September/October ‘25 Issue

Introducing the Sep/Oct 2025 issue of Country & Town House – your ultimate guide to the season’s finest culture, travel, fashion and interiors. Plus: our first ever Skin Special, our biannual Interiors Special, and 26 pages celebrating London’s hottest new cultural event, Chelsea Arts Festival, coming to the streets of SW3 from 18-21 September.

1. Your Pre-Curated Dream Staycation

For a flight-free autumnal getaway, PoB Hotels has you covered. Its collection of more than 50 independent luxury hotels are dotted across the British Isles, soaking up the very best natural sights and local quirks every region has to offer, from the Lakes awash with orange and red hues to the Cotswolds’ quintessential cosy pubs and bountiful seasonal cuisine at some of the nation’s esteemed restaurants. 

Central to PoB Hotels is PoB Breaks, a thoughtfully designed platform that makes planning your next getaway easy. Think wellness routes through the north, food-centric escapes traversing the South East, literary discoveries in the Dales, and plenty more. Find our favourites here.

Plan your next British break with PoB Hotels.

2. Squirrel Away In A Treehouse

Where better to leaf peep than one of the country’s most luxurious treehouses? And don’t worry: the wooden shack at the end of your childhood comparison is a distant relative to these fantastical creations. Think bedrooms suspended between trees or vaulted on spindly legs, spying squirrels through floor-to-ceiling windows from the comfort of a king sized bed, and bubbling hot-tubs at canopy level. There’s nothing quite like it.

3. Welsh Beauty

Boasting ancient castles, enchanting woodland and truly breathtaking landscapes, Eryri – formerly Snowdonia – isn’t exactly off the beaten track, but its more cultish following is growing as we seek alternatives to the eye-watering price tags attached to rooms in the Lakes, Dales and Cotswolds. Hidden in the midst of this spellbinding landscape, storybook-worthy Penmaenuchaf epitomises serenity: crisp natural air, quiet walking trails and an isolated spot far from the tourist hubbub. Outdoors-lovers can enjoy woodland trails that pass shimmering lakes, or hunker down and get cosy when the autumn showers hit.

4. Quieter Coast

Hear us out: watching the wild sea in a blustery storm from the comfort of a cocooning sofa, blanket on your lap, crackling fire to your side and hot toddy in hand? It’s a guilty pleasure – one we’ll be heading to Cornwall for this autumn, which is delightfully tranquil in the off-season. The hotel choices are ceaseless, but self-described ‘country house hotel by the sea’ The Nare is an ultra-cosy choice, while The Headland’s cinematic beach panorama is almost unbeatable (and you can try Adam Handling’s new joint while you’re there). And if cold water swimming is your bag, autumn is a crowd-free time to do it. Find more of our favourite coastal hotels here.

5. Last Chance Saison

If you are yet to visit or you have been meaning to return, now is the time to book a stay at Raymond Blanc’s esteemed Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons before it closes for a no-expense-spared refurb currently totting up to £36m. (Don’t worry, it’ll reopen in summer 2027.) As Amy Wakeham writes in C&TH, at Le Manoir: ‘Everything is seamless. Every sight line is immaculate. From the moment you arrive and are handed a chilled glass of Veuve Clicquot or Hundred Hills English sparkling, to the moment you are waved off by the personable (but never stuffy) team, your stay at the hotel and restaurant feels guided by a warm, omniscient hand.’ Nearby Oxford is coincidentally delightful come autumn.

6. Starry Charlbury

Speaking of Oxfordshire, ultra-cosy pub The Bull in Charlbury is top of the A-list agenda this season, having hosted everyone from Robbie Williams and Ellen DeGeneres (yes, together) to Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice to former US VP Kamala Harris. This edge-of-the-Cotswolds joint (from the team behind Notting Hill hotspot The Pelican) is all roaring fires, flickering candles, wooden-beamed ceilings and plush leather armchairs; the best and most British way to succumb to the cold.

Harris was in town for Eve Jobs’ wedding at equal celeb-magnet Estelle Manor, which is one of Britain’s most lavish hotels to date, just a short drive down the road from The Bull. Expect a honey-hued neo-Jacobean mansion accompanied by a Roman-inspired spa, rolling green fields for miles around, a huge heated outdoor pool on a giant terrace and a rarefied attention to detail. If you can secure a room, you’ll want to hold on and never let go.

7. School’s Out For Autumn

The summer holidays are over, but October half term is already in sight – and Britain’s country hotels will be pulling out all the stops. Take your pick: will it be Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire with its carriage rides, magic shows, bird displays and specialised fishing-for-children sessions, all within an hour of London? Or will you squirrel the family away in Dartmoor where Bovey Castle boasts craft sessions, den making and falconry? Wherever you fancy, here are our favourite child-friendly hotels across the country.

8. Country Magic In The Capital

Autumn is a sweet spot in London – a calm between the tourist storms of summer and Christmas. For a taste of the countryside in the capital, look to Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park’s new dream-making collaboration with Hyde Park Stables, which C&TH editorial director Lucy Cleland calls ‘one of those beautiful, semi-surreal experiences that feels all that more special for being in the city’. Saddle up and set off along a little-known route through London’s largest park – and with a £100 spa voucher included in the package, you won’t need to worry about any stiffness tomorrow.

WIN A Seven-Night Stay In The Caribbean

Fancy an all-inclusive stay at one of Sandals’ 17 adults-only Caribbean resorts? Who doesn’t! We’re offering you and a loved one the chance to win a seven-night stay in one of their Luxury level rooms. Click here to find out more and to enter. Good luck!