Two North East hotels have been named among the best to book in the UK this spring.
Boutique hotel The Cookie Jar in Alnwick, Northumberland, and The Rose & Crown in Romaldkirk, County Durham, both made the list in the Times and Sunday Times. This follows the same publication recommending Seaham Hall, the Whittling House in Alnmouth, and Beadnell Towers among the nation's best hotels to stay in 2023.
Situated in a historical building in the heart of Alnwick, the Convent of Mercy, the Cookie Jar's owners have renovated 11 rooms and suites aiming to offer a luxurious but homely experience, with a quirky touch.
Read more: Six unique camping and glamping stays in Northumberland
Citing the tai haku cherry tree orchard in the Alnwick Garden as a reason to stay at the Cookie Jar, the Times wrote: "With 329 taihaku trees growing in the Alnwick Garden, Northumberland lays claim to the largest collection of these white-blossomed cherry trees in the world. The Japanese species was thought to be extinct until, in 1926, the English botanist Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram saw an 18th-century painting of a taihaku tree and realised he knew of one growing in Sussex.
"Cuttings were taken and the taihaku was reintroduced to Japan. To see its descendants closer to home, book a room at the 11-bedroom Cookie Jar hotel and you can walk to the garden in 15 minutes, passing Alnwick Castle."
And Northumberland is not the only place known for its spectacular spring blossom, though in Teesdale, it's for a flower that grows nowhere else in the UK.
Praising the cosiness of the Rose & Crown and the flowering Teesdale Valley, the Times wrote: "Popular with walkers, Romaldkirk’s Rose & Crown has taken its heritage as an 18th-century coaching inn and updated it just far enough. While dog-friendly flagged floors keep things cosily rustic in the bar, bedrooms speak of restfulness rather than glamour and menus steer a sensible course between fashionable and filling.
"An added reason to visit between late April and June? Just north in the Upper Teesdale valley brilliant blue spring gentians can be spotted, the only place they grow wild in the UK."
For more information on the Cookie Jar, click here, and for the Rose & Crown, here. To read the full article in The Times and Sunday times, click here.
Where are you planning to go on holiday this spring? Let us know!
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