Come Lie with Me – the World's 10 Most Seductive Beds for Valentine's

Come lie with me – the world’s 10 most seductive beds for Valentine's Day Submitted by: Mr and Mrs Smith Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Blanket Coverage: with Valentine's Day just around the corner, the boutique hotel experts at Mr & Mrs Smith lay down a list of their 10 favourite places to sleep, from an Elizabethan original in Somerset to a Moorish prayer hole in Marrakech. They’ve made your bed, so why not lie in it? DRAKES HOTEL, BRIGHTON, UK (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/united-kingdom-hotels/brighton-hotels/drakes/) Located on the first floor of this luxurious Regency townhouse, room 104, with its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the English Channel, has to be the finest bedroom in Brighton. It certainly has the largest bed. Unless you or your partner are a particularly lanky basketball player, or suffer from overactive pituitary problems, there’s no way you’ll even come close to impacting on its seven-foot width. So slip between the Egyptian cotton sheets and the luxurious duck-down duvet, and make the most of all that extra space. Rooms from £95–£295. CAN VERRU, IBIZA (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/self-catering/spain/ibiza/can-verru/) A recent addition to our Smith & Friends collection, Can Verru is an enormous Gaudí-esque villa set in extensive, orchard-filled grounds, and is a favourite of Kylie Minogue’s. If you should be so lucky to get your partner to this idyllic corner of the Balearics, then make sure you baggsie the main bedroom in the separate Moroccan-style cottage for yourselves, before any of your friends get a look at it. The bed's certainly worth fighting for. Climb over a sinuous Sabina-wood log, through an Arabic-style arch and into an enormous space fitted with a soft, custom-made mattress, and filled with crimson bedsheets and Moorish decorations. Harem roleplay, anyone? Sleeps 12 – from £3,000–£6,000 per week GALLERY HOTEL ART, FLORENCE, ITALY (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/italy-hotels/florence-hotels/gallery-hotel-art/) Book you and your partner into this classic hotel’s Penthouse Suite Palazzo Vecchio and you’ll be certain to whip them into a romantic Firenze. A wonderfully old-fashioned terrace, lined with terracotta tiles and dotted with contemporary blond wood-and-cream furniture, offers panoramic views over the rooftops and church towers of this beautiful city, which would be more than enough for most people. But you can also look forward to lying on the huge, outdooe futon bed, from which you can see the Duomo, Giotto’s belltower and the Palazzo Vecchio. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain, then… Rooms from €260–€1,050 LION SANDS, IVORY LODGE, KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/south-africa-hotels/kruger-national-park-hotels/lion-sands-ivory-lodge/) There’s no need to beat around the bush when whisking your loved one off on a leopard-spotting, lion-stalking safari to the Kruger National Park. Simply book into Lion Sands, Ivory Lodge, and you will have the choice of six luxury villas from which to spot the Big Five. Ask, however, for the villa closest to the river – which has the benefit of offering the most privacy – and you’ll gain access to perhaps the most romantic bed in the veld. Lie beneath the diaphanous drapes of its canopy, and watch the

