The Best Airport Lounge

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You might not expect to find a palatial country club just 11 km from one of the world's busiest airports, but Stoke Park predates London's Heathrow by several centuries. And if you are a transit passenger with a few hours to kill, you can make the most of the Stoke Park Club's proximity. For about $200, a Stoke Park car will carry you from the airport to the club, where you can nap in a darkened "deep relaxation room," have lunch, use the gym, swimming pool or sauna, and enjoy a half-hour massage before going back to catch your connecting flight. Facials, haircuts and other pamperings are available at additional cost.

The club has the facilities of a business hotel—conference rooms, restaurants and the like—but in a tasteful English country-house style rather than in anonymous airport decor. And if you've got the time, it's got a 27-hole golf course—the setting for James Bond's game against Auric Goldfinger in the 1964 film—and a new $20 million spa and racquet club. It's also rich in history. The present clubhouse was built between 1790 and 1813, but the 142-hectare estate is even older—previous occupants have included Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I, who was kept prisoner there by the Scots in 1647. It was Stoke Park that moved 17th century politician Sir Edward Coke to utter that famous line: "An Englishman's home is his castle." For a few hours, it can be your castle too.