Choosing the perfect place to hole up for a weekend getaway is not always straightforward. But this spring, the decisions seemed to make themselves. After a relentlessly busy start to the year, I was looking for a place to escape. And the place needed to fit certain criteria: Somewhere my partner and I wouldn't have to speak to anyone but each other; somewhere we could sleep for 12 hours a night and take the days slow and easy without guilt; somewhere within a couple of hours’ drive from our home in northwest London ; somewhere rural, where I wouldn’t be woken up by the neighbors’ bathroom light or the sound of the tube; and somewhere we could have the place to ourselves, but still be close to some nice pubs or restaurants, so we wouldn't have to hunt and gather our own dinners, God forbid.

An Airbnb in the Cotswolds was the obvious choice. Luckily, I remembered I’d saved a cozy-looking cottage on Instagram a few months prior to feeling the sudden urge to get away.…