Reply With QuoteRome?? The Eternal City - great place and no risk of you playing golf!
Plenty to do, lovely hotels and close by. Nice place to chill out.
Went a while back for 2 days and it was wonderful.
Would have said Venice, but you've been there.
Cheers
10th Wedding Anniversary - Ideas?
Morning chaps,
I'm trying to plan a fairly late, but quality 10th Wedding Anniversary gift for me and Mrs. I'd like us to go away for a couple of days but as we have to rely on ageing in-laws for child care we only want to go away for a 2/3 day break. Also I'd prefer not to travel too far and rather spend the money on quality and luxury than travel.
We live SE London and budget is about £1000 but flexible. I like golf and she's not that keen on pampering and treatments. We did Venice for her 40th last year and did New York a few years back and she wasn't keen.
My thoughts have included
1. Staying in London at a boutique hotel (e.g Soho Hotel/Dean St Townhouse) and then doing meals and theatre etc. Luxury, cosy hideaways with great shopping and eating on doorstep but perhaps too close to home and work?
2. 1st class Eurostar trip to Brugge to stay a top hotel and sample a few strong beers. Romantic town and have been before but is it special enough?
3. Country House Hotel - Stoke Park. Film and Celebrity connections adds to the mystique and would tick a lot of boxes. Worried she might get bored in one place though and then I'll want to play golf.
4. Sports Car Hire - We've never had a nice new car (comes from living in London) so thought about hiring a sports car and driving to nice country house hotel which costs less than Stoke Park!
As there are clearly a lot of discerning gentlemen on here with money to spend I'd appreciate any ideas or experiences that have worked well (or not) whether it was your wife or mistress you tookl!!
Cheers
Chris
Rome?? The Eternal City - great place and no risk of you playing golf!
Plenty to do, lovely hotels and close by. Nice place to chill out.
Went a while back for 2 days and it was wonderful.
Would have said Venice, but you've been there.
Cheers
One work coleeague went to Florence last year for an aniversary... He was very happy with the restaurant I've recommended...
You didn't mentioned Paris... Any special reason?
Out of the box suggestion: Reykjavik. I've been told it's very nice this time of the year...
OMG, your wife sounds so much like mine!Originally Posted by smokey99
I would suggest staying in the UK and perhaps go to a boutique hotel outside London.
Cotswold is a good place to have a look, try Cowley Manor, it's a fantastic place and has a spa!
http://www.cowleymanor.com/
Also try Babington House, very relaxing as well.
http://www.babingtonhouse.co.uk/
Hope this helps.
How about Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons near Oxford http://www.manoir.com/web/olem/le_manoir.jsp or stay at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford and book a dinner at Le Manoir.
Good shout. Whatley Manor is nice too.
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
Berlin. You will never forget this place!!
http://www.propeller-island.de/english/2/5/
Thanks for the ideas, I'll look into them. We've been to Rome a couple of times (love it, but done it), done Florence and were in Paris for her birthday this year.
Also worth mentioning that she's a veggie and therefore some countries are better than others in our experience i.e. Not France or Germany.
Bloody hell. Some of those rooms look like sets from the Saw movies. Not sure it's the mood I want to encourage. Fear!
http://www.gidleigh.com
Have a look here. Food was superb as was the hotel onsite.
Venice!
It's beautiful and romantic!
Make it Venezia, I can reccomend Palazzo Stern there for the stay.
Would be the perfect duration vor Venezia
Divorce papers?
- - - Updated - - -
Divorce papers?
Would have to say I've stayed in Cowley Manor and found it lacking, service was average, as was the food.
With breakfast my wife asked for no beaked beens, when her breakfast came with beans she asked for it to be changed & reccived a tut and roll of the eye from the server. The plate was taken away beans scraped off and same plate brought back compleat with bean juice.......
When she pointed this out and asked for a new fresh breakfast it took half a hour to arrive compleat with service with attitude, the manager was disinterested in the complaint....
Service for dinner the night befor was okay & the food wasn't standout.
Memory says the spa was okay though not super.
This would have been 5-6 years ago the posters visit may be more resent...
If it was my choice I'd say Whatley Manor
http://www.whatleymanor.com/
also in the Cotswolds, a little less obvious flash as Cowley / Babbington but more honest underlaying quality.
2 great restaurants one has 2 Michelin stars, the second more bistro. A super woodpanneled drawing room & bar.
The spa I think won conde Nast spa hotel award a couple of times in the early 2000's, all in a lovingly restored manor house.
We've become regular guests once or twice a year for the last six years, even had our small seven person wedding there in 2011
Towards the top end of the budget but you'll forget that and remember the quality....
Last edited by Captain Morgan; 27th October 2012 at 11:19.
I say avoid Stoke Park - not because its not nice (though you have to sample the suicidal driving by Wrexham park hospital) but because you know you WILL play golf! As you said it's your anniversary:) How about first class off Paddington down to the isles of Scilly?
I slept in a coffin for three nights!
Babington House is a good shout & no golf course. However three nights is a stretch as you would get bored, one or two would be enough.
______
Jim.
Not quite luxury sports cars, but a friend of mine recently took his wife to Tuscany they hired a classic car and spent a few days driving in the hills stopping at local restaurants! A quick Google search found this: http://www.bellinitravel.com/honeymo...tage-cars.html!
http://www.crazybeargroup.co.uk/?reloaded=true
This place is cool ( Beconsfield) and the food was good and you are not that far from the fat Duck and the waterside, rooms are amazing in beaconsfield, have not stayed at Stadhampton, but near Bicester Village shopping and Le Manior which is really nice too.
Thanks for the tips chaps. Lots of useful ideas and some of which appeared in the Sunday Times Top 100 places to eat.
The problem is now I've got too much choice!
Either way it will be wrong.....
How about a weekend in York?
Have stayed here http://www.stillrabbit.com/havana.html (dont let the cheesy website put you off)
Went for our 12th anniversary last year and it was excellent.
It is situated in private land, the hot tubs are not overlooked ;-) and it is 10 mins to the nearest park and ride into York.
Anniversary Ideas - Coming together!
Righto, nearly sorted. After much thought over the last weekend and dropping a number of 'subtle' hints I'm nearly there....
Location - Decided to stick with Central London due to convenience but also that we met in Soho and had out first date in the area. There is so much choice for eating and drinking.
Hotels - Today went to check out Dean Street Townhouse (Cosy, cool but small), Soho Hotel (larger rooms but colder atmosphere and developed on an old car park) and the Covent Garden Hotel (lovely throughout but was best part of £500 for the night without breakfast!)
So went back to office about to raid the piggy bank when amazingly one of my colleagues (which I only started speaking to because of a shared interest in watches) mentioned that he could make me an offer. He owns a suite at a property called 47 Park St in Mayfair which is essentially a time share hotel suite with 5 star services on site. Amazingly he has it booked the night of our anniversary and will give it to me for £0.00 as I helped friend of his with a property related problem last year. I was just hoping for a free round of golf but these suites are sold at around £600 per night on line!
Also they apparently have their own private entrance into the Le Gavroche below and preferrential booking.
Result.
Entertainment - Just booked tickets to the Nutcracker at English National Opera - Will arrange for us to have a champagne reception pre showtime. Think she will love this after previous discussions we've had.
Watches - No, I'm not buying one but after searching TZ UK on Rolex servicing will take advantage of the TZ discounts at Genesis watch making to get her battered mid sized date just serviced which will hopefully come back like new!
Finally - She had a mini when we met, I grew up with Minis in the family so think I will arrange a brief tour of the City with Smallcarbigcity.com for a bit of fun before we head home!
Job done.
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