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Apr 11
Last Minute Getaways to the English Countryside
Planning the perfect romantic getaways can be fun. The English countryside features green, rolling hills and charming eccentrics. It is also proving to be an irresistible last minute getaway for stressed out, overworked city dwellers in search of a rural idyll. Yet the shires are no longer unsophisticated or undeveloped, as they feature some very modern new additions. Crumbling estates have been restored into plush, contemporary hotels, and there are more on the way.
The Nina Campbell-designed Ellenborough Park is set to open near Cheltenham in May, and a year later Heckfield Place will open in Hampshire. Hampshire County is among the most desirable regions for wealthy Londoners seeking weekend retreats, and a new hotel called Lime Wood is set in the middle of the old-growth New Forest here that combines luxe design with seamless service. These developments reflects the current mood in England, where you will find old-fashioned pubs serving inventive and modern cuisine and upscale stores and spas catering to a cosmopolitan crowd.