Hotel Estate Het Roode Koper

Built on a wooded hill by a mill owner who sold copper buttons to pay for it, or so the story goes, Het Roode Koper's actual founding dates to 1912, when a count laid out a villa, outbuildings and an English landscape garden here. Five listed buildings and a two-suite villa now hold 30 hotel rooms across nine hectares of garden, all folded into the Leuvenumse Bos, part of the Veluwe, the largest continuous nature reserve in the Netherlands. The same family has run the hotel since 1947. Deer graze along the fence line and wild boar move through the surrounding heath; a private guide leads walks through the forest and can point out where to spot them. There is a heated outdoor pool, a tennis court hidden among rhododendrons, and a working kitchen garden with its own greenhouse and hens. In warmer months lunch moves to the terrace, shaded by parasols. It is a compact stay if the villa isn't taken. A wildlife grid marks the entrance drive; beyond it, the original villa and its outbuildings still stand largely as built.