the times Saturday April 9 2022
Travel 37
‘The vibe is relaxed but not as
hushed as I’ve experienced
elsewhere in the Maldives’
The atolls do have a party side, says Shilpa Ganatra
Adult getaways overleaf
UK hotels for grown-up escapes
Susan d’Arcy goes
in search of a
more sophisticated
British getaway
— and there isn’t a
chicken nugget or
water slide in sight
W
e get it. It’s not
that you don’t
like children —
you used to be
one yourself after
all — but there
are times when
you would like everyone in the room to
have at least had a chance to take some
GCSE exams, because nothing quite kills
the romance of a candlelit dinner for two
more than the sight of a high chair.
So while at times we enjoy the
conviviality of a family treating the hotel
sitting room like their personal campfire,
at others we need a degree of certainty
that as evening arrives, the lighting will
be low, the soundtrack sultry and the
ambience grown-up and glamorous.Some hoteliers hear us and welcome
only adult guests. This gives them free
rein to have decor as risqué as
a Jason Derulo lyric, install spiral
staircases that aren’t fitted with
safety guards, display toiletries
in antique glass bottles and
hang explicit Tracey Emins on
the walls, safe in the knowledge
that it won’t result in a scathing
review on Mumsnet. And we’ve
found some of the smartest
examples of this genre, places
from Scotland to the south coast
where late-night naughtiness isn’t
just accepted but applauded. We
even have a place in London where
bedtime rituals are overseen by
shamans rather than Peppa Pig.However, there is no need to dismiss
out of hand hotels that are ready to put
cot beds in their rooms. You could
take your offspring to our
recommendation in Henley, for
example, but junior will not be
allowed at dinner, an elaborate
seven-course tasting menu at
the chef’s table where a
crumb-catching silicone bib
would definitely not be a good
look. So we’ve also ferreted
out some family-friendly
places that nevertheless have
sophisticated pastimes aimed
only at adults.A room at Hotel
Indigo in BathTravel
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The bar at the Gallivant, Camber Sands