12 Of The Best Pillows For Creating A Five-Star Hotel Experience At Home

Our winning down pillow has an enduring thick fluffiness, yet it felt cool and satisfyingly supportive to sleep on. No feathers poked through its cotton cover and it stayed wonderfully quiet throughout the night, helping us enjoy a rejuvenating sleep.

It’s anti-allergy to keep sniffles at bay and has an overall premium quality that reflects its high-end cost. It washed brilliantly, too.

There’s no trial offer, but it comes with a generous three-year guarantee. Back to bed we go...

We highly rated our runner-up down pillow, with its heavenly softness a joy to sink into after a long day. Its feather core and side gussets offered great support (we tried the medium/firm option) and helped it keep its shape.

It was fantastic at regulating temperature, keeping us comfortable and cosy but not at all sweaty. It helped improve the length and quality of our sleep, despite being a little noisy during movement.

It claims to be machine-washable but we’d advise against this, as it looked and felt slightly sad and deflated after washing.

This pillow offers excellent value for money given its plush feather and down filling. It’s been designed to offer maximum support and comfort regardless of sleeping style. It’s dense enough for side and back sleepers, but not too thick for front sleepers, and it kept its shape and fluffiness throughout the night.

It comfortably supported our necks but lost a little of its firmness after washing. It proved easy to plump but we thankfully didn’t need to do this every time we woke up. In short: it’s a steal.

With three layers of memory foam, this dreamy pillow will make your head feel like it’s in the clouds. We were all happy sleepers, enjoying undisturbed and comfortable shut-eye. Plus, the pillow bounced back like new in the morning.

Note, if it’s too firm, you can remove a layer (although reinserting them can be fiddly). The cover is also machine washable and didn’t shrink when we washed it.

If you’re struggling to find a pillow you love, consider this adjustable hybrid filled with unique removable foam ‘nanocubes’. Simply play about with the quantity until you reach your ideal firmness and thickness.

We found it extremely comfortable to doze off on and loved that it was still just as fluffy in the morning, with no dip where our head had been.

It had a bit of a funny smell at first, but this soon dissipated, and the casing suffered only minor shrinkage during washing. It could have been more breathable, but that’s memory foam for you.

This memory foam pillow pleased all our testers, regardless of their sleeping style, making it a smart buy if you're always switching up positions. It proved comfortable and supportive, the Tencel cover kept us cool and we didn’t detect any unappealing smell from the filling.

Our pillowcase looked baggy on its slim shape, frustrating us aesthetically, and some care labels were missing, making it difficult to know how best to wash it. Still, these are minor niggles given how well we slept.

Eco-conscious shoppers will appreciate the inclusion of organically grown bamboo fibre in this pillow’s cover. Its filling is heat-retaining memory foam, but bamboo’s natural breathability saves you from burning up in the early hours.

It’s thin and non-adjustable, which will disappoint thicker pillow fans but please front sleepers. It moulded well to our head for sufficient neck support but its size is smaller than standard, which may make your favourite pillowcases look a little ill-fitting.

Here at ELLE UK, we value clever design, and this pillow offers it in the form of an innovative breathable liner that keeps hot heads refreshingly cool. Its filling is also adjustable, with the polyester hollow fibre balls easily removed if you’d prefer a thinner pillow.

It suited all testers, offering decent neck support even after washing. It’s a shame that neither a trial period nor a guarantee is offered given how expensive it is, but it did live up to its promises.

Wool is naturally temperature regulating and the wool in this pillow is sourced only from the UK. That classic wool smell dissipated quickly, while the adjustable design means you can remove wool or purchase more to get the thickness just right for you.

The best part? It can go in the washing machine – yes, really! It took a while to dry but it otherwise emerged as fresh and fluffy as before.

Bamboo is one of the most breathable, moisture-wicking fabrics, and this memory foam pillow is stuffed full of it. What’s more, it’s the first pillow to be infused with anti-bacterial, odour-eliminating charcoal. It felt fancy and comfortable to slump into and we enjoyed a first-class night’s sleep.

It maintained its shape, with no dipping to be seen, and stayed just as plump after washing. The side sleepers among us found it too thin, but give it a try if you usually sleep on your front and like a firm filling.

Sink into this fluffy down pillow and enjoy a great night’s sleep; in fact, several of our readers said it gave them the best night’s sleep they've had in a while.

It puffs up quickly and the feathers don’t poke through the pure cotton case. It’s supportive and washed well, too.

Firstly, note that the price shown here is for a pair of pillows, as Loaf doesn’t sell them separately. If you’re looking for a more affordable or hypoallergenic alternative to down, microfibre makes a strong substitute.

We found this pillow fluffy and supportive, with a luxurious feel to it, but it was too dense to mould to the head and neck effectively. Its cover is made mostly from breathable organic bamboo, which successfully kept us cool, and it surprised us by appearing thicker after washing.