In a Knights Templar village with a backdrop of imposing Cross Fell mountain, a Georgian mansion and converted coach house are home to a personable small hotel.

Wooded hillside forms a pleasing backdrop to this ‘comfortable country hotel’ in an ‘optimal position’ for exploring the northern Lakes.

The view is one of marshes and moored boats, of creeks and children crabbing, from Emma Stannard’s well-established, family-friendly hotel on the quayside of a coastal village.

‘There’s lots of room to play and run around’ at this ‘pretty, rambling manor house’ in ‘fantastic grounds’ on the edge of the Cotswolds.

‘A quintessential country house hotel.’ The Quinion family’s creeper-covered manor house in mature grounds ‘combines the familiar features and decor of an earlier age with exceptional service’, writes a Guide reader, a frequent guest, in 2017.

Guests are assured of ‘friendliness and an outstanding welcome’ from second-generation owners Christopher and Andrea Varley at this ‘lovely hotel in the heart of quiet countryside’.

‘An ideal place to slow down and relax.’

‘There is much to like and laugh about’ at this utterly transformed Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, in a ‘glorious setting’ in the Otter valley.

In a valley on the north Exmoor coast, Mark and Pat Cowell’s ‘friendly, unpretentious' hotel stands at the end of a long private drive ‘close to wonderful walks and fabