Mr & Mrs Smith

Aviator

Hampshire, United Kingdom

The Aviator hotel is a surprise package: a stately sweep of glass and metal from the outside, an essay in sultry opulence on the inside, with plush velvet sofas, flickering open fires and a Guggenheim-inspired lobby with circular balconies reaching to the roof.

Need to know

• Rooms 169, including 19 Sky Suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $175.45 (£112), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
  Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (£112), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
• More details Rates exclude breakfast (£11 Continental buffet, £16 for cooked).
• Facilities Gym, free WiFi throughout, seven function rooms. In rooms: flatscreen TV, free films and albums on demand, Bose entertainment sound system, cafetière and organic teas, free bottled water, Ren toiletries. Suites come with free minibars and DVD players.
• Check-out 11am, but flexible depending on availability and subject to a charge (£50 until 2pm; £100 until 6pm). Check-in: 2pm.
• Children Welcome – extra beds for older ones and cots for babies are provided free. The brasserie has a highchair stash and babysitting can be booked for £10 an hour (three-hour minimum).
• Also Bikes are available.

Food and drink at Aviator

• Hotel restaurant

  Following the arc of the building on the ground floor, the Aviator’s brasserie recaptures yesteryear glamour with black-and-white portrait photos on the dark walls (inspiring games of ‘name the Hollywood icon’), leather banquette seating and chrome table lamps. The menu (though locally sourced) makes stop-offs all over the world, with Chinese salads, steak tartare, pasta dishes, and classic British fare, but it’s the delectable chargrilled steaks that really set the mouth a-water. For lunch during the week, the little Deli serves snacks and sandwiches in Steampunk rustic-industrial surroundings.

• Dress code If stewardess suits and captain’s uniforms are beyond your wardrobe, casual suits and eveningwear will do fine.
• Top table In summer, take a table outside and watch the little planes zoom in and out. Inside, the tables nearest the bar will guarantee you special attention.
• Last orders The brasserie serves lunch between noon and 2.30pm and dinner from 6pm to 10pm. The Sky Bar moves and shakes from 5pm until the last guest leaves.
• Room service Full meals and drinks can be brought to your room 24 hours a day (with a reduced offering between 10pm and 6am).
• Hotel bar

  As suave and sophisticated as any Soho cocktail lounge, the Aviator’s Sky Bar overlooks the airfield – attractively illuminated by night. At £9 a glass, the cocktails aren’t cheap, but they are expertly crafted. The aviation theme continues in the oversized photos of bolts, rivets and other aeronautical bits and bobs that line the walls. The Brasserie Bar is a more informal outfit on the ground floor, with a terrace that's great for catching the sunet over the airfield. (NB The Sky Bar is close dfor maintenance 8–20 August 2011). The Sky Lounge at the top can be booked for private shindigs.

Also worth knowing

• Weddings This property is suitable for weddings. More...

Aviator 55 Farnborough Road, Hampshire, GU15 6EL