Cowley Manor

This clubby hotel boasts fashionable interiors and excellent service. The personal touches–Hunter boots are lined up at the door for all guests to use–keep the chic crowd coming back for more.

Cowley Manor glows majestically as you roll up the driveway, not so much Cotswolds chic as classical Italianate grandeur, with fabulous grounds that are sculptured and landscaped within an inch of their lives. The building is Grade II listed, but you won’t find any traditional formality inside. So long, Chippendale and chintz, tartan carpets and heavy velvet curtains; all is groovy and bright here, like the azure pool table and the leather-clad walls in the billiards room. This is one funky country house. Pick an “Exceptional” room in the main house; some of the rooms have private terraces, which are bathed in sunlight when those English clouds part.

The pièce de résistance is the C-Side spa, artfully tucked into the hillside of the garden and cloaked by a roof of lavender. The steaming swimming pool slices through the sunken courtyard and is toasty even when there’s a nip in the air. (Do make sure to book a spa slot, though; it’s packed at weekends.) Back at the hotel, all is surprisingly child friendly. There’s even a complimentary dedicated high tea for the little ones, when the usually elegant and serene restaurant becomes bright and flamboyant with primary-colored plastic utensils and kid-size nibbles—not a chicken nugget in sight. And later, for grown-ups, wild boar steak with black pudding mash, warm Cotswold rabbit salad and seriously good puddings. What a winner.

Families looking for the best in amenities and plenty of activities.