United Kingdom

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in the United Kingdom, independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

Andy Mossack tries out the GWR First Class Service to Devon and revels in its quiet sophisticated  service.

GWR First Class service to Devon. Enjoy quiet and sophisticated luxury.

There are a few reserved seats but an empty four seat table winks at us further down the aisle and we fall into its welcoming embrace. And I’m not kidding. Plush leather reclining seats, power sockets within easy reach, a morning paper, free wifi and free refreshments.

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Orestone Manor Hotel evolve orestone 196 1

Orestone Manor Hotel. Beautiful Manor House hugging Devon’s coastal path.

Newton Abbot is the nearest mainline station to the sleepy coastal village of Maidencombe south Devon, where the Orestone Manor Hotel lies tucked away in an almost exclusive enclave.

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Jones Family Project interior

The Jones Family Project. Discover A Perfect Palace for Carnivores.

A 70s-style bar awash in greenery portrays The Jones Family Project as a probable purveyor of right-on clean eating. But appearances deceive; huge hunks of prime rib, rumps of hoggett and primeval pork tomahawks are what drive traffic to this serious Shoreditch steakhouse after sundown.

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Terry Marsh stays at The Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa and discovers a world of difference. etwood Hotel exterior view 1

The Petwood Hotel. Discover a world of old school luxury.

Set in thirty acres of grounds, the Petwood Hotel is an extravagant display of neo-Tudor/Jacobean half-timbering, complete with splendid oak features.

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Galvin At The Athenaeum

Glorious Galvin At The Athenaeum

If you didn’t know any better, you might mistake the Galvin brothers for a somewhat more sinister enterprise. It seems they have the Hyde Park Corner territory pretty well sown up. Galvin at Windows at the top floor of the London Hilton Park Lane and now Galvin At The Athenaeum

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Terry Marsh reviews Washingborough Hall Hotel, one of Lincolnshire's stately Georgian manors.

Washingborough Hall Hotel. Discover a Lincolnshire Georgian beauty.

Just two miles or so from the city centre, the compact village of Washingborough, with its stone-built cottages clustered by the church and along the High Street, can boast Washingborough Hall, a late Georgian manor house, dating from the 1700s, and a Grade II Listed Building.

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