Mr & Mrs Smith reveal top Valentine’s Day hotels

top Valentine's hotels

Boutique hotel specialists Mr & Mrs Smith have revealed their top Valentine’s Day hotels.

Each of the 20 hotels has witnessed fan-fluttering adorations, sheet-rumpling dalliances and more fairytale weddings than Dame Barbara Cartland’s back catalogue. Some of the hotels by theme include:

HISTORIC ROMANCE
Hotels that have inflamed passions for generations…

Villa Cora, Florence
Built at the end of the 1860s by Baron Gustave Oppenheim in honour of his young bride, Villa Cora (above) is opulent but not overtly blinged. Flawless service, ornate frescoes and rose motifs show that the Baron’s love of embellishment almost equalled that for his spouse. Unfortunately, he later attempted to set fire to the Villa when he suspected his wife was unfaithful.
Rooms from £220 a night

Les Dames du Panthéon, Paris
Free thinkers and strident dames such as writers Margherite Duras and George Sand are the ladies that light up the colourful interiors of this boutique bolthole in the Latin quarter. Each floor of Les Dames du Panthéon pays tribute to its muse with hints of heroines’ colourful dalliances: vintage boxing gloves hang in one of the Edith Piaf rooms, a bittersweet tribute to boxer Marcel Cerdan, the great love of her life.
Rooms from £148 a night

SCANDALOUS STAYS: Hotels that have set tongues wagging…

Cliveden, Berkshire
For some historic sauce head to Cliveden, Berkshire, where political scandal the Profumo Affair played out in the ’60s. The fateful meeting of politico John Profumo and 19-year-old model Christine Keeler changed the course of British politics, and that secret-garden-set outdoor pool still tempts people to go skinny-dipping.
Rooms from £415 a night

The Standard, High Line, New York City
While the hottest hotels tout discretion as a given, it’s not always easy to keep the paparazzi at bay. The humble elevator in supercool André Balazs hotel The Standard High Line, gathered column inches galore when it hosted a ruckus between Solange Knowles, Jay Z and Beyoncé.
Rooms from £205 a night

A-LIST TRYSTS: Hotels that have set the paparazzi snapping

La Mamounia, Marrakech
Many a celebrity has passed through the doors of this decadent den – even Winston Churchill’s name has graced its guest list. Proving that La Mamounia’s Ottoman-style opulence suits all manner of movers and shakers, Poppy Delevigne held her second wedding ceremony here last year – a more riotously coloured and star-studded affair than her London bash.
Rooms from £315 a night

The Portobello Hotel, London
The genteel façade of The Portobello Hotel – which sits in a quiet Notting Hill street – gives it a ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ look, but behind the rooms’ locked doors there’s been many a rock and roll antic. It was here that Johnny Depp and Kate Moss filled Room 16’s bath tub with champagne, only for the cleaning lady to pull the plug and, even after its refined revamp, there’s still the chance for a little debauchery.
Rooms from £145 a night

The full list of 20 hotels includes:

Historic Romance:

  • Villa Cora, Florence
  • Riad Siwan, Marrakech
  • Palazzo Victoria, Verona
  • Blakes Hotel, London
  • Varsity Hotel & Spa, Cambridge
  • Les Dames du Panthéon, Paris
  • Casacau, Rome

Scandalous Stays:

  • The Portobello Hotel, London
  • Cliveden, Berkshire
  • Principe Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany
  • Hotel Endsleigh, Devon
  • The NoMad Hotel, NYC
  • The Standard, High Line, NYC

A-List Trysts:

  • Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire
  • The Crown, Buckinghamshire
  • Borgo Egnazia, Puglia
  • Barnsley House, Somerset
  • L’Hôtel, Paris
  • La Mamounia, Marrakech
  • Berns Hotel, Stockholm

See Mrandmrssmith.com/love-lust-and-liaisons