Not everyone wants to escape to the country; the built environment can be just as refreshing. Here, as The Good Hotel Guide for 2025 goes live online, the editors pick 12 favourite bases from which to explore the UK’s towns and cities..
. Grays Court, York Tucked away down a narrow, cobbled street, this beautiful hotel, with an oasis garden bounded by the city wall, dates in parts from Norman times, with later additions. Bedrooms are furnished with antiques, one has a William IV four-poster, some look out to York Minster.
You can lunch on small and large plates in the panelled Jacobean Long Gallery and dine on organic home-grown produce in the Georgian Bow Room. Museums, art galleries and independent shops are nearby. Book it: rooms from £240, B&B grayscourtyork.
com The Coo kie Jar, Alnwick, Northumberland In the centre of a historic market town, Debbie Cook has transformed a former convent into a fun hotel and restaurant serving modern British cooking. Each bedroom has a Hypnos bed, home-baked cookies, a drench shower and Penhaligon’s toiletries. They’re all lovely, but the stand-out is the Chapel Suite with copper bath and stained-glass window.
Alnwick Castle is practically next door and Barter Books in the disused Victorian station is bibliophile heaven. Book it: rooms from £205, B&B. cookiejaralnwick.
com Darwin’s Townhouse, Shrewsbury Animal and plant wallpapers, maps, globes and natural-history artefacts adorn this Georgian townhouse named in honour of Shrewsbur.