Lantern & Key began with a simple, slightly contrarian belief: that the best places to stay are almost never the easiest to reach. The grand chains on the main road have their place, but the rooms that stay with us tend to sit at the end of a single-track lane, up a tucked-away wynd, or behind an unmarked door in a village you had never heard of.
We are a small editorial project devoted to boutique inns, country B&Bs, small luxury hotels and the unhurried art of slow travel. We write about the places worth the journey — the harbour inn with the rattling windows, the country manor that lets you put your feet up, the eight-room townhouse that hands you a key to the front door and treats you like a resident.
Most of what you read here is written by Eleanor Hartley, who has spent the better part of two decades driving the wrong way down country lanes in search of a good fire and a better breakfast. Eleanor favours the off-season, the long lunch and the kind of inn where the owner remembers how you take your coffee by the second morning.
We pay our own way, we visit out of season, and we recommend only the places we would happily return to. If you run an inn you think we should know about, or simply want to argue about the merits of November over August, we would love to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected].