Our guide to luxury Shropshire holidays

With its limestone escarpment, upland hills, and crooked Tudor towns that appear as though plucked from a storybook, Shropshire takes slow living in its stride. This is the Unique guide to luxury Shropshire holidays.

Flanked by Wales and bound by a patchwork quilt of countryside, Shropshire calls to cravers of fresh air. Scale the Stiperstones — a formation of quartzite tors steeped in folklore — for sweeping views over Long Mynd and Shrewsbury Plain, or hop on a bike to explore Church Stretton, whose forested slopes, alpine charm, and springs have earned it the name of "Little Switzerland." There’s a vibrant cultural scene, with Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery and Theatre Severn putting on shows year-round. To help shape your stay, we’re highlighting what to see and do in our guide to luxury Shropshire holidays.

The county’s culinary capital, Ludlow, gives gravitas to the oft-used phrase “postcard perfect,” with its cobbled streets, black-and-white architecture, and 11th-century castle as supper backdrops; think rice served in coconut halves and tapas behind half-timber walls. On summer days, the riverbank is thronged with families braving the weir’s inky waters, before warming through with fiery slabs of world-famous gingerbread from Market Drayton. As for that all-important base, will it be a fairytale folly for a romantic break in Weston-under-Lizard, or an off-grid cottage under dark skies across the border?