West London, United Kingdom

The UK’s original boutique hotel (and where the real-life Mr and Mrs Smith spent the first night of their honeymoon), Blakes is a decadent, Orient-inspired oasis in the heart of South Kensington. Designed with exotic exuberance by Anouska Hempel, each room takes its interiors inspiration from a different land – a tour-by-decor of Turkey, Russia, India and more. Room 109, the Cardinal Suite, is the most shamelessly romantic: with heavy, textured fabrics, floral artwork and the kind of ornate, crimson-draped four-poster that makes you reach for the smelling salts, it’s an essay in decorative decadence.

Stay at The Kensington Hotel London, where the Aubrey Restaurant's chef Russell Ford serves up appetite-kerbing Anglicised fare. Book here and you'll get a gratis gourmet cocktail-making class as your Smith extra.

Teal-hued velvet sofas, wood-panelled walls and mirrored countertops bestow a sophisticated, retro Mad Men-style air to the Aubrey Bar, so it's the ideal spot for some amateur mixology. When your cases have been whisked away and you've settled in to the jewel-box bar, you're armed with several glasses, petite bottles of spirits, quartered fruit and an array of metal whatsits and doohickeys that wouldn't look out of place in an operating theatre – albeit a lax one. Galvin Cup-holding cocktail maestro Alessandro Pizzoli gently guides you through addling techniques, spirit densities and the surprisingly complex choreography behind the all-important shake, diplomatically ignoring any spills or shakes along the way. You can choose to make a minty mojito, a passion-fruit-flavoured Truly Madly Deeply, a grown-up Campari-spiked Americano or a classic dry martini; you may not be able to pull off Tom Cruise's Cocktail spectacles – or his flowery attire – by the end of your session, but you'll have something decadent to drink that you'll be justly proud of.