Best Wiltshire hotels 2022: Where to stay for country feels, history and riverside views

Wiltshire is a county of chalky ridges and wide plains, of ancient monuments (at Stonehenge and Avebury) and quaint market towns. It may not buzz with counterculture – that’s neighbouring Somerset – but it is all the better for its quiet anonymity. If you want a quintessential English countryside break, you will easily find it here, with fabulous farm-to-fork restaurants, manor houses-a-plenty and great walking, both in the Cotswolds and in other areas of natural beauty that are much more rarely visited.

The best hotels in Wiltshire are:

Neighbourhood: Cotswolds AONB

This luxury hotel offers high standards of service and comfort with 43 lavishly furnished rooms and a handful of self-catered cottages. Standing at the end of a long, tree-lined drive, genteel pursuits such as horse-riding, horse-whispering and archery are all possible on the grounds. The biggest draw though is the hotel’s contemporary spa, which is all sleek lines in polished stone, with a modern fireplace down one side and a hydrotherapy pool with a swim-through to the garden. Follow a soak with dinner at the fairly formal Michelin-starred Restaurant Hywel Jones and feel truly spoiled.

Price: Doubles from £373, B&B

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Neighbourhood: Cranborne Chase AONB

Set on the Duke of Somerset’s estate, The Bradley Hare is a converted coaching house that offers spa treatments in a potting shed on the estate, 12 luxurious rooms, fabulous cocktails and quality cooking. The knock-out interiors, from the former European design director of Soho House, sit modern art prints alongside folky fabrics with a backdrop of calming, natural colours. The food, which makes use of local ingredients like foraged mushrooms and truffles, is satisfying and there is a congenial buzz when propping up the bar of an evening.

Price: Doubles from £170, B&B

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Neighbourhood: Lacock

In the National Trust-owned village of Lacock, this half-timbered inn dates…