Mr & Mrs Smith

Coworth Park

Berkshire, United Kingdom

Luxurious country manors within easy access of London don’t come more glamorous than Coworth Park hotel and spa, just outside Ascot. The 17th-century mansion and polo estate has been treated to an intelligent and eco-friendly modern makeover that’s given it three restaurants, a spectacular spa, and an air of quietly confident grandeur.

Need to know

• Rooms 70 – 30 in the mansion house, 40 in assorted stables and cottages in the grounds – including 16 suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $399.28 (£255), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
  Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (£255), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
• More details Rates exclude breakfast (£25 each).
• Facilities 240 acres of grounds (with tennis courts and polo fields), eco-friendly spa with eight treatment rooms, gym and a mani/pedi suite, library with books, music and film, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Vi-Spring beds, flatscreen Band & Olufsen TV, with Blu Ray DVD/CD player and iPod dock, minibar, Nespresso machine and Mitchel and Peach bath products. Most bathrooms have freestanding copper roll-top tubs, waterfall showers and under-floor heating.
• Poolside Downstairs in the spa, the indoor pool has sliding glass doors that open out onto the sun terrace.
• Check-out 11am, but possibly extended to 4pm, subject to availability and half a day’s charge.
• Children Exceedingly welcome. Under-14s stay free in extra beds or cots; older children cost £50 (plus tax) a night. Nannies are on hand to babysit for £10 an hour, as long as they get 72 hours’ notice. More...
• Eco-friendly There’s solar glazing and a willow-burning biomass boiler to produce carbon-neutral energy, a comprehensive recycling policy in place, and a cunning eco water-cooling system. Surface water is channeled into the lake and used for irrigation, and a comprehensive recycling scheme is in place.
• Also There’s a two-night minimum stay on weekends and public holidays. All public areas are accessible for wheelchairs and some rooms in the Mansion House and Stables are adapted for the mobility-impaired. Large-print menus and induction loops available.

Food and drink at Coworth Park

• Hotel restaurant

  There are three. At the fine-dining end, Restaurant Coworth Park showcases the chef’s inventive, Michelin-tickling menus and intriguingly titled dishes (‘duck, white bean, peanut, tea’), with all ingredients sourced from within 70 miles away. The nine-course tasting option is £80. The Barn is a more low-key, oak-and-stone affair, where guests can settle by the fire with a pint and plate of pubby comfort food. For breakfast, lunch and snacks, airy café Spatisserie hosts a harmonious meeting of nutritionally balanced spa cuisine and chocolate cake. Afternoon tea is served twice a day in the Drawing Room. All restautants are in demand, so make reservations as soon as you can.

• Dress code Channel Downton Abbey: equestrian get-up by day, debonair eveningwear by night. Go casual in the Barn – no need to kick off those muddy boots.
• Top table We’d head straight for the cosy table for two by the small window on the entrance side of the restaurant. In the Barn, you can eat outdoors when the sun’s shining.
• Last orders Restaurant Coworth Park serves dinner until 9.30pm; the Barn until 9.30pm during the week, and 10pm at weekends. The bar’s open to guests until 1am (non-residents are kicked out at 11.30pm).
• Room service Whatever, whenever.
• Hotel bar

  Between the restaurant and the Drawing Room, Coworth Park’s bar has modern-minded kitsch decor (an artsy alternative chandelier spelling out ‘love’, and Julian Wolkenstein horse-with-hair-extension photos), and a colossal cocktail list.

Also worth knowing

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

Coworth Park Blacknest Road, Ascot, SL5 7SE