Burgh Island Hotel

The one thing

Burgh Island Hotel sits on its own twenty six acre tidal island off the South Devon coast, reached on foot across a sand causeway at low tide or, when the sea comes in, aboard a hydraulic sea tractor that has been ferrying guests since 1969. The crossing is the opening scene of the stay, and the hotel that waits on the other side, a whitewashed 1929 Art Deco time capsule, has barely blinked since Agatha Christie wrote two novels within its walls.

The verdict

There is nowhere quite like this in Britain. Burgh Island is a private tidal island off Bigbury on Sea, and the hotel built on it in 1929, extended in 1932, has kept its Art Deco bones almost entirely intact, whitewashed walls, period and reproduction furnishings, Bakelite telephones and a stained glass cupola over the Palm Court Bar. Rooms carry no television and no air conditioning by design, and the effect is theatrical rather than dated, a hotel that asks guests to step fully into 1929 rather than merely admire it from a comfortable distance.

The guest list reads like a history of the century. Agatha Christie wrote both Evil Under the Sun and And Then There Were None while staying here, and the island has hosted Noel Coward, Winston Churchill, and Edward the Eighth with Wallis Simpson. A significant investment agreed in 2024 has gone into facilities and decor since, and the island still runs on the same theatrical rhythm it always has, black tie dinners in the Grand Ballroom twice weekly with live piano, a fourteenth century pub on the island itself that welcomes day visitors, and a natural seawater pool cut into the rocks below.

The wellness offer is honestly modest, and that is the trade worth understanding before booking. There is one treatment room and one bookable sauna, no steam room, no hammam and no heated pool. What replaces all of it is the Mermaid Pool, a natural bathing pool carved into the coastal rock on the island's southern side, filled and refreshed by the tide and held by a wartime sluice gate, cold enough that guests describe getting over the initial shock before it becomes, in more than one account, the highlight of the stay. This is wild swimming with a five star hotel attached, not a resort spa with a beach view, and the two things suit very different guests.

The water

The Mermaid Pool is the whole story here. It holds no heating and no chemicals, just tidal seawater held behind rock and a sluice gate installed during the Second World War, and it reads as bracing rather than gentle, closer to open water swimming than to a spa pool. One sauna sits alongside it, bookable in advance, and that is the full extent of the heat and water experience. There is no steam room, no hammam and no conventional pool of any kind, so anyone picturing a thermal circuit should reset that expectation before arriving. What the island offers instead is a single, genuinely wild water experience found nowhere else on this list.

Treatments

The single treatment room runs a facial menu built on Bloom Remedies, an organic, botanically led skincare house, spanning a full Bloom facial down to a shorter version, a face yoga sculpt and lift treatment and an eye treatment. Massage covers full body work at three lengths, back, neck and shoulder, an Indian scalp massage, a foot massage, hot stone and bamboo massage, along with pregnancy massage from the second trimester. Manicures and pedicures with gel polish complete the menu. In room treatments are available where room size allows. This is a small, considered menu rather than an extensive one, in keeping with a hotel built around its setting rather than its spa.

Getting in

Access to the island itself, the historic Pilchard Inn and pre booked dining is open to the public, but the hotel's own pages are not consistent on whether spa treatments are open beyond residents, with one page stating residents only and another stating bookings are open to non resident guests. Treat this as unconfirmed until checked directly with the hotel, since the Mermaid Pool and most hotel facilities are reserved for overnight guests in any event. The crossing itself runs on the tide, on foot across the sand at low water or by sea tractor when the water is in, and the nearest airport is Exeter.

What to know before you fall in love

• The spa is genuinely small, one treatment room and one bookable sauna, with no steam room, hammam or heated pool. The setting is the draw, not the spa menu.
• Children under five are not accepted anywhere on the island, and the Grand Ballroom keeps a minimum age of thirteen with a black tie dress code.
• Whether spa treatments are open to non resident guests is unclear from the hotel's own pages, so this is worth a direct call before planning a day visit around it.
• Arrival depends on the tide and involves either a sand causeway crossing or a sea tractor, and the hotel's own accessibility page defers to a direct call with reception, so anyone needing step free access should confirm this first.
• Dogs are welcome in the Artist's Studio and Beach House only, on lead, with seasonal restrictions on the beach.

Best for

Couples and small groups wanting a genuinely theatrical, black tie, step back in time island escape, built on literary romance and an unrepeatable arrival by sea tractor or tidal causeway. Anyone who wants wild seawater swimming in a pool cut straight into the rock, rather than a heated indoor circuit. And a special occasion, an anniversary or a proposal, where the island and the crossing are the whole event rather than a backdrop to one.