Every week our Holiday Hero Neil Simpson takes an in-depth look at a brilliant holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you don’t have to. This week: Christmas gifts from hotels we’ve missed in 2020.
Country house hotels don’t come much prettier than celebrity favourite The Newt In Somerset. The honey-coloured stone walls of the Georgian mansion sit in the heart of a revived country estate and there are delicious, edible gifts galore in its online Christmas Pantry.
As well as Christmas puddings and cakes, there’s a new windfall chutney (made of fruit collected from beneath local trees) and Christmas gingerbread biscuits. Or give a hamper with a difference: the Christmas Breakfast with fruit juices, smoked trout, streaky bacon, country eggs, natural yogurts, a sourdough loaf and more. Biscuits from £3, hampers from £60 at thenewtinsomerset.com.
Celebrity haunt: The Newt in Somerset has an online Christmas pantry with delicious, edible gifts galore
The Christmas Breakfast hamper, available to buy from The Newt for £60, which includes fruit juices, smoked trout, streaky bacon, country eggs, natural yogurts and a sourdough loaf
Adare Manor’s Dreaming Of Adare Manor hamper, which contains fluffy bathrobes, hotel slippers and scented candles. It costs £225
The architecture is even more grand at Adare Manor in County Limerick, a five-star hotel and golf resort rebuilt 150 years ago as a calendar house (with 365 windows, 52 chimneys and 12 staircases). Christmas gifts for hotel-lovers include the Dreaming Of Adare Manor hamper containing fluffy bathrobes, hotel slippers and scented candles.
Or order an Until We Meet Again cream tea box with a blend of hotel tea, a jar of strawberry and champagne jam, a recipe for the hotel’s scones and a gift card for tea for two that’s valid for five years. From £175 at adaremanor.com.
Fashionistas flock to Paris and to Le Bristol hotel, flanked by the boutiques of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Give the gift of glamour (and the joy of a good night’s sleep) with the hotel’s pillow mist. The heady mix of lavender, freesia, sandalwood and white musk fills suites that can cost up to £22,000 a night. Buy a bottle from £17 at oetkercollection.com.
On the left is the pillow mist used at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris, which is a heady mix of lavender, freesia, sandalwood and white musk, and available to buy for £17. Pictured right is the gin created by the 108 Bar at the Marylebone Hotel, which you can buy for £35
Connaught-designed cocktail shakers and champagne and martini glasses (£84 for a set of two, pictured) can be sent as gifts
London’s hotels are as famous for their bars as for their rooms. Cross cobbled streets in the heart of Marylebone to the 108 Bar at the Marylebone Hotel, where a traditional copper still (nicknamed Isabella by staff) creates the hotel’s signature gin. Treat someone to a bottle from £35 at 108brasserie.com.
A short stroll away in Mayfair, champagne and martinis take centre stage at perhaps the capital’s most star-studded hotel bar.
The Connaught Hotel once hosted Cary Grant and Princess Grace of Monaco. Today it’s said to be Jack Nicholson’s favourite place to stay in the capital. This year its bar was declared the best in the world and the bar staff mix award-winning concoctions while the hotel-designed cocktail shakers and champagne and martini glasses can be sent as gifts. From £84 at the-connaught.co.uk.
Pictured is one of the London Edition hotel’s crisp white bone china teapots that are used during afternoon tea. They are available to buy for £118
The chateaubriand takeaway dinner (from £45 for two people) from the Hand Picked Hotels Group. Over a dozen of its hotels offer new ‘takeaway experiences’ from a Sunday roast to a full English breakfast, which make perfect gifts
Afternoon tea is always a big draw at hotels, and it can be particularly memorable when Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager is in charge. At his London Edition hotel on the edge of Soho, tea is served in crisp white bone china pots – proudly made in England. On the side is a design based on the plasterwork of the hotel lobby’s 18ft-high ceiling. Send one to a fan for £118 via shopedition.com.
If it’s fine dining or hotel breakfasts you’ve missed tucking into in 2020, then Hand Picked Hotels Group has found a brilliant way to get the ‘just cooked’ experience at home. More than a dozen of its hotels offer new ‘takeaway experiences’ that make perfect gifts.
Order chateaubriand, Sunday roast or a full English breakfast and everything you need to enjoy the perfect meal at home will be waiting to be collected from chefs at hotels such as elegant Audleys Wood in rural Hampshire, Norton House in Edinburgh and more (handpickedhotels.co.uk).
