About the atlas
A collection built around setting
Luxury Retreats UK is a curated directory of places worth travelling for — country houses and castles, island hideaways, safari camps, ryokan and mountain lodges. It starts in Britain and Ireland and reaches across 50 countries.
How we choose
Curated, not listed
Four things every retreat in the atlas has to earn its place on.
Setting first
A fine building in the wrong place is just a building. We start with the loch, the cliff, the lagoon or the glen, and work inwards.
A sense of place
Retreats that could be anywhere don't interest us. We favour houses, lodges and inns that could only exist where they stand.
Service that disappears
The best hospitality is the kind you stop noticing — handled before you think to ask, without ceremony.
Worth the journey
Three hours up the A9 or a light aircraft into the Okavango: every place here justifies the effort of getting there.
Reading the listings
What our pages tell you — and what they don't
Rates are a guide. Each listing shows an indicative starting rate and what it's quoted on — per room, per person, all-inclusive, or by the week for exclusive-use houses. Luxury rates move with the season and many properties don't publish them at all, so always confirm the current rate and what it includes with the property.
Photographs show the setting. Most images come from Wikimedia Commons photographers under Creative Commons licences, and most show the landscape, village or landmark a retreat sits in rather than the property itself. Each is labelled and credited.
Seasons matter. 91 retreats in the atlas close for part of the year — Mediterranean summer hotels, alpine winter palaces, Caribbean resorts in hurricane season, safari camps in the rains. Look for the Seasonal marker.
Tell us if something's changed. Hotels rename, change hands and close. If you spot something out of date, let us know.
Where would you like to wake up?
Tell us the trip you have in mind and we'll suggest retreats that fit.
Start an enquiry