Places to stay Explore our selections for rural.
Tu Tu’ Tun Lodge
HotelNorth America, United States
From $290
Tu Tu’ Tun Lodge is an adults-only retreat on the north bank of the Rogue River, seven miles upriver from Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast. A family-owned lodge since the 1970s, it is surrounded by dense forest a few miles from the Siskiyou National Forest, far from the busier stretches of the Pacific Northwest. Rooms, suites and riverside houses open onto the water, with stone fireplaces and wood interiors throughout. Days are spent kayaking, fishing, hiking or taking jet boat trips upriver, with an outdoor pool, a sauna and massages back at the lodge, and dinner is served family-style each evening.
THE PIG – in the Cotswolds
HotelEurope, England
From $335
THE PIG – in the Cotswolds occupies Barnsley House, a Grade II-listed 17th-century manor of honey-coloured stone in the village of Barnsley, four miles from Cirencester. It was once the home of Rosemary Verey, and the Arts and Crafts gardens she laid out here, her first, still frame the house with a laburnum walk, a knot garden, potagers and a Tuscan temple. Twenty-four rooms are spread across the main house, the stable yard, the potting shed and a secret garden, ranging from small doubles to garden hideaways with freestanding tubs. The restaurant cooks from a 25-mile menu built around the kitchen garden, the hotel’s own Village Pub sits across the lane, and a small spa with a sauna and an outdoor hydrotherapy pool is tucked at the end of a garden path.
Piaule Catskill
HotelNorth America, United States
From $499
Piaule Catskill is a landscape hotel set on 50 acres of forest in Catskill, New York, about two and a half hours from the city. Founded by Nolan McHugh and Trevor Briggs, creators of the homeware brand of the same name, and designed by Garrison Architects, it is made up of 24 freestanding cabins raised on stilts, each with a glass wall facing the Catskill Escarpment, white oak and cedar interiors, bluestone floors and furniture made by Piaule. Below the main house, a spa built into the hillside holds a hot pool, a cold mineral plunge, a sauna and a steam room. Meals are served at the restaurant in the main lodge, and trails lead from the cabins into the surrounding woods.
The Six Bells Countryside Inn
HotelNorth America, United States
From $400
The Six Bells Countryside Inn occupies a red-brick boarding house built in 1850 on Main Street in Rosendale, a small Hudson Valley village about two hours from New York City. Created by Audrey Gelman as an extension of her Brooklyn home goods shop, the inn has eleven rooms designed by Greco Deco around Barrow Green, an invented English village, with canopy and box beds, hand-painted wardrobes and antiques sourced piece by piece. Much of what you see can be bought in the shop downstairs. The Feathers, a tavern and riverside restaurant run with Molly Levine, serves early American country cooking, and the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and the Rosendale Trestle are a short walk away.
Casa do Rio Douro Hotel by Vallado
HotelEurope, Portugal
From €280
Casa do Rio occupies an isolated stretch of the Douro Superior, surrounded by Quinta do Vallado's organic vineyards and overlooking the river. There are only ten rooms, and the architecture sits lightly within a vast natural amphitheater of terraced vineyards, olive groves and valleys, allowing the landscape to dominate almost every view. Wine tastings, meals and days spent on the river turn the property into a particularly intimate way to experience one of Portugal's most impressive wine regions.
Vale Palheiro Earth Resort
VillaEurope, Portugal
From $250
Vale Palheiro is a small resort in a 280-acre valley near Aljezur, on Portugal's southwest coast, within the Costa Vicentina Natural Park. It was created by Pedro and Madalena Rutkowski, who moved to the area more than ten years ago. Madalena, an architect, designed its 13 villas, suites and casitas with Lisbon's Arkstudio, and they were built with local craftsmen using taipa, a centuries-old technique of compressing earth by hand into thick walls. Rooms have fireplaces and heated floors, and the houses are spread up the hillside above a stretch of the Aljezur River. Guests can go horse riding, forage for dinner, taste local wines or join a cooking class in the communal kitchen, and the surf beaches of Arrifana and Monte Clérigo are a short drive away.
Al Moudira
HotelAfrica, Egypt
From $330
Al Moudira is a 54-room hotel on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, set between desert and farmland, about four kilometres from the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatshepsut. Although it was built in 2001, it looks centuries old, with Moorish arches, domes and courtyards decorated with arabesque details. Each room is individually designed, with stone, tile, gold leaf and antique furniture. Life revolves around the central courtyard and the palm-filled gardens, with a pool, Turkish baths and four restaurants. The hotel holds two Michelin Keys. Its seclusion is part of the appeal, and the east bank of Luxor is reached by car or by the ferries that cross the Nile throughout the day.
Le Jardin Des Douars
HotelAfrica, Morocco
From $228
Le Jardin des Douars is a 24-room hotel on a ridge above the Ksob river, about 15 minutes inland from Essaouira. Its architecture is inspired by the rammed-earth kasbahs of the High Atlas, and from the main building, gardens of palm, olive and bougainvillea cascade down to the river below. Rooms have tadelakt walls and traditional Moroccan decor, most open onto a private terrace, and some have a fireplace. There are two heated pools, one of them for adults only, and a spa with a traditional hammam. Two restaurants serve Moroccan and international dishes, with a large barbecue on Sunday afternoons. The beaches and medina of Essaouira are a short drive away, and the hotel runs a shuttle into town.
Thyme
HotelEurope, England
From $560
Thyme is a boutique hotel set within Southrop Manor, a restored 17th-century estate on the quiet southern edge of the Cotswolds. Its 31 bedrooms are spread across stone farmhouses, cottages and barns, each one decorated differently, many with rolltop baths and botanical wallpapers. The estate runs on its own produce, and most of what reaches the table at the Ox Barn restaurant comes from the farm and kitchen garden next door, with The Swan, the village pub, as a more casual option. Days can include a class at the cookery school, a treatment at the Meadow Spa, a swim in the spring-fed pool in summer, or a long walk through fields of grazing sheep toward the Thames.
