Image Credit: The Scarlet

A four hour car journey peppered with rush hour traffic and a plethora of roadworks on a Friday afternoon perhaps wouldn’t be described as my favourite way to start a short weekend away [rather preferring to cram maximum 'us' time in more locally], but when the final destination is a hotel that’s been billed as possibly the greenest in Britain (Times Online), The Scarlet, then I’m willing to forgive the arduous trip.

Not that I should have worried about whether we’d be able to make the most of our two days of supposed bliss away from the kids once we’d reached our Cornwall address – the ‘Scarlet’ seems to intuitively know that long car journeys aside, some of it’s guests may have gone to great lengths to enjoy their ‘grown up’ weekend away minus children and the stresses and strains of the daily grind; the absence of a formal ‘check in’ or reception desk cleverly enticing you to relax your shoulders the moment you step into this eco-luxe establishment. Suddenly it’s just you, him (I’ve also bookmarked this hotel as a great girly retreat) and nothing but peace, tranquility and a hotel that claims to cater to your ever need without a pretentious hotel manager, overly pushy waiter or stuffy interior in sight.

Image credit: The Scarlet

The ethos behind the Scarlet: reconnecting – whether that be with friends or spouses. It’s all about taking stock and seriously kicking back, celebrating lines, wrinkle, laughter, sand between your toes…you get the jist…

Yet this was work, or at least that was the idea of the review, and putting my journalist hat I tried very hard to focus my curiosity on how this much needed combination of hotel + eco consideration + serious luxe factor would really work in reality. I’d stayed in smaller B&B’s whose owners had successfully managed to pull the two together for a smattering of guests. But how was this modern hybrid of interior style – ‘eco luxe’ – going to work on a large scale? I was pen and paper at the ready but that was not to be.

For the Scarlet literally lulls you into a state of deep relaxation and you are powerless to stop it. This, I realised, was all part and parcel of my experience in this idyllic retreat and was key to any stories I might recount after it. If the chalk board welcome of ‘Please take a seat [on a Missoni clad sofa] and someone will be with you shortly’ doesn’t do it for you then a four hour spa journey that combines ‘Ayurvedic wisdom with the natural essence of Cornwall’ will…But I kept going back to those all important questions that I felt I was there to answer for any readers of my review: what do you get when you combine grey water and rain water harvesting with pared-back but seductive interiors? A biomass boiler and ventilation heat exchange with Ligne Roset soft seating? OR, a timber frame building constructed with an air tight seal [not to mention the thermal solar panels] with the latest collection of Missoni prints?

Image credit: The Scarlet

If you’re to believe the hype then the answer is simple. This is luxury meets eco, and owners of The Scarlet – three sisters, Emma, Debbie and Rebecca – are rather proud of it. ‘We run a hotel next door that caters for families at every level, even if that’s a bottle of milk needing warming at 4am, but at The Scarlet we wanted guest to find somewhere they could come for precious time away where you needn’t worry about what designer bag you’ve brought with you, whether you’ve had your botox or if you can connect to the internet [although there is provision for those guests that need to]. We wanted to help celebrate friendships and marriage and remember what it feels like to be ‘you’ without the pressures of work or family life, bring back all those memories of why you couldn’t wait to get married, or how wonderful life is when you take stock,’ says Emma.

Image credit: The Scarlet is now ranked in the hotel style bible, Design Hotels

I have to say I was dubious. But that was before my arrival and by a calm and sunny Sunday morning having soaked up the surrounding coastline – a pasty from Rick Stein’s deli followed by a romantic walk along the hidden gem of Constantine Bay on a Saturday afternoon, followed by afternoon tea lazing on designer day beds on a rooftop terrace, not to mention dinner at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen only five minutes away, I could only conclude that I’d found my own special sanctuary for those times when a weekend ‘just the two of you’ is what the doctor ordered.

So, is it the UK’s greenest hotel? Well, according to the experts that might be up for debate, but if the phrase ‘home from home’ can come in the form of eco-luxe, Missoni prints and a chefs with Michelin stars [local boy, Ben Tunnicliffe'] The Scarlet, set against the rugged Cornish coastline in the bay Mawgan Porth, is just that.

Image credit: The Scarlet