Moccas Court

'An exceptional experience, a cross between being a guest in someone's home and staying in a hotel with personal service.' 'A wonderful place.' High praise comes again this year for Ben and Mimi Chester-Master, who welcome visitors to their family home, a Grade I listed Georgian house (original designs by the Adam brothers). It stands by the River Wye in a park designed by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton, and with a 12th-century church. 'Ben and Mimi are courteous, friendly'; they join guests, who are 'immediately on first-name terms', for pre-dinner drinks in the library hung with family portraits. Dinner, by arrangement and cooked by the host, is taken around a communal table in an 'exquisite circular room'. 'Excellent food, locally sourced; we had exceptional duck and beautiful lamb.' A stone-floored hall leads to a magnificent cantilevered staircase below a glass dome. A spacious first-floor bedroom ('best ever') had 'fabulous fabrics and decor; big bathroom, piping hot water'. Upper rooms are smaller. Breakfast has hot croissants, good preserves and cooked dishes. Zulu, the black Labrador, 'took us for a walk along the Wye'. (David Birnie, Ursula Mackenzie, Tessa Harris)