EXITING a motorway wouldn’t normally set my pulse racing, but as we joined the slip road off Junction 11 of the M5, my heart skipped a beat.

Not only were my hubby and I about to enjoy a rare and wonderful night away without worrying about the responsibilities of parenthood, we were also entering a place that I hold dearly in my heart.

Cheltenham in Gloucestershire is where I spent my early 20s cutting my teeth as a journalist in my first newspaper job.

It was a place I quickly fell in love with, its streets lined with beautiful Georgian architecture and a charming town centre littered with a delicious wealth of independent shops, bars and restaurants.

The last time I swooned in Cheltenham’s opulent arms, Bayshill Road in the heart of the Spa town was home to a very tired looking Hotel Kandinsky.

But that was several years ago, and I was quickly to discover a lot can change in that time.

Since then, The Kandinsky has been bought out by Swire Hotels – a firm renowned for creating stylish urban bolt-holes across the world – and has undergone quite a transformation.

As we drove up to the Grade II-listed hotel, now called The Montpellier Chapter, it was difficult not to be bowled over by its beautifully restored and very grand Georgian exterior.

Another bonus was the fact that the hotel, which re-opened a year ago, comes with parking spaces – something in short supply in Cheltenham.

As we entered the lobby, we got what was to be our first taste of the hotel’s high-tech facilities.

Instead of the more traditional way of checking in staff are armed with laptop-style computers, and ask customers to take a seat on some plush sofas before you complete a “paperless” check-in.

Finding our room led us on a path of discovery to the hotel’s intriguing plethora of architectural styles.

Over the years the building has been extended six times.

This could have led to a mish-mash of styles, but architect firm Make – which was commissioned to resuscitate the hotel – has ensured the extensions have happily married the new and the old.

Indeed, the design cleverly connects one of the contemporary additions, dubbed the ‘‘veil’’, to the original historic building.

It couldn’t be further from the period fire places and coving-clad ceilings of the old building, instead it wraps around the newly-created courtyard with floor to ceiling glass windows, accentuated with claret panes.

It was this part of the building which housed our accommodation, one of 27 ‘‘feature’’ rooms, which stand out from the rest as they include an open-plan bedroom and bathroom.