Want to sleep in the same room that a King or Queen stayed in? Well, here’s your chance…
These aren’t just posh hotels and fancy rooms with high thread counts. They’re places where actual history happened – like Winston Churchill bending geography to satisfy Royal succession laws and where monarchs loved the breakfast so much they awarded heraldic honours.
All open for public bookings, here’s where you can sleep like royalty. Actually!
Thornbury Castle Hotel – Henry VIII Suite
Henry VIII stayed here with Anne Boleyn in 1535, three years before he had her beheaded.
The suite keeps the original Tudor features – massive fireplaces, diamond-paned windows and walls thick enough to muffle whatever conversations happened between a king and his soon-to-be-executed wife. You can even sleep in the same space where Henry plotted his next marriage whilst technically still married to this one.
The castle itself was never finished. Henry confiscated it from the Duke of Buckingham (whom he also executed) and the construction just stopped. So you’re staying in a monument to interrupted ambition and royal paranoia.
The weird bit: The vineyard outside is one of England’s oldest, planted in the 1500s. Henry probably drank wine from these same vines…
The Spreadeagle Hotel – Queen’s Suite
Elizabeth I stayed here during her royal progresses through the South Downs and the Queen’s Suite is named in her honour.
This coaching inn dates back to the 1400s, but it was Elizabeth I who gave it royal credentials. When the Virgin Queen travelled, she expected standards—and this place delivered. The Queen’s Suite maintains period features from an era when monarchs actually slept in rooms like this, not museum recreations of them.
The building’s been operating for over 600 years. You’re sleeping in a structure that was already ancient when Elizabeth I arrived with her entourage, demanded accommodation and got it.
The weird bit: Elizabeth I’s royal progresses were essentially forced holidays on her subjects—the monarch and her entire court would descend on a location and the hosts had to absorb the cost. This inn survived the ‘honour’.
Traquair House
No less than twenty-seven Scottish and English monarchs have stayed at Traquair, including Mary Queen of Scots in 1566.
This isn’t a hotel in the modern sense, it’s a 1,000-year-old family home that offers boutique B&B accommodation. The Bear Gates at the entrance haven’t been opened since 1745, when the 5th Earl closed them after Bonnie Prince Charlie’s visit and vowed they’d stay shut until a Stuart returned to the throne.
They’re still closed…
You’re sleeping in a house that chose political loyalty over convenience for nearly 300 years. The rooms contain furniture and portraits from when these royal visits actually happened, not replicas, not themed decor, but the actual objects.
The weird bit: The house has its own micro brewery, still producing ale using an 18th-century recipe. You can drink the same beer recipe that was served to royalty.
Claridge’s – Royal Suite
Winston Churchill declared Suite 212 to be Yugoslav territory for one day in 1945 so Crown Prince Alexander could be born on “home soil” whilst his family was exiled in London.
Churchill actually had Yugoslav earth placed under the bed. The suite temporarily stopped being part of the United Kingdom through sheer diplomatic absurdity – a geographical loophole to satisfy succession laws that required the heir to be born on Yugoslav territory.
The hotel’s been hosting other royalty since the 1800s too. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed here before it was even called Claridge’s. Almost every reigning European monarch has walked these corridors at some point.
The weird bit: The suite where this happened isn’t even the fanciest one. Claridge’s has multiple royal suites, but Suite 212 became historically significant through bureaucratic creativity rather than luxury.
Fairmont Palliser – Royal Suite
Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed her 1990 stay so much that she awarded the hotel a Heraldic Badge in 1993.
This honour is typically reserved for institutions, not hotels. The Palliser joined an extremely short list of accommodations deemed worthy of royal heraldic recognition—essentially, the Queen liked the service enough to grant the building its own coat of arms.
The Royal Suite itself spans an entire floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Canadian Rockies and the decor maintains the 1914 railway hotel aesthetic – back when “luxury” meant wood panelling and proper furniture rather than minimalist designer statements.
Not content with just the one monarch? The hotel also hosted George VI and the Queen Mother during their tours of Canada!
The weird bit: The hotel was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway as a stopover for wealthy train passengers. You’re staying in what was essentially a very posh train station hotel that impressed a queen.
Cliveden House
Queen Victoria loved Cliveden so much she visited eight times. Queen Elizabeth II stayed here multiple times throughout her reign too.
This isn’t some minor country estate that happened to host royalty once. Cliveden has been woven into British royal history since the 1660s. Victoria’s visits spanned decades—she kept coming back because of the Thames Valley views and the sheer scale of the grounds offered something Buckingham Palace couldn’t.
Elizabeth II continued the tradition. The house transitioned from private aristocratic ownership to luxury hotel without losing its royal appeal. The rooms still carry the grandeur that made monarchs feel at home—high ceilings, period furniture, and gardens designed by landscape architects who understood that royalty expects nature to be properly organised.
The weird bit: The estate was also the epicentre of the Profumo Affair in 1963—a sex scandal that nearly brought down the British government. Royalty and scandal, same postcode, who’d have thought?!
Ready To Sleep Like A King…?
These aren’t just expensive beds. You’re sleeping where monarchs plotted, where diplomatic absurdity rewrote geography and where queens handed out honours because the service was that good…
Book one & Sleep where history actually happened. (Just maybe avoid the suite where Henry VIII stayed with Anne Boleyn if you’re dating. That relationship didn’t end too well.)
