YHA hostel still in operation, it has 28 beds in a Swiss chalet-style building, plus a campsite. As well as a fully refurbished hostel (now with wifi), there will be showers and kitchen facilities for campers, plus two new bell tents and two wooden camping pods (each sleeping four). YHA Bath, which had a £2.5m makeover last year, is opening a new annexe next month, adding 12 en suite rooms aimed at families and couples. Holmbury St Mary in Surrey and Helvellyn and Coniston Coppermines, both in Cumbria, are also being spruced up.
• Dorms from £20.99, rooms and pods from £60, yha.org.uk
Artist Residence, Bristol
The first Artist Residence hotel opened on a shoestring in Brighton in 2008 – artists were offered free board in return for decorating the walls, floors and ceilings with murals. The original has since been joined by equally arty hotels in London, South Leigh in the Cotswolds and Penzance, Cornwall. Now a fifth will be opening in a Grade II-listed former boot factory in Portland Square, Bristol, in May. There will be 23 rooms, all displaying work by contemporary artists, plus a bar and restaurant.
• Doubles from £100, artistresidence.co.uk
Z Hotel, Bath
This small, budget chain of city-centre hotels has added a branch in Bath, a welcome affordable option in a pricey city. The hotel is part of a new development in Saw Close, opposite the Theatre Royal, a few minutes’ walk from Thermae Bath Spa. Rooms are small and basic but great value for the location. All Z Hotels have a cafe serving a buffet breakfast and lunchtime sandwiches, but no evening meals. New Z outposts came to London’s Covent Garden and Tottenham Court Road last year, with Trafalgar Square and Holborn due to open by the end of this year.
• Doubles from £45 (Bath) and £70 (London), thezhotels.com
Wellington Arms, Stratfield Saye, Hampshire
The Wellington Arms is an 18th-century pub on the estate where the Duke of Wellington lived from 1818 to 1852. It reopened in November after a £2.5m refurbishment, and 25 handsome bedrooms opened last month. All rooms are stocked with Hampshire goodies: chocolates, coffee, beer and gin. The swish Copenhagen Suite has a super-kingsize bed, free-standing bath and separate rain shower. Pub grub changes seasonally; the winter menu includes steak and St Peter’s ale pie (£14.95). The whopping 7,000-acre estate includes Wellington country park and the family seat, Stratfield Saye house.
• Doubles from £85 B&B, wellingtonarmshampshire.co.uk
Denbies Vineyard, Dorking, Surrey
In July, a new 17-room hotel will open in the middle of Denbies, England’s biggest vineyard, for tipplers who want to make a night of it. The hotel will have a dispensing machine where guests can work their way through the full Denbies range by the glass, and regular tutored tastings. The wine theme includes vine-shaped gates and furniture crafted from barrels. There will also be an orangery restaurant, with cabanas for alfresco drinking and dining. Seven miles of walking trails through the vines will help clear fuzzy heads, and there is a park run in the grounds on Saturday mornings.
• Doubles from £120, denbies.co.uk
The Pig at Bridge Place, near Canterbury
Bookings are now being taken for The Pig at Bridge Place near Canterbury, the sixth hotel in the Pig litter, which opens in May. The property is a former country club where Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin played in the 1970s, and the renovations aim to keep a clubby atmosphere, with big open fires, panelled rooms and cosy corners. Like other Pigs, the restaurant is sourced from the walled kitchen garden and suppliers within a 25-mile rad ius. There are 29 rooms, plus seven Kentish hop-pickers’ huts on stilts in the water meadows by the river. The South Downs Pig near Arundel in West Sussex and the Pig at Harlyn Bay, Cornwall, are also in the pipeline.
• Doubles from £110, thepighotel.com
Minster Mill, Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire
The Old Swan & Minster Mill have parted company – the former is now a cosy inn and its neighbour is reopening as a spa hotel in March. Rooms are Scandi-inspired, with flashes of green and botanical prints – “feature rooms” have views of the River Windrush and terraces with fire pits. The new restaurant, with a galleried bar, is headed by a MasterChef: The Professionals semi-finallist, Tom Moody. Guests can use the spa for £25, or for free if paying for a treatment. The hotel is in 65 acres, and has private river fishing, tennis and lawn sports such as croquet. Minster Lovell is on the edge of the Cotswolds.
• Doubles from £135 B&B, minstermill.co.uk
Pig Shed motel, Newton by Castle, Norfolk
The couple behind the Black Lion hotel in Little Walsingham and the Carpenters Arms in Wighton have added this motel on the A1065, pitched as a place to break a journey to the north Norfolk coast. A new-build, eco-friendly, timber-clad property, it has solar power, reuses rainwater and has an air-source heat pump for underfloor heating. Rooms have Nespresso machines, Welsh blankets and pig prints by a local artist. There is no reception – guests check in with their phones – and no restaurant, but breakfast, lunch and dinner are available at the George & Dragon next door.
• Doubles from £75 room-only, thepigshedmotel.co.uk
Duncombe Arms, Ellastone, Staffordshire
Since opening in 2012, the Duncombe Arms has won accolades for its food, including a Michelin Plate listing. As well as a changing seasonal menu, it holds special events such as this month’s seven-course game dinner (£60). Drinks are just as important, with 160 wines, 28 gins, 25 whiskies and at least three local ales. Now guests don’t have to leave after last orders – 10 rooms have just opened in the Walnut House next door, each with a different design, from fern wallpaper to exposed brick, plus an art collection curated by the Crane Kalman gallery in London.