Page 1 sort of animals you usually only see stuffed on elderly colonels’ walls gathering beside the water to drink. Rooms from R4,280–6,580, all inclusive POOL HOUSE, POOLEWE, SCOTLAND (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/united-kingdom-hotels/wester-ross-hotels/pool-house/) Those expecting tartan counterpanes and shortbread fingers on the bedside table are in for a surprise at this Scottish hotel. The spirit of the Indian subcontinent has somehow found its way to Ross-shire, and interiors based on Maharajahs’ palaces seem to be all the Raj here. The Nairana Suite, a huge area with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an enormous seating area, is home to the sort of antique bed you’d usually only see in a museum. Lie back and you can’t help thinking of India. Beautiful miniatures of landscapes, framed in floral wreaths, stud the enamelled canopy, while tiny inlaid pieces of mirrored glass sparkle like stars in a clear Rahasthani sky. Rooms from £200-£450, DAR DARMA, MARRAKECH, MOROCCO (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/morocco-hotels/marrakech-hotels/dar-darma/) A new addition to Mr & Mrs Smith’s Marrakech collection, Dar Darma is a quirky, private riad in the heart of the medina, which combines traditional Arabic design with striking, contemporary interiors. The huge Red Suite, a quiet retreat from the most bustling part of this most hectic of cities, houses a bed that will certainly appeal to the more spiritually minded couple. Accessed through a gorgeous arch, the wooden bed is situated in a cosy former prayer nook, lined with beautiful carved wooden panelling, and points its incumbents’ heads in the direction of Mecca. Very Moorish. Rooms from €160–€360 CHARLTON HOUSE, SOMERSET, UK (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/united-kingdom-hotels/northeast-somerset-hotels/charlton-house/) The Mulberry-swathed, classic environs of Charlton House are the ideal surroundings for a spot of old-school courting, and all of its 25 rooms rack up high scores on the ridiculously romantic scale. The South Wing room, though, offers a four-poster bed constructed from an original Elizabethan fireplace, so you can take your wench or squire a-bed, and tumble merrily beneath a sombre panelled canopy and an ornately carved – and incredibly beautiful – 16th-century headboard. Rooms from £180 - £465 C’AS XORC, MALLORCA, SPAIN (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/spain-hotels/mallorca-balearic-islands-hotels/cas-xorc/) This 18th-century finca quite rightly plays up its wonderful outside spaces – sun-dappled olive groves, infinity pool with mountain views, gardens bountiful as a Kew hothouse… You get the idea. But a holiday with your loved one is about more than beautiful scents and balm for the eyes – time to reconnect and rediscover what brought you together in the first place is also high on the agenda. And you won’t find many finer and more tranquil places to do this than in C’as Xorc’s Rooftop Deluxe Room, which offers idyllic 360-degree views over mountains and sea. The king-size bed, clad in soothing white linen and lying beneath sloping rustic beams, is where Claudia Schiffer spent the night when she celebrated her 30th birthday at the hotel. Maybe don’t tell Mr Smith that. Rooms from €180–€300

Page 2 CA MARIA ADELE, VENICE, ITALY (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/italy-hotels/venice-hotels/ca-maria-adele/) Venice and Valentine’s Day have more in common than mere alliteration. Both ooze romance in that slightly over-the-top, giant fluffy pink heart sort of way, which we all love to indulge in sometimes. Walk out from this baroque gem of a hotel, and you’ll find gondolas gently floating along the adjacent canal, those twisting alleyways where so many have proposed on a whim and, less sensually, hordes of camera-happy tourists. Escape from them in Ca Maria Adele’s top-floor suite, overlooking Giudecca island and the church of Madonna della Salute. Here, you can happily divide your time between lounging a deux in the king-size bed or, erm, lounging a deux in the African wood-covered Jacuzzi right next to it. Aqua e amore. Buono. Rooms from €280–€630 THE GORE, LONDON, UK (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/united-kingdom-hotels/london-hotels/the-gore/) If it’s all-singing, all-dancing opulence you’re after, then the Venus Room, one of 10 feature rooms at this stylish Victorian hotel in Kensington, does it with aplomb – and with jazz hands. Camper than a flock of flamingos in feather boas, the room is worth checking into for its bathroom alone – statues of Venus and Adonis peer down at you while you’re soaking in the bath, and a kitsch frieze of the goddess of love riding a chariot adorns one wall. The bed itself, an ornate four-poster with a glittering filigree headboard beneath scarlet-and-gold-drapes, used to belong to Judy Garland. Fabulous. Mr and Mr Smith will definitely have a feeling they’re not in Kansas anymore. Rooms from £145–£295 To book any of the hotels listed, or get the new guide, go to the www.mrandmrssmith.com (http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/) or call the Smith travel team on 0845 034 0700 Words: Rufus Purdy, Editor Mr & Mrs Smith PRESS CONTACTS FOR MORE INFORMATION OR IMAGES Aline Keuroghlian or Lucy Werner at Spy Publishing EMAIL: [email protected]; [email protected] PHONE: +44 (0)20 7978 1000. www.mrandmrssmith.com

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