Sure, luxury villas are ideal for holidays with friends or family, but these homes-from-home (that may even be better than your actual home) – with assured privacy and sometimes a private pool for swimsuit-free fun – make excellent crashpads for those planning a honeymoon and couples deep in the love bubble. So, ditch the entourage and make these romantic luxury villas for two your own…
Lucknam Park’s One-Bedroom Cottage
UK
We can’t promise you a whole Palladian manor house to yourselves – even for the most amorous honeymooners, 42 bedrooms is a bit excessive – but tucked away within Lucknam Park’s 500 acres of manicured Wiltshire parkland are cosier cottages where couples can be alone. Built in stone, in keeping with charming 18th-century Cotswolds style, it rips a bodice off Bridgerton’s playbook, but within it’s comfortable and contemporary, with an enclosed garden and terrace, its own kitchen, concierge on call and even a helipad close by.
And, with the mighty main house a short walk away, you won’t need a carriage or sedan chair to take the hotel’s resident horses for a trot, spend an evening lingering over chef Hywel Jones’ tasting menus, or unleash your ‘sonic energy’ and try sleep rituals in the spa.
Brindos Lac & Château’s Lodges Millésime Suite with Nordic Bath
France
Keep that post-wedding ‘floating on air’ high going by, well, floating on one of France’s largest lakes instead. Brindos Lac & Château in the Basque Country is a fantastical waterworld headed up by a restored 1930s Hispano-Moresque mansion. But it’s all about that lacustrine lustre, whether you’re clinking local wines on the pontoon, turning mermaid in the overwater hammam or gazing out across the water as a chef wheels up the restaurant’s dessert trolley (sweet tooths, there’s an on-site chocolaterie too).
Immerse yourself – figuratively, although the lake is safe for swimming – by booking a floating Millésime Suite, which feels all the more clandestine for only being accessible by a fleet of e-boats (which staff will happily skipper for you). In these modern cabins, you can lounge undisturbed on the deck’s day-beds or submerge yourself in a soothing Nordic bath, and even have room service ferried over for a private-island-for-two feel.
La Foleia’s Ottagonale or Padiglione villas
Italy
We don’t want to flood you with waterside villas, but at Piedmont’s La Foleia, the water is far more of a feature, with its Monet scenescape of water lilies and painted rowboats for paddling about and poetry-reciting, should you feel so moved. The hotel’s two neoclassical villas gesticulate ‘honeymoon’ wildly in Italian, with their whimsical, pastel-hued frescoes, colonnaded patios entwined with flowers and lit by lanterns, and array of antiques. Whether you choose Villa Ottagonale, with its unique layout and bedroom with a star-painted roof; or Villa Padiglione, with its library, fireplace and table set up under fruit trees, romance will wash over you.
Wander the gardens of maple and giant bamboo, sit and watch the ducks, dragonflies and herons play, and nurse signature elderflower spritzes come sundown, after exploring nearby Lake Maggiore’s magical towns.
Olinto Atlas Mountain Retreat’s Pavilion with Private Pool
Morocco
OK, so you’ve secured the prince (or princess), but they needn’t be titled for you to get a taste of the lifestyle on your honeymoon. At Olinto in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, you can step into Italian Prince Fabrizio Ruspoli di Poggio Suasa’s world for a while, one of thriving botanical gardens against a mountainous desertscape, peaceful pavilions in walled gardens dressed in his collection of antiques and artwork, and maybe even the odd invite-only piano recital. His impeccable taste is evidenced in Arabic-script-etched zouak doors, intricate mashrabiya screens, soft Berber rugs and leather-panelled walls.
At this adults-only stay, honeymooners are welcomed with free minibar drinks (though refills are charged), and the private-pool suites are our pick for cooling off in the sizzling Moroccan sun – after a few glasses of vin gris, that is – once you’ve trekked up rugged slopes, haggled over rugs at local women’s co-operatives and seen which musical guest the patron-of-the-arts owner has invited to perform that night.
Euphorbia Mashatu Villas
Botswana
In Botswana, amid the grasslands and plains of the Mashatu Reserve, where the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers meet and marry, the mopane tree is revered for providing food to animals in winter and a livelihood to local women, through the silk worms it’s home to. And, it’s very giving to couples at Euphorbia Mashatu Villas, where each of the eight honeymoon hideaways are shaped like its distinctive pods. It’s a – perhaps not so subtle – sign of how the stay shares the love with its environment and supports the community, through conservation efforts and connecting guests with local artisans. Game drives are kept to just four guests a vehicle, and walking, cycling and riding tours offer eco-friendly alternatives; plus you can leave with some fabulous basketry or trousseau-worthy fabrics.
