Hot girl/boy/person hiking season is upon us. Think the hot girl walk, but with an incline and better footwear. So I bring you the best places to stay to build a holiday around the hike, focusing on 30% gorpcore (did I have to Google it? Yes*), 50% recovery and 20% feeling hot, literally and otherwise, because you'll have broken a sweat and look rather good doing it.
Think country pub lodges with famous walks on the doorstep, shepherd's huts with a sauna sitting atop rolling hills, and a regenerative deer farm that comes with a whole horde of furry friends.
Dig out the matching workout set you've been saving for this very occasion, tie on the bandana, and commit to the wraparound sunglasses you can totally get away with (as long as you don't ask your partner for their honest opinion). Break a sweat. We'll see you at the pub.
*Gorpcore is the fashion trend that takes outerwear designed for outdoor recreation and wears it as streetwear. Thanks, Wikipedia.
To The Mountains
Gairnshiel, Cairngorms, Aberdeenshire
A historic lodge on the old military road between Ballater and Corgarff, dropped straight into the Cairngorms. There's Munro country in every direction and Lochnagar to the south, with red deer for neighbours. It's about as serious as UK hillwalking gets, and after a day on the hill all you'll want is the lodge and a proper fire. Bingo.
Glen Dye Cabins and Cottages, Deeside, Aberdeenshire
Eleven design-led cabins and cottages on a 15,000-acre estate at the Cairn o'Mount pass, with a BYOB pub and a wild-wellness sauna. The walk is Clachnaben, the granite tor you can see for miles, a summit that punches well above its size. Back down, there's the sauna and then the pub. Off to a strong start.
Greta Mae, Powys, Mid Wales
Two Londoners came home to mid-Wales and built one flawless cabin in the woods: sunken bath on the balcony and interiors that'd make a boutique hotel quite nervous. Ancient woodland sits right outside the door with red kites overhead, and the Berwyn range and Pistyll Rhaeadr, the tallest waterfall in Wales, are a short drive on. Woodland below, summits above, and that bath waiting for both. Obviously.
To The Water
The Penn, Windermere, Lake District
A self-check-in boutique base in the middle of Windermere, walk-everywhere handy and cosier than most of the town's options. Orrest Head goes straight from the door: a 20-minute climb to the Windermere panorama that made Wainwright a Wainwright, with the bigger fells a short bus or drive beyond. Pick your effort, run a bath back at the room, then find a pub for dinner.
Yogis Cabin, Great Park Farm, East Sussex
A design-led cabin built entirely around a private yoga studio, sitting beside a spring-fed swimming pond. Erm, yes please. The walking is country strolls from the door through the 1066 battlefields to Battle Abbey, with a bracing dip in the pond when you're back. There's the studio, a wood-fired sauna next door, and no excuse left. Bring your zen A-game.
To The Woods
Looking Glass Lodge, High Weald, East Sussex
A one-bed eco lodge in ancient woodland an hour from London, with floor-to-ceiling glass, a suspended log burner and a bath up in the treetops. Trails run through the High Weald with the forest close on every side, and the Hastings clifftops and sea are five minutes south when you want salt air. Come back to that bath, that view, and nobody else around.
The Royal George, Wye Valley
A just-refurbished pub with rooms in an overlooked corner of the Wye Valley, about as good-looking as pubs-with-rooms get. Offa's Dyke and the Wye Valley Walk go from the door, with Tintern Abbey and the Devil's Pulpit viewpoint through the trees. Then it's back to the bar. A proper find.
To The Moors
West Cawthorne, North York Moors
Restored barns and hand-built cabins on the southern edge of the moors near Pickering, good for a couple or a full-squad takeover. Walk straight out onto the heather, with the Hole of Horcum and Cropton Forest close by. It's as soothing as the brochure promises, and for once the brochure isn't lying.
To The Sea
No 9 Uist, Outer Hebrides
Sleek, Scandi, oceanfront living for anyone who needs to properly disappear. The walking is white-shell machair beaches and the steep little peak of Eaval, under more sky than you've seen in one place. Then it's island time.
Outbuildings, West Dorset
A joyful boutique farm'otel between Lyme Regis and Weymouth, with a hay-barn cinema, outdoor baths and a text-for-a-tipple service. Rolling farmland and pub walks lead from the door, and West Bay, the Jurassic Coast and Golden Cap, the highest point on the south coast, are a short hop on. Then put your feet up and text for that tipple.
The Cornish Place, Gwennap, Cornwall
Four cottages on a 26-acre Victorian dairy farm in the narrow waist of Cornwall, with wood-fired hot tubs, spa treatments and daily cake in the communal Piggery. Old mining trails and Stithians Lake start at the gate, and there's a coast path 20 minutes either way: surf and drama to the north, calm coves to the south. Take your pick of sea, then come back for a massage and complimentary cake.
The Croft Collective, Benderloch, Argyll
An off-grid crofter's bothy on the Lochnell Estate, set high over the Lynn of Lorne with its own beach and a wood-fired bath under the stars. Shoreline and hill walks go straight from the door, along with oak woodland, wild swimming and Kerrera's three-and-a-half-hour island circuit a short ferry off. Recovery is the bath, whisky in hand, and no Wi-Fi to pull you out of it.
To The Country
Wildhive, Peak District
A Gothic Victorian country house on the edge of the Peak District, with treehouses in the grounds and a serious kitchen-garden restaurant. Dovedale is the headline walk: a limestone gorge, the famous stepping stones, a scramble up Thorpe Cloud for the view back down. Then dinner from the kitchen garden and a treehouse to sleep it off in.
Ash Farm Dorset, Cranborne Chase
A regenerative red-deer farm with four shepherd's huts, each with its own hot tub, plus a sauna hut and honesty farm shop. Walk up Hambledon Hill, a proper Iron Age hillfort, or take a guided deer tour if you'd rather be shown round. Then the hot tub, with the autumn rut as the most dramatic alarm clock in England.
The Huts at The Royal Oak, Cotswolds
Three seriously good shepherd's huts in a field behind the Royal Oak, looking clear across the Vale of Evesham to the Malverns, one of them with a copper bath for soaking off the miles. The Cotswold Way runs over Cleeve Hill, the Cotswolds' highest point, past the Belas Knap long barrow. Then to a well-earned pint, just 25 metres from bed.
