Winter Getaways In Our Beautiful Bath Hotel

You’ll be accustomed to the links we often make between, on the one hand, dining and staying here and, on the other, the many events with which the city’s calendar is generously sprinkled.

Which is just as it should be: here is a fabulous diversion, and here’s where to stay and/or eat before or after you’re entertained. And that’s fine, but perhaps a little functional. If you’re coming to (for example) the grand Jane Austen Festival Summer Ball in June, then of course you’re going to need somewhere to stay.

But what of hospitality and excellence for their own sakes?

Lovely design, beautiful touches, sumptuous rooms, Michelin-starred dining, the finest tasting menu in Bath: how about these as destinations and imperatives in their own right, rather than as an admittedly glamorous pit-stop?

To some, winter in a hotel might seem like down-time, the in-between days. To us, it’s an exciting opportunity to prove our quality and redefine value. To show why we’re worth experiencing in our right, for no reason other than our excellence.

From Sunday to Thursday all winter, to give a specific example, The Olive Tree’s ‘FOUR’ lunch menu is available, a slightly abbreviated version of our classic tasting menu, now available for £75. Our executive head chef, Chris Cleghorn, and his team have worked incredibly hard over the years both to earn and retain Bath’s only Michelin star, and the chance to savour the fruits of their labours is, we think, reason enough to visit. Of an evening, the FOUR can be either a SIX or a NINE course option, and followed, of course, by the prospect of travelling no further than to a room upstairs, a room whose comfort and loveliness will be entirely consistent with the food you’ve just enjoyed. (Our Winter Gourmet Getaway pairs both these elements with a return to The Olive Tree the following morning to enjoy a beautiful Full English breakfast.)

And to visit us for no reason other than the sheer pleasure of visiting us is a different kind of treat too. No worries about arriving in time to check in then rush out again to your event. No extraneous demands on your time and energy other than to relax, wind down, adjust to Hotel Mean Time (it’s the same as outside, but feels slower) and no decisions more onerous than whether or not to enjoy a cocktail before dinner, a digestif after, or both.

When all’s said and done, there is a LOT to be said for the simple winter pleasure of just being here to feel the full benefit of us doing what we do best …