The Sunday Times Feature - 31 October 2010

For a relaxing gathering with loved ones, why not book out a whole hotel? We select the perfect venues.

Hiring a big self-catering place for a get-together with family and friends is great fun... unless you have to shop for the food, do the cooking and then wash everything up. The solution is simple: don’t rent a large country house, go for a little hotel instead. Take over the whole joint yourselves and you can create that house-party ambience, but with staff at your beck and call.

3. Loch Ness Lodge, Inverness

Up to 14 people

Craggy mountains, a mist rolling in from the sea and potential sightings of Nessie — could you ask for more from a trip to the Highlands? If the answer's yes, there's also kayaking, PGA golf coaching, husky sledging and helicopter tours. This luscious lodge was only built in 2007 and so has that Scottish country-house rarity: non percussive plumbing. The seven bedrooms are glen-meets-Zen cocoons, but who notices Egyptian cotton and flat screen televisions when the loch looms through every window.