Set your spirit free in five acres of fabulous planting and wonderful water features open to the public for part of the week in spring and summer. Follow the paths that meander through the woodlands. Swim in the 13.5-metre, filtered, cold-water pool.
Discover three other water features, a 12-foot ha-ha (watch the drop), sculptures, a water garden, a sunken garden and a riot of planting. Take a light lunch in the public tearooms. Pop into the shop for plants and take a little piece of Kiftsgate home with you. Enjoy views over to The Malverns. Find out what seclusion and serenity look like.
Relax in a marvel of a mansion under high ceilings in spacious rooms that look out onto the award-winning gardens. This is a world of dramatic curtains, high ceilings, cornicing, panelled doors and period colours. There are places to reunite and relax and places to escape and reflect.
Stream your Netflix or Amazon Prime Video accounts over the superfast Wi-Fi in the TV room. Bring your favourite DVDs. Get some beats going on the Bluetooth. Head to the veranda for table tennis and board games. Raid the bookcases for reading material, dig out the toys for the kids, find a fire and warm your toes.
Fill the American-style fridge/freezer with foodie stuff from Waitrose, Vegetable Matters, David Moore Butchers and Lower Clopton Farm Shop, with wine from Hayne Hanson and Clark. Pop it all into the pots yourself as you chop and chat in the open-plan kitchen-diner or put it all in the capable hands of Samantha from Cotswold Canapés.
Eat around the baronial beast of a dining table or out on the veranda with a view over the gardens with the aroma of steaks on the coal barbecue mingling with the soothing scents of summer planting. Tickle your tastebuds with takeaways from Ask Italian, Zoo Sushi or the Dolphin Fish Bar in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Eat out in the village at The King’s Arms with summer garden barbecues every weekend or tuck into the seasonal menus on the ever-changing blackboard. Fill up on cornfed chicken with braised salsify or Jerusalem artichoke spelt risotto at The Howard Arms. Or maybe roast cauliflower steak or roast halibut from The Ebrington Arms.
Settle back for a spot of south-coast lamb or grass-fed beef fillet at The Bower House. Head to Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon for Michelin-starred dining or Chef’s Table private dining. Or try another Michelin-awarded spot, The Royal Oak Whatcote, for seasonal fare comprising wild meats and foraged ingredients.
Embedded within a five-acre oasis of a garden, you’ll go out like a light and wake to the trill of birdsong and the prospect of tea and toast on the veranda. Kiftsgate Court sleeps 14 in seven bedrooms wrapped crisply in Egyptian cotton.
The master suite gives you a kingsize bed and en-suite with balcony and walk-in shower and bath, while the Pink room is another kingsize en-suite and Yellow is a superking with private bathroom. The Four-Poster room is just that, with an en-suite.
The Jute room has two single beds and shares a bathroom with a walk-in shower and bath with the Green room, a superking, and the Blue room, offering two singles.
