Seasonal stays in the Cotswolds

Spring and summer have a way of making life feel less tightly scheduled. Longer evenings. Slower mornings. More time spent outside without needing to check what time it is.

This stay is built around that feeling. A night away with good food, sparkling wine already waiting in your room, cream tea in the afternoon, and a 12PM late checkout that removes the faintly aggressive feeling most hotels have towards the following morning.

Not an escape from life exactly. More a reminder that life is usually better when it stops feeling so tightly managed.

The trouble with a beautiful garden is that it gives you almost no excuse to be useful. Add a picnic, and the situation becomes hopeless.

Wander through the garden rooms and quiet borders of Hidcote, where the paths are better at planning your day than you are. Then open your Cotswold hamper wherever the mood takes you: among the gardens, or back at Hyll when the afternoon has gone soft and ambition feels unnecessary.

After that, a comfortable bed and a full Cotswold breakfast.