Beaverbrook

Beaverbrook sits on the Reigate Road out of Leatherhead, on an estate in the Surrey Hills. It is a five-star country house hotel, and it behaves like one: several distinct parts rather than a single building, spread across grounds, with a spa at the centre of what most guests come for. The estate was once home to Lord Beaverbrook, and Winston Churchill was among its visitors, history that the place makes no secret of, and which sets the tone for the whole operation.

The four-pound price band is the first thing to take seriously. This is the top end for Surrey, not a mid-range hotel with ambitions. Rooms, treatments and dinner are all priced for an occasion rather than a habit, and the total for a night away here will look more like a short break elsewhere. If that figure is the deciding factor, it is better known before you start planning than after.

What you get for it is a proper estate rather than a building with a car park. Accommodation and dining are divided between The House, The Village, The Garden House and The Coach House, and the food across the estate covers Japanese, British and Italian cooking. Those are three genuinely different propositions under one ownership, which matters if you are booking dinner as a non-resident: check which is serving, and when, because the answer will not be the same every night of the week and menus at this level change with the seasons. Ring or check the site before travelling.

It suits a particular kind of trip. A spa break, an anniversary, a milestone birthday, a weekend where the point is to stay put rather than drive out for the day. It is not a casual weeknight dinner spot, and it is not somewhere to arrive without a booking. Couples and small groups will find it more natural than families with young children, though that is a question worth asking directly when you enquire.

Anyone coming from outside the county should know that Leatherhead is well placed for the Surrey Hills, and the estate's setting is part of what is being paid for, the grounds and the quiet are as much the product as the rooms. Sensible walking shoes are not wasted here.

Beaverbrook is the most expensive hospitality in this part of Surrey and does not pretend otherwise. It is aimed squarely at people who have decided to spend properly on a night or two away, and it is organised around that decision: spa first, dining second, sightseeing a distant third. For a weekend where the hotel is the destination, it is the obvious name in the area. For anything more everyday, look elsewhere in Leatherhead, and there is no shame in that. Few places are built for both.