Good Hotel Guide

‘Comfortable all over and pleasantly relaxed’, Clinton and Lisa Lovell’s small hotel continues to win rave reviews from guests, who say ‘it’s like staying with good friends’.

‘A graceful spot in Suffolk countryside, this modern make-over of a 243-year-old mill surprises with its boutiquey bedrooms and ambitious dinners,’ say Guide inspectors in 2017.

There are inspiring views over salt marsh and sea from Julian and Carolyn Godlee’s characterful B&B and restaurant on the north Norfolk coast – but you’ll have to climb to the top of the 19th-century grinding mill to see them in their full glory.

Connect with the past in this sumptuous B&B, occupying two Edwardian additions to 13th-century Hever Castle.

Fine dining is the order of the day at Max and Susan Fischer’s Jacobean-style Edwardian mansion in the Peak District, approached by a chestnut-shaded drive.

‘Sumptuous’ inside and out, Ruth and Samantha Trinder’s refined hotel on the River Thames is in a ‘tranquil spot’ that belies its easy connection to the scramble and dash of London.

Connoisseurs and amateurs of every vintage find modern accommodation in Christine and Colin Munday’s impressively reconstructed traditional Sussex barn, part of a complex including a restaurant and a wine shop.

Janie and Mike Cooksley have brought a riotous combination of colour and eye-catching features to the Cornish countryside.

At the end of a long driveway, this ‘magnificent, lovingly restored’ castellated mansion is now a grand country B&B surrounded by extensive grounds on the banks of the River Tamar.