Etrop Grange Hotel: Real Georgian charm right next to Manchester Airport

An elegant hotel and restaurant right next to Manchester Airport – offering character, convenience and imaginative cooking.

If the words airport hotel usually make your heart sink, a stay at Manchester’s Etrop Grange Hotel could change your mind. It’s actually in the leafy county of Cheshire and is really a country house hotel which just happens to have an international airport on its doorstep.

At its heart is an 18th century building with wood-panelled walls and the elegance of a bygone age. Today, the extended building has 64 en-suite bedrooms, furnished with some character but offering modern amenities. Manchester Airport may be just two minutes drive away by free, chauffeur-driven vehicle, but this hotel manages to be calm – and mostly quiet – soothing away any travel hassles.

The restaurant at Etrop Grange is the perfect antidote to snacks on the go or airline food. Dinner in this gracious room is a delight, with crisp laundered linen and attentive staff. The fact that local diners choose this à la carte restaurant for an evening out is a good recommendation for the food and helps to create a relaxed atmosphere.

And if you really want to enjoy the first (or last) full English breakfast of your trip, this is the place to do it, with top quality ingredients perfectly cooked and presented. Breakfast, by the way, is an extra £10 and if we had any quibbles it was the irritating - and unusual - surcharge of £1.25 tacked on because we failed to book breakfast when we booked the room.