Maureen Jones is a luxury travel advisor with All Horizons Travel/Frosch Travel and is based out of Menlo Park, CA.
I always recommend to clients that they get out into the countryside for part of their holiday especially if they have been to London before and done the usual must see’s of sightseeing.
In March when I went home, I stayed at Cliveden House, a lovely country estate, just 30 minutes from Heathrow before going into London. I was taken to a dinky little 16th-century village, Bray, on the banks of the River Thames, a few miles away from Windsor. What is amazing about this village is that there are three small restaurants, the Fat Duck, Waterside Inn and the Royal Oak, which all hold the coveted Michelin star. There are only 140 restaurants in the entire British Isles that hold this honor. The Waterside Inn has held a Michelin three-star award for the last 29 years. I am a lover of my Ploughman’s Lunch in an old pub—cheese, bread, apple and a shandy (half beer and half lemonade)—so I am the wrong person to be taken to one of these restaurants. You should have your hotel concierge make dinner reservations for you. They have more clout than you trying to make them yourself. The same goes for theatre tickets.
There…