We expected this one in summer of 2014 but now word is that April 2015 is the month that this hotel lifts its petticoats and reveals all.  The much-anticipated Gainsborough Bath Spa will be YTL's first UK hotel.  As Jane Austin lovers will know Bath is a spa town and visitors should take to the healing waters, so it is good to find that the property offers the only natural thermal spa within a hotel anywhere in the United Kingdom. Behind the Georgian Grade II listed façade, designed by architect John Pinch, are 99 elegant guest rooms created  by Champalimaud Design, restaurants and the kind of ballrooms that Mr Darcy would feel quite at home in.  

YTL is the company behind the luxurious Pangkor Laut Resort,  Tanjong Jara, and Cameron Highlands resort so this is a company that knows about spas. At the Gainsborough the impressive two-floored Spa Village Bath below the hotel and has direct access to Bath's celebrated waters through three therapeutic pools.  Designed with the Roman history of Bath in mind, the pools are set within a columned atrium.

The Luxury Travel Bible readers will be glad to know that if privacy appeals then Bellotts, a 17th-century annexe to the Gainsborough building, is available on an exclusive basis with 14 guest rooms at your disposal surrounding a tranquil courtyard