Midway between Cambridge and Stansted, one of the northernmost Hotels in Essex is the Crown House at Great Chesterton. It is near Audley End House & Gardens, designed by Capability Brown and now with a Victorian Service Wing open to the public.
Nearby Saffron Walden has the 16th century 16-room Saffron Hotel. Halstead has the 14th century Bull Inn, still the centre of activity in the village and full of old beams, nooks and crannies.
Nearby at Great Weldham the White Hart Restaurant with Rooms has a 16th century core with bedrooms in the adjoining converted coach house. Historic Thaxted, with the Harcamlow Way passing through it, has the Swan Inn opposite the 14th century church with its 180ft spire, near where Gustav Holst composed some of The Planets suite. Many of the best known and most used Hotels in Essex are near Stansted Airport.
The Brook Whitehall Hotel at Broxted is the most picturesque, with a Tudor beamed exterior, comfortable bedrooms and good dining facilities. Great Hallingbury Manor, now under new ownership, is a converted barn with the acclaimed Lakeside Restaurant. Stansted Manor Hotel, just off the M11 and one of the first Hotels in Essex you get to when stepping off a plane, has 70 modern bedrooms and caters for conferences and civil weddings.
At Coggleshall, on the Essex Way footpath, is the atmospheric White Hart, an Old English Inn and one of the oldest Hotels in Essex, whose restaurant now specializes in Italian cuisine.