The Best Luxury Hotels in Liverpool, England

Formby Hall, set in peaceful parkland, is where you can play on a championship golf course, be pampered in the spa and try your hand at clay pigeon shooting or archery – all just a 30-minute drive from Liverpool’s Albert Dock. Great for second-timers to the city who want more space, the hotel has bikes for hire and a chef who’s happy to rustle up a picnic, so there’s always the option of swapping sightseeing for a day in the nearby coastal nature reserve, with its beautiful dune-backed beach and resident red squirrels.

Most Malmaisons are conversions of historic buildings, but this is the chain’s lone purpose-built hotel, occupying a prime waterfront spot close to the Three Graces. Rooms look glam, following a makeover that replaced the original moody colour scheme with soft silver greys and modern geometric prints. Most lavish of the lot is the Kop Suite, where you get your own playroom (with table football and Technogym equipment) plus a wooden bathtub for two with panoramic river views.

As the name suggests, this city-centre accommodation is dedicated to Everton’s legendary centre-forward, but the hotel has gone easy on the football theme. Yes, there’s some memorabilia on display and lots of Everton blue in evidence, but the rooms will appeal to anyone who likes their decor glamorous and opulent, with ornate gilded mirrors, thick velvet curtains and huge rococo-style headboards. In the No 9 restaurant, the menu showcases regional produce such as Lancashire lamb, Conwy crab and cheese from local dairies.

As well as catering for budget-minded travellers, the Resident offers options for those with a bit more cash to splash. Top-of-the-range apartments here include split-level Junior Suites and, cream of the crop, the large Secret Garden Suite, which sleeps up to five and has its own private decked terrace. Staff can book tours, tickets and taxis or make restaurant reservations, and you can order-in wines and cocktails from the room service menu straight to your door.

Over on the Wirral side of the Mersey, on the edge of the pretty village of Thornton Hough, lies this stuccoed Italianate mansion, with chandeliers in the restaurants, water lilies on the ornamental pond and neat-freak-pleasing stripes mown into the lawns. The spa is the star here, offering Espa and Elemis treatments and plenty of other pampering opportunities, including a thermal zone, mud-therapy suite, outdoor hydro pools and a Roman-style indoor pool surrounded by Ionic columns.