Fairmont Windsor Park

Fairmont Windsor Park sits on London Road at Englefield Green, on the Virginia Water side of the Surrey–Berkshire fringe. It is a five-star hotel in forty acres of parkland, with several dining options, a spa and a fine dining offer. The address alone tells you a good deal: this is the stretch of Surrey where large houses sit behind long drives and the countryside around Windsor Great Park begins to open up. The hotel is built to match that setting rather than to hide in it.

The price band is ££££, and that should be taken at face value. This is not a place you arrive at casually on a Tuesday. Fine dining at this level means the cost of an evening runs well beyond the food itself — drinks, service, and, if you are staying, a room rate that reflects a five-star international brand. Readers weighing it up should treat it as a considered expense rather than a spontaneous one.

Who is it for? The facts point clearly at two groups. The first is spa guests: people booking a night or two for the treatment rooms and the pool as much as for the bedroom. The second is celebrations — significant birthdays, anniversaries, the milestone dinners that people plan months ahead and want to feel properly marked. It would also suit a corporate booking where the setting is part of the point, though the hotel's own event team is the place to confirm what that involves.

A few practical things. There is more than one dining option here, and they will not all be at the same price or formality, so establish which restaurant you are booking and what it costs before you commit. Fine dining rooms in hotels of this size often have narrower service windows than the hotel bars, and dress expectations vary between outlets. The spa is described as a major part of the offer; treatment slots at five-star spas tend to go early at weekends, and day guests are usually subject to different access rules than residents. None of that is unusual, but it is worth a phone call rather than an assumption.

Parking and access are helped by the parkland location, though the flipside is that this is not a walk-out-into-town proposition. Virginia Water and Englefield Green are quiet, green and residential in character. If you want an evening that continues elsewhere afterwards, plan the transport.

Surrey has a good number of grand country hotels, and Fairmont Windsor Park positions itself at the top of that field — scale, five-star rating, and a spa given equal billing with the restaurants. It is a destination in its own right rather than a place you pass through. Judge it on that basis, and check the details of your specific booking directly with the hotel before travelling.