Vanity Fair reviews The Swan in their ‘A-List’ Travel Guide:
“It might be windy, it might be dark, and it might be very cold, but Southwold’s The Swan makes a January trip to East Anglia all the more alluring for it.
Walk into Southwold’s recently renovated The Swan, though, and you’d think it was mid-June. By lunch-time, patrons of the packed Tap Room bar have drunk numerous pints of the 12 different varieties of Adnams beer on tap. For those who still have an appetite for more after sampling the ambers, pales, goldens, stouts and bitters: stand up (carefully), head out through the back door and take a tour of the on-site Adnams brewery, who own the hotel, and much of Southwold, too.
After you’ve wandered the windy streets, and battled down to the icy seafront, it’s nearly dinner time. Head to the hotel’s Still Room restaurant, which is dominated by a large, copper bar and green bottles hanging down from the ceiling. Chef Ross Bott (on a mission to bring another Michelin star to Suffolk) makes seasonal British food. We recommend the aubergine with pine nut oil, and for pudding, the gin-poached pear.
After dinner, the best thing to do is go straight to bed—they are absolutely enormous, and swaddled with a conglomerate of pillows and goose-down bedding. The rooms, brightly coloured in a style reminiscent of Kit Kemp, are light-filled and cheerful. Fluffy bathrobes are in the cupboard, and Nespresso machines are tucked onto a shelf—alongside a free bottle of gin.
Unashamedly contemporary, The Swan is not for the quaint-hearted. But, after a weekend in one of their four-posters, you’ll probably have lost interest in quintessential beachside activities anyway.”
Read the full article on the Vanity Fair website here.