Crisper nights, duskier days; as the sparkling season approaches, it’s time to turn our minds from yuletide cheer and Christmas retreats. To gathering together under one roof to delight in the midwinter appeal of saunas, sinking tubs, and state-of-the-art cinemas. This year, the most sought-after winter getaways are about warm-water therapy, palatial living, and never missing out on poolside champagne.
Think massive country houses stuffed to the rafters with kith and kin, spending all day in fluffy robes, and living like a habitue of a health spa. The houses might be grand, but the purpose is simple—we invite you (to invite them) to put the wrapping paper down and the feet up. Think Eat, Pray, Love on home soil, where pigs in blankets abound and familial meditations are had at the lakeside. It's The Great British Spa-cation.
Carnivàle
From Bestival's creators, this Isle of Wight waterfront home fuses barefoot island living with private festival vibes. Its monochromatic shell hides a bazaar of curiosities. With a heated pool, skate ramp, woodfired hot tub, and Solent-view sauna, Carnivàle is a secret spa camp for castaway cosplay. Here, freedom reigns and play is paramount. Like a Swiss Family Robinson page, create your own society: gather fruit, sea-jump, and tell stories by the fire. In this trade wind paradise, good vibes flow, and post-steam sunsets are celebrated in the rum shack.
Honeystone
Loafing in Suffolk's purlieus is a south-facing home so ornate that royal hearts would flutter under its hipped-slate bonnet. At Honeystone, a 17th-century estate, fantasy meets Southwold. With a Como-worthy pool, this renovated masterpiece blends 21st-century spa indulgence with Georgian charm. Flit between the modern gym, sauna, and steam room before settling into the high-spec cinema with Dolby Atmos sound. As young'uns play, grown-ups gather around an Imperial table, world-righting over Champagne. All this, wrapped in mythological splendour, where off-duty A-listers luxuriate in historic opulence.
Roserai
A romantic 10-acre estate with a spa and boating lake in East Sussex, Roserai strikes a hard-to-find balance between Provençal chateaux and English country flair. Descend from beamed bedrooms to gather in front of the inglenook, sipping on tumblers of rosemary gin fizz while winter rushes past. Then, don bow ties and gowns for a visit to the world-class Glyndebourne Opera House; from Haydn’s greatest choral work to Christmas classics reimagined as orchestral showpieces, the property is within falsetto’s reach of the action. Then, back home for hours of luxuriating, swanning between the hot tub, sauna, and steam room before meditative laps on the boating lake.
Ariabelle
From sweet sapphire anniversaries to long overdue “frenaissances”, it takes dazzling homes to host dazzling events. Enter Ariabelle, a spa manor with mid-Victorian era cornice mouldings and floor-to-ceiling French shuttered windows, which brings joie de vivre to leafy West Sussex. If you’re a come-one-come-all group with children and dogs to boot, but still want all the feel of midwinter wellness, then this could-be private health spa in Midhurst will be just the ticket. Everything’s here; from an indoor heated pool to a tennis court, hot tub, steam room, sauna, gym, and a bar that brings "cocktail hour energy" to the chic health club interior. With any luck, the first dusting of snow might fall while your troop roasts marshmallows around the fire pit.
Anthology Farm
Whoever said the Cotswolds was a place for summer never settled here in the depths of winter. With a tennis court, a cinema room, a purpose-built yoga studio, and a heated pool to rival the county's most luxurious spas, it has a snug-luxe aesthetic that brings hygge by the bucket. Anthology Farm whips up visions of a new kind of December ritual, of family R&R spent cannonballing and microwaving popcorn and practising child's pose with views over the valley. On the chilliest days, cloaked in wool, the group can wander the streets of trendy Cheltenham, picking up artisanal gifts and working up an appetite for its abundance of croissants and coffee. We call it "the place where Om meets home" for good reason.
Castle Trinity
Not a castle in the air but a castle for pre-Christmas, this is a Yorkshire kingdom where young knights and dames peek through medieval arrow slits for hopeful sightings of their Toymaker in Chief. Pluck yourselves from the backdrop of Castle Trinity's plush fabrics and mulberry tones to wander the twelve acres of sprawling grounds, before returning for leisurely laps in the heated indoor swimming pool, and hours spent tip-toeing between the steam room, yoga space, and gym. With a herd of neighbouring deer to delight the little ones in the party, and a gurgling hot tub waiting to thaw garden-going adventurers, this castle has deep pockets with plenty to keep families of all ages amused.
Yuletide for two
If your idea of a picture-perfect winter break is more about silent nights than raucous parties, we have a hideaway for you. Whether it’s just the four of you or a romantic yuletide for two, intimate December getaways are all about matching flannel pyjamas, staying in socks all day, and never missing out on second servings of apple pie and crumble. While mornings pass in a fizz of Champagne and croissants for no reason whatsoever, evenings are for cheese and biscuits and movies screened from the warmth of the hot tub. Our pick of the pack are this Cornish clifftop hideout, this sweet Pembrokeshire cable hut, and this remote Irish bolthole.
Browse the entire collection of luxury self-catering homes in Britain and Ireland.