Each pod has a viewing deck where lions, elephants, giraffes or cheetahs might amble by (but few other disturbances), and a private plunge pool with riverine views. And after days out in the wilderness, guests can come together to swap stories over fire-cooked dinners, under trees dressed like chandeliers.
Keemala’s Bird’s Nest Pool Villa
Phuket
Unless you’re a giant bird or members of an ancient Thai tribe, you couldn’t get further from the ordinary than you can at Keemala in Phuket’s leafiest part. Here, dwellings tap into a surreal stylishness, with thatched or tented suites shaped like giant seed pods, or the sort of thing Bilbo Baggins might live in – all modernised versions of traditional tribal shelters. But especially cocooning are the Bird’s Nest Pool Villas, which look like they were woven by a nurturing pterodactyl and perch on stilts in the forest canopy, so you can swoon over the verdure or the sea from your deck, stone bath tub or the veiled bed, placed for scenic wake-up calls.
Love birds can frolic in their private pool, take Thai afternoon tea with fragrant brews and tropical pâtisserie, or hide away in a spa pod for herbal steams and raindrop healing before flying back for sundown nightcaps.
Tekanda Lodge’s Cabana Kale
Sri Lanka
Temper the go-go-go ‘I do, I do, I do’ of a wedding with a honeymoon in Sri Lanka’s most laidback enclave: surf haven Ahangama on the south coast. Tekanda Lodge is a little inland, with thatched cabanas that are well camouflaged in the dense tree cover. Days amble by as easily as the strutting peacocks and basking geckos that populate the grounds. Exertion is not the done thing, rather you’ll lie back on a lounger and sip from a coconut, float idly along in the emerald-hued pool and share thali-style platters of roti, curry and estate-grown vegetables with fellow guests. Exhausting, we know, but luckily, Cabana Kale is a little removed from the main lodge, buffered by jungle and with a romantic four-poster to snooze in.
If you can afford more effort than tilting your head up while prone to admire the Indian Ocean, you can help to weigh tea leaves as you chat with the locals, make dhal with the chef and take a tuk tuk into town to learn how to ride the waves. The best of ways to escape now you’re done with ‘I dos’.
Southall Inn Farm & Suites’ Arbor Cottage
Tennessee
Encompassing a farm, orchards, kitchen gardens, lake, reservoir and more over a vast swathe of remote countryside in Tennessee, Southall Inn also invites intimacy and connection, be that through sharing mindfulness sessions under mature trees, painting en plein air together or curling up on a swinging day-bed by a wood-fired stove on your cottage’s terrace. Hidden away on a tree-lined ridge, these stays have peek-a-boo bath tubs steps from the bed, a cabin-like feel with sliding barn doors and reclaimed-wood panels, and characterful craftsmanship – say, clay plates straight from the potter’s wheel or locally painted art.
The retreat started out as a mission to feed the needy and it still feels generous of spirit, with lovingly made farm-fresh menus, tours and tastings to connect you to the land, and spa therapies that call on native-American wisdom.
Golden Rock Inn’s Paradise Cottage
St Kitts and Nevis
St Kitts and Nevis stay Golden Rock Inn was a colourful tropical playground for creative power couple Brice and Helen Marsden, both artists, whose shared vision left an equally romantic legacy for honeymoon-seekers. Aptly named Paradise Cottage is a white-wood hideout sweetened by heart reds and playful patterns. A private terrace is naturally curtained off by swathes of bamboo and there are sizzlingly blue aspects of the Caribbean too. You can pluck avocados straight from the trees outside your door, and you’re just a short walk from the meticulously designed – by the delightfully named Raymond Jungles – gardens, where monkeys and hummingbirds have happily taken up residence.
Beyond the hotel are more adventures for two, from ATV tours through the greenery, thermal-spring bathing and black and gold beaches to hop between.
Coqui Coqui Casa de los Santos
Mexico
The Casa de los Santos outpost of the Coqui Coqui group is a bit more extravagant than many villas, as it’s a whole hotel and a divinely scented perfumería all to yourselves; but, it only has one bedroom, so honeymooners will feel very well looked after indeed. Based in Mexico’s cheery ‘yellow city’ Izamal, the singular suite is called ‘the Convent’ and a cathedral’s worth of Catholic iconography sits among the curious array of antiques within, but even those out of wedlock are welcome for less-than-holy love-ins. They’re encouraged, with its grand four-poster bed topped with a crown, twin bath tubs set side by side and adults-only ethos.
Take in the neighbouring Mayan pyramid from the terrace, cool off in the slender plunge pool and find your signature scent by sampling the apothecary’s beautifully bottled wares, or by being slathered in the fragrant lotions and potions in the small spa. Heavenly.
See our full collection of luxury honeymoon villas for more design dens à deux
