The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

There are few better addresses in England than the literal centre of the Royal Crescent, John Wood the Younger's great Georgian arc completed in 1775 and still one of the country's most photographed streetscapes. The hotel occupies houses 15 and 16, and arriving guests get the rare pleasure of walking through a doorway that tourists outside are busy photographing.

Inside, the listed buildings impose a pleasing eccentricity: staircases, sitting rooms and bedrooms of varied shapes, decorated in a Georgian-inflected style with antiques, silks and portraits. What the facade conceals is an acre of gardens behind, linking the main houses to former coach houses and mews buildings that hold further rooms, the Dower House restaurant and the Spa & Bath House with its relaxation pool and thermal cabins—a genuine surprise in so central a location.

Dining leans on West Country produce in the garden-facing restaurant, with afternoon tea a justified institution. Bath's honeyed streets, the Roman Baths and the abbey are all within a ten-minute downhill stroll, though the return climb is part of the package. For travellers who want to sleep inside Bath's most famous view rather than look at it, there is exactly one choice, and this is it.