Get the heli out of a transport crisis

Over the past eventful week, commuters and business travellers have regularly looked heavenwards in despair.

At times of such network incompetence and natural disaster the only practical solution would be to sprout wings and fly. Actually, that's not such a silly idea.

Some hotels have responded to the transport crisis by offering to send a helicopter to pick customers up. Arriving this way will certainly impress the birds and maybe even some people. In fact, the air taxi business has been thriving in recent years - not just recent days - because prices are no longer prohibitive, particularly when time is money.

Beside the convenience of heli-conferencing, there are bonuses such as great views and access to places such as the Lake District and the Highlands that can be torture to reach overland. This is not, though, a suitable form of travel for nervous flyers; engine-failure in a helicopter produces the aerodynamics of a spinning top.

Many of the nation's best, less accessible meeting places have a helipad. So why tangle with the floods, jams and train cancellations when you can heli out from various British cities to a boardroom rendezvous at a five-star greenfield site?

Here is a selection of meeting venues within easy rotoring distance of London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Prices quoted are 24-hour delegate rate unless stated otherwise.

The Crowne Plaza, Heathrow (01895 445555, www.london-heathrow.crowneplaza.com)

Large airport executive hotel with one of the busiest private helipads in the country, thanks to its location. The hotel has a club-room floor, a conference room for up to 200 and generous spa and pool facilities. An ideal rendezvous for pan-European execs who de-plane at Heathrow, take a board meeting in the hotel, and then use the helipad to tour key UK sites. It is offering a three-night package, including helicopter pick-up within a 50-mile radius of London, for £2,880 per couple. Note that, as it is in a residential area, the helipad cannot be used on a Sunday.

Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Great Milton, near Oxford (01844 278881, www.manoir.com)

Heli pilots should be careful not to land on Raymond's vegetables. The apple of M Blanc's eye, this 15th-century country house in a quiet Oxfordshire village is great for small daytime meetings, and excellent for playing spot-the-celeb. American partners will love it.
Bedrooms from £230. Meeting room, £350 per day.

Hanbury Manor, Ware, Hertfordshire (0192 0487722, www.marriotthotels.com)

All singing, all dancing, ultra-luxe manor house with an 18-hole PGA golf course, 12 meeting rooms, a choice of restaurants and health spa, effectively a modern, five-star business hotel (dataports in every room) in a country setting. It is suitable for globetrotting, power-breakfasting pros who like a bit of in-touch seclusion.
From £220.

Stapleford Park, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire (01572 787522, www.stapleford.co.uk)

Winner of Johansens' "most excellent business meeting venue 2000". For those who like to do their business in the best possible taste. Each of the 51 bedrooms is individually designed either to a specific period or they are by a well-known name. Strong links with the business world are revealed by the interiors of the Garden Cottage. Its four bedrooms were designed by Coca-Cola, Range Rover, IBM and MCM.
From £225.

The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield (01675 470301, www.thebelfry.com)

Assemble the troops by land and then swing in the big shots by air at this mega four-star conference hotel (324 bedrooms, 21 conference and meeting rooms) and spa by the golf course of the same name, just outside Birmingham. It's a big health and beauty spa for golf widows, but the real reason for choosing this place are the state-of -the-art facilities inside and the three 18-holers outside. From £110.

The Samling, Windermere, Cumbria (015394 31922, www.thesamling.com)

Great for poets with a high level of disposable income, or for high-security think-the-unthinkable sessions away from business editors and paparazzi. You are unlikely to be disturbed at this exclusive corporate hideaway, a whimsical whisper of an 18th century country house set in Wordsworthian acres of wild flowers and woodland on a slope overlooking Windermere. It has only 10 suites, each with a sitting room and open fire. The conference room is in the former stable block. The Samling is only available on an all-or-nothing basis.
£3,000 for 24 hours.

Middlethorpe Hall, York, (01904 641241, www.middlethorpe.com)

A "gentlemen are requested to wear a tie for dinner" sort of place, so not for designer dotcommers on a works outing. Pukka, pinstripe country house hotel with oodles of antiques and family history (the Wortley Montagus, dontcha know) plus anindoor pool and spa. There are 30 bedrooms and conference facilities that seat up to 50, with the bonus of York racecourse opposite and the city centre down the road.
From £136.

Kinnaird Estate, By Dunkeld, Perthshire (01796 482440, www.kinnairdestate.com)

Ideal for sessions where families come too. Not strictly a hotel, but an Edwardian mansion with eight suites in the main house and nine cottages in the grounds. Gourmet food in the dining room, and activities include trout and salmon fishing (three lochs as well as the river Tay), tennis and clay pigeon shooting.
£3,900 for exclusive use; cottages from £375 a week.

Inverlochy Castle, Fort William (01397 702177, www.fort-william.net/inverlochy-castle)

This baronial lochside mansion doesn't make a big play for corporate customers, so you won't bump into other power capitalists in the corridors. The real reason for coming is the location and the ride: magnificent aerial views to a remote setting in under an hour's flying from Glasgow or Inverness. Rooms from £250