A touch of luxury

Its peaks and fells rise to heights not reached anywhere else in England, and the standard of accommodation on our Lake District walking holiday is also some of the best of all our UK breaks. This is a holiday, then, that combines great routes with high levels of comfort: you stay at a former hunting lodge with sweeping views over Lake Windermere; at an inviting inn which once hosted Charles Darwin; and at an attractive hotel situated on the banks of the River Rothay. We also offer an upgrade option in Windermere: the Cragwood Country House, a wonderful lakeside retreat set amid a twenty-acre estate of landscaped gardens and with a restaurant that boasts two AA rosettes.

Stylish 4-star hotels, first-class rail travel and a superior cabin for your crossing of the Baltic Sea – our Nordic touring holiday gives you the opportunity to discover northern Europe in real style. The journey begins in Copenhagen, where you stay by the waterfront and can use your included city card to explore (we provide a 24-hour city card for each city you stay in). From Copenhagen you journey by train over the famous Øresund Bridge to Stockholm, to stay in a beautiful 18th-century building complete with chandelier-lit Champagne bar. Your final destination, Helsinki, is reached by sea, and its many attractions – the city is bursting with galleries, boutiques and restaurants – can be easily accessed from your delightful hotel, an attractively converted prison.

From ancient mountain ranges to atmospheric towns and cities, there’s a little-known side to Tenerife that most visitors never get to see. Away from the island’s tourist resorts, there is also a very different type of Tenerife hotel: small, friendly and brimming with personality. Our Tenerife driving holiday features three such hotels – a 17th century manor house, an elegant spa hotel situated on the edge of a pine forest, and a former nobleman’s home – with the option to upgrade in our final destination, Garachico, to instead stay in an 18th-century mansion with courtyard swimming pool. Extraordinary places from which to explore Tenerife’s extra-extraordinary landscapes.

We give one of our hotel-to-hotel walking holidays in South Tyrol the name ‘Secret Dolomites’ as it explores the lesser-trodden paths that can be found in the southern, German-speaking part of the region. It’s an idyllic area: fruit orchards sit alongside vivid green meadows, and there are peaceful hamlets and silent forests aplenty. Yet despite being somewhat off the beaten track, this is an area with exceptionally good accommodation – our three hotels offer a very rare and special blend of authenticity, comfort and character; after a day’s walking indulge in their attentive service and savour some outstanding regional cuisine in their excellent restaurants.

There are many reasons to choose a winter snow break in Austria’s Leutasch Valley – for starters it’s incredibly beautiful, with an inspiring mountain backdrop and pretty hamlets of frescoed houses and onion-domed churches. It’s also a great place to try your hand at a wide range of snowy experiences: winter walk, cross-country ski or explore on snowshoes, ice-skates and toboggan. Yet another reason is the chance to stay at the highly praised Hotel Kristall, which has been extensively renovated and offers stylish restaurants, cosy spaces in which to relax and two state-of-the-art wellness areas – one of which is a fabulous rooftop spa with heated outdoor pool and magnificent views over the surrounding peaks.