If you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed little green stalks sprouting out of the ground on roadsides and in forests everywhere. You will have clocked that the evenings are getting lighter and the birds are singing earlier with each new day. Spring is coming, and for the first time in two years, we’re free to celebrate it wherever we choose. 

This year we can roam as far and free as we like to see this bright, breezy, endlessly optimistic season come to life – and where better to do that than Britain’s brilliant country house hotels? There are vast estates with bluebell woodlands and daffodil gardens to stroll, and proper country walks that begin and end at plush hotels where hot tubs and massage treatments await to soothe aching feet. 

Food is another highlight in spring, so bring your appetite ready for fresh, seasonal produce and a spot of foraging if you prefer to source ingredients yourself. Here are 20 hotels where you can make the most of this time of year, whatever springtime pleasure you seek.

For spring sunshine

Spring signals the start of warmer weather and nowhere is quite as balmy as Cornwall, which sees toastier temperatures than the rest of the country for most of the year. And what better place to spend these sunnier days than at a hotel on the shimmering south Cornwall coast, where beaches beckon.