Luxury break

3:35pm Tuesday 29th July 2008

This month you get the chance to win a night of luxury and pampering in one of the country's most impressive hotels - Cliveden House Cliveden House is set in a National Trust stately home within 376 acres of landscaped gardens near Taplow in Berkshire.

Originally built in 1666, William Waldorf Astor, America's richest citizen, gave it to his son and daughter-in-law as a wedding gift in 1906 and it became the hub of a hectic social whirl where guests included Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill.

Today the hotel, one of the von Essen collection of hotels, has visitors from all over the world. Celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt have enjoyed total privacy there, while in recent years Steven Gerrard and Ant McPartlin both held their weddings at Cliveden.

On a much smaller scale, the hotel serves up an award-winning afternoon tea and a three-course table d'hote menu in the splendid Terrace Dining Room overlooking the Parterre and winding Thames beyond is an affordable treat any day of the week.

Meanwhile the hotel's fine dining restaurant, Waldo's, continues to make headlines in the foodie press.

The interior of the house does not disappoint the sense of anticipation created by the drive up to the imposing façade. As uniformed footmen usher you into the Great Hall you are transported into a world of bygone elegance.

But this is a hotel which is keeping pace with 21st-century living. Rooms provide all mod cons and there is also a facility most hotel visitors demand these days - a spa.

Cliveden's Pavilion Spa, set in a walled garden, incorporates the outdoor swimming pool built by Lord Astor to deter his wife, Nancy, from swimming in the Thames and made famous by the scandalous Profumo affair. This and the indoor pool are heated 365 days of the year, and there are outdoor hot tubs, an indoor spa pool and seven treatment rooms offering everything from wraps to massages and manicures. There are a number of flexible spa packages available from whole days to twilight sessions.

Call Cliveden on 01628 668561 or visit clivedenhouse.co.uk This month's prize is an overnight stay at Cliveden for two, including bed and breakfast, dinner in The Terrace Dining Room (with a bottle of wine chosen by the sommelier), full use of the Pavilion Spa and a one-hour treatment of your choice for the competition winner. The prize must be taken Sunday to Thursday before the end of February 2009, subject to availability, Bank Holidays excluded.

To win just answer this question. What year did William Waldorf Astor give Cliveden to his son and daughter-in-law?