Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant and Spa

"Dorset is one of the U.K.’s most picture-perfect counties—well, it would be, being Hardy country—and the Summer Lodge is one of its most idyllic locations. The original Georgian mansion was expanded to plans by architect and author Thomas Hardy  back in 1893, with four acres of gardens packed with flowers, colors, wisteria, roses, and yews. It’s all been modernized of course, the restaurant a big pull in the area, and the spa with its pool and extensive range of treatments another. Then there are the 18 rooms and six luxury suites designed with the countryside seat of an Earl in mind (very Downton Abbey)—rich fabrics, elegant furnishings, crisp Belgian linens, and even hot water bottles. It all adds up to a romantic notion of time long gone and the perfect place for a get-away-from-it-all sojourn."