Fodor's Expert Review Lumley Castle Hotel

This is a real Norman castle, right down to the dungeons and maze of dark flagstone corridors—one room even has a bathroom hidden behind a bookcase. Antiques and rich fabrics lend the castle rooms a sumptuous feel (those in the courtyard annex are less expensive, but also less atmospheric), while the bar and lounge areas are fittingly decked out with historic portraits and chandeliers. Dine in the modern and surprisingly inexpensive Black Knight—perhaps the hotel's most beautiful room—or join one of the regular, and somewhat cheesy, Elizabethan banquets (£36.50; one goblet of wine and one of mead included). You'll find the hotel just east of Chester-le-Street, around eight miles north of Durham on the road to Newcastle.