The Top 21 Hotels Near The Sun

The Queen's Suite is named for Elizabeth I, who last slept here in 1575, which gives you a sense of how long Fawsley Hall has been at this. It's a country house hotel with Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian wings, all of which were, at some point, the new addition. Rooms range from period-heavy originals to quieter contemporary spaces in the stables and spa building. A full spa, restaurant, and weekend screenings round things out nicely.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Punting boats mounted on the lobby wall set the tone at this design-forward hotel on the River Cam, a short walk from the colleges. Heraldic crests frame the reception and rooms lean into Cambridge tradition with rich textures and bold prints, stopping just short of full-on tourist kitsch. The riverfront position is hard to argue with, especially when the meadows are green and the punters are trying not to fall in.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Floor-to-ceiling windows put you practically on top of Magdalene College, with St. John's and Trinity not far behind. This contemporary hotel was founded by four Cambridge graduates who clearly wanted to improve on their undergraduate lodgings, and they have: rooms named for Oxbridge colleges, bold patterned wallpapers, antique tubs, and a gym tucked inside an old brick-walled space. The Michelin Guide includes it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A former university building on Trumpington Street, a few steps from Pembroke, now doing considerably more for comfort than it ever did for scholarship. The Hotel du Vin brings its signature dark, handsome palette to the listed interiors, letting exposed architectural bones do the talking. Rooms come with hand-sprung mattresses, monsoon showers, and the occasional freestanding tub. The bistro leans French, and the wine list is long and carefully chosen.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Bookshelves stocked by Heywood Hill of Mayfair and a Book Butler to handpick a more personal selection set the tone at this grand Cambridge hotel on the corner of Parker's Piece. A makeover by Martin Brudnizki kept things classically British rather than flamboyant, with printed headboards and writing desks carrying an Edwardian air. Parker's Tavern downstairs runs Friday jazz nights, and Saturday morning city tours leave from the front door.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Rooms named for Kipling, Blake, and Alan Turing set the tone at this apartment-style boutique hotel near the University of Cambridge, where the academic obsession is leaned into rather than tastefully suppressed. Studios and apartments come with full kitchens, though the hotel is quietly proud of Folio Kitchen, the Folio Bar, and a café called The Sage of Cambridge. Comfortable for longer stays, and more characterful than most university-adjacent options.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A 16th-century Buckinghamshire mansion where Louis XVIII spent five years in exile, Hartwell House is a country-house hotel about 40 miles from London. The 46 rooms are individually decorated, which sounds like a small thing until you're standing beneath an ornate plasterwork ceiling surrounded by antiques. A Jacobean-statue-lined staircase that's been here 400 years anchors it all. There's a spa with an indoor pool when the parkland strolls lose their appeal.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

Hambleton Hall sits on the peninsula that fingers into Rutland Water, its grounds rolling all the way to the edge of the reservoir. This is an old-school English country house hotel, 17 rooms, croquet lawn, the whole thing, and it hasn't chased trends or irony. Each room has its own look, the service is personal in the way that only small properties can manage, and the Dining Room holds a Michelin Star. Rutland itself is quietly worth the detour.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

Eighteen miles from London, somehow genuinely feeling like countryside, The Grove is a Georgian country-house hotel with a contemporary wing bolted on and enough activities to exhaust even the most enthusiastic family. Golf, spa, archery, outdoor cinema in summer, a kids' club that actually works. The Mansion rooms lean historical; the West Wing runs more modern. Either way, the comforts are there without making a fuss about it. A Forbes Four Star property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A honey-colored manor house in the Oxfordshire countryside, its two-acre kitchen garden supplying Raymond Blanc's celebrated restaurant below. Inside, chintz cushions, flagstone floors, and wood-beamed ceilings make it unmistakably English, until you notice the oversized baths and the Champagne waiting regardless of the hour. There's no gym or pool, but there is croquet, and a cooking school for guests who'd rather not forget any of this when they get home.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys

A 15th-century manor house in an Oxfordshire village, close enough to both Oxford and the Cotswolds to feel pleasantly between worlds. Tudor and Georgian bones run through the public rooms, while bedrooms split between the original house and the old stables come with underfloor heating, because nobody fetishises the past that much. The bar and terrace handle casual all-day grazing; the Lavender Restaurant leans into the full country-house dining experience.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Room 12 is dressed in 16th-century style and has a film credit to its name, which tells you something about this old coaching inn on Amersham's High Street. The Crown is a Michelin Selected Hotel that's reinvented itself as a weekend destination, with Ilse Crawford brought in to keep the interiors grounded and contemporary without losing the period charm. Close enough to London to be convenient, far enough to feel like you've actually left.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Roman-style bathhouse on an 85-acre Oxfordshire estate is the kind of detail that stops you mid-sentence. Estelle Manor is a country-house hotel designed by Roman and Williams, the New York studio behind some of America's most talked-about interiors, and the result is less heritage pastiche than something stranger and more alive. Rooms range from the main house to cottages scattered across the grounds. It holds a Michelin Key and ranks on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. 50 Best #47 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A butler meets you at the door and decanted drinks replace the minibar, which tells you most of what you need to know. Cliveden is a grand country house hotel in Berkshire, the Italianate pile that hosted British monarchs and, rather less formally, the Profumo affair. Rooms are named after past guests, the formal dining room expects you to dress for it, and if the National Trust day-trippers crowd the gardens, the riverside Spring Cottage exists for exactly that problem.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Oscar Wilde once signed the guest book here, which tells you something about how long this stone boutique hotel on Banbury Road has been receiving guests. The interiors lean colorful and contemporary against the weathered 17th-century shell, making for a quietly luxurious contrast. Afternoon tea is an institution, the Parsonage Grill pulls serious sourcing, and the hotel arranges punts, bikes, and walking tours for those who want Oxford served properly. The Michelin Guide awarded it 1 Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Choosing a room here means choosing a persona: the original Arts-and-Crafts house offers period-appropriate calm, while the newer Orchard House runs to a more boutique, spa-weekend sensibility. Either way, this Warwickshire country house hotel covers the full spread, with extensive grounds, a serious spa with seven treatment rooms, and two restaurants on site. The service lands somewhere between a handshake and a bow, which is about right.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A converted Georgian bank on Oxford High Street, with the Radcliffe Camera visible from its front steps and the Bodleian essentially across the road. The Old Bank is a boutique hotel where the interiors are handsome without being theatrical, rooms come with Wildsmith bath products and hand-crafted mattresses, and the in-house Quod restaurant handles European classics at all hours. The Michelin Guide has it among Selected Hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The rooftop bar looks out over one of the more famously dreamy skylines in England, which is a difficult opening act for any hotel to follow. Fortunately, The Store Oxford, occupying the building that was once a beloved department store, is a contemporary luxury hotel that leans into its own past, with rooms that quietly nod to the building's retail history. A subterranean spa and a ground-floor bar spilling onto Broad Street round things out nicely.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels