Read's Hotel & Vespasian Spa, Santa Maria, Spain

Staying at Read’s is like staying at a favourite uncle’s stately home- it is an elegant and formal luxury hotel yet still inviting and seductive. Leave your car in the car park hidden around the corner and walk through landscaped gardens up to the beautiful house. Better yet, catch the little train from Palma to Santa Maria; allowing you to arrive in style and conveniently without the means to leave again, until your homeward flight beckons.

The facilities
The manor dates back to the 16th-century and had fallen into disrepair when ex-lawyer Vivian Read bought it fifteen years ago. He and his family have personally brought the place back to life and at least one of them is always to be found around the luxury hotel, getting to know their guests and ensuring that everything is running as it should. The ground floor houses a number of impressive salons such as the ‘blue room’ which is painted like a summer's day, hot air balloons drifting through the clouds around your head. The furniture is overstuffed and formal, the rooms and corridors decorated with antiques and display cabinets of porcelain. There are also a number of sculptures around the place, all for sale to those of you with the odd EUR 4000 spending money burning a hole in your pocket.

The use of colour is eye-catching throughout the house, most notably in the magnificent dining room. Eating here is an experience in itself, and certainly worth doing once even if you are not staying here. The large room features soaring arches and fantastical trompe l’oeil paintings on the walls in the style of the 17th-century Italian masters. The much-celebrated food comes from chef Marc Fosh who has devised a menu which is "a blend of traditional French, modern Mediterranean and Asian minimalism". His ‘culinary philosophy’ involves using only the best fresh local produce and no butter and cream, which makes for rather a lot of frothy sauces but is, in general, extremely good (Michelin gave him a star so he must be doing something right).

The dining room is an overly-formal setting for breakfast the next morning, which would be much better served in the lighter Olive Press room, otherwise seemingly unused. There is a twenty-four hour bar in the light and airy adjoining conservatory which is relaxed and very English (Gordon’s G&T anyone?). Outside you will find a pool planted round with palm trees, an upstairs terrace where you can dine in the summer (but not breakfast in the spring, which is a shame) and an outbuilding which houses the magnificent indoor pool. Although too warm and steamy for comfortable use, it’s great for a quick midnight dip and there’s a Jacuzzi alongside it, as well as a sauna and small gym.

The rooms
The 23 rooms and suites are all individual, some looking over the gardens to the front, others back to the pool. Go for the best room you can - having a private terrace is well worth it. Double number 20 is a charming feminine room with pink walls and a huge tiled bathroom. For those feeling regal, there is the dark purple King Suite with its grand bed positioned for best views out of the window. Even better is the soon-to-be-finished Moroccan Suite, painted a fabulous colour blue and with a private terrace.