• Doubles from £160 B&B, duncombearms.co.uk
Caer Rhun Hall, Conwy
This Victorian mansion in the Conwy Valley has just opened as a hotel after a multimillion-pound refurb. There are 32 bedrooms in the main house; a further 44 will be added in annexes in the 17-acre gardens. The pick of the rooms is the Douglas suite, with views of Snowdonia from the roll top bath. Breakfast is served in the panelled great hall and afternoon tea can be taken in the grounds; dinner is served only at weekends at the moment, but a new restaurant is opening soon. There are plans to turn the library into a bar and add a spa. The hotel is on the northeastern edge of Snowdonia, and is 15-minutes from the coast.
• Doubles from £81.90 B&B, whisperhotelscollection.com
The Courthouse, Knutsford, Cheshire
Knutsford crown court opened in 1818 in a grand neoclassical building (Alan Turing was tried here in 1952). It closed in 2010 and the building stood empty until 2017, when it reopened as Barristers bar and restaurant, serving locally sourced food. Now it is becoming a hotel, too – three rooms opened last year, with eight more this spring. The rooms have original fireplaces, four-posters, antique writing desks and wetrooms.
• Doubles from £140 B&B, thecourthousecheshire.com
Hotel Indigo, Manchester
The boutique brand of hotel giant Intercontinental is expanding rapidly, with a new branch in a Victorian building on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. It has a stylish restaurant, Mamucium, serving modern twists on dishes such as Lancashire hotpot, and cocktails inspired by local legends – Pankhurst’s Revolution combines cherry bakewell liqueur, Vimto and prosecco. Hotel Indigo Stratford-upon-Avon opens in April – William Shakespeare may well have frequented what will soon be the hotel’s Woodsman restaurant. A third is due in Bath in September.
• Doubles in Manchester from £96, ihg.com
Amble Inn, Northumberland
The Amble Inn is a new £4m pub with rooms by the Inn Collection Group, which owns eight inns in the north of England. The 30 rooms’ neutral decor is brightened with splashes of Northumberland tartan. The pub has a log fire and local guest ales, as well as gin distilled in nearby Hepple. Craster kippers are on the menu for breakfast, with pub staples – fish and chips, steak pie – for dinner. Amble is the starting point for boat trips to Coquet Island (for the puffins) or drives north along the coast.
• Doubles from £99, theambleinnamble.co.uk
Kingshouse Hotel, Glencoe, Highlands
This landmark hotel has been welcoming travellers since the 1750s. In 2017, the bunkhouse was rebuilt with upgraded rooms for walkers and climbers. Renovations continued last year, and the hotel reopened this month with a new wing replacing a 1960s extension. Standard rooms are cosy, with warm russet tones; signature rooms have terraces with great views. The Way Inn walkers’ bar has been reinstated, and there is a new Kingshouse restaurant serving venison (£21), Scottish cheeses and puddings such as clootie dumplings with bay leaf custard (£6).
• Bunkhouse beds from £35, doubles from £102 B&B, kingshousehotel.co.uk
Citi Hotel and Hostel, Aberdeen
The Royal Hotel in Aberdeen closed in May 2016 after 137 years. Now, after a £500,000 refurbishment, the listed building has reopened as the Citi Hotel Aberdeen. The 42 rooms are no-frills but nicely designed, with a white-and-grey colour scheme. There is no restaurant but the hotel is right in the city centre, just off Union Street, the main shopping thoroughfare. Best of all is the price: from just £35 for a double room. The new Citi Hostel next door is even cheaper, for those who are happy in a bunkbed.
• Doubles from £35, citihotelaberdeen.com. Dorm beds from £18, citihostelaberdeen.com
Mill House B&B, Perth & Kinross
This boutique B&B recently opened on the historic 4,000-acre Monzie estate near Crieff. The five-bedroom house has been revamped with furniture made at the Monzie joinery and upcycled materials, and is powered by a small, on-site hydro-electric plant. Rooms are bright and modern, and there is a new kitchen and a living area with a wood-burner. The continental breakfast is a highlight, with homemade bread, pastries and granola alongside cheese, charcuterie and fruit. Guests can walk to the nearby Glenturret Distillery for a tour and tastings at Scotland’s oldest working distillery.
• Doubles from £85 B&B, monzieestate.com
Point A, Edinburgh
This budget chain started in 2017 and aims to combine central locations with affordable prices. So far, there are six hotels in London (Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, Westminster, King’s Cross, Paddington and Liverpool Street) and one in Glasgow. In June, a branch will open in Edinburgh, adding 149 budget rooms in time for the festival. Rooms are small and stripped back: Hypnos bed, power showers, mood lighting. Smart design, such as underbed storage, dropdown tables and bag hooks, maximises the space, and throws from the Isle of Bute add individuality. Continental breakfast is extra. Another London branch opens in Kensington later in the year.
• Doubles from £33, pointahotels.com
The Frogmill, Gloucestershire
This 16th-century Cotswolds pub was refurbished last year, and now has 28 bedrooms over three buildings. Classic rooms have kingsize beds and plenty of character, with panelled walls and Modigliani prints. Superior rooms have roll-top baths, and those in the stable block have private patios. The bar serves five draught beers and 22 gins, and there is a restaurant, snug and terrace. Lots of dishes are cooked in the coal-fired Josper oven or the smoker, such as the boston beans at breakfast, the smoked salmon for lunch or the whisky-glazed pork belly for dinner. The pub is between the villages of Andoversford and Shipton Oliffe on the Cotswold Way national trail, seven miles from Cheltenham.
• Doubles from £77 room-only or £90 B&B, thefrogmill.co.uk
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