Even the most polite enquiry about New Year’s Eve plans can bring me out in hives. Could three words elicit more social pressure? To be doing something worthy of ringing in another year and seeing off the one passed? It used to be a big event, a small social gathering of 30 inebriated punters crammed into someone’s house, or a big ‘night’ with extortionate tickets, underwhelming cocktails and the feverish hunt for a snog at countdown. The best, in my experience, were the more spontaneous sort, the last minute invite or the scrambling together of plans and a borrowed sparkly outfit.
The key, really, is to club together and get away. From cosy cabins for two, to party piles with sound systems and dance floors, here are best last minute New Year’s Eve staycations (available at the time of writing). Cowdray House, West Sussex Nothing says New Year’s Eve quite like a country party weekend.
Cowdray House, a stonking great pile in the watercolour-pretty South Downs is, remarkably, free for a group of 30 or so to see in the 2025. With 22 bedrooms, this unapologetic traditionalist house is dressed to the nines in silk drapes, detailed wallpaper, chandeliers and tapestries. What’s more, it’s wrapped in 110 acres of manicured parkland, where morning horse rides can be arranged, along with clay pigeon shooting and various other activities.
Back at base, guests can wallow in a heated indoor pool, skip onto the bowling alley and don their glad rags for a Rivals-style feast,.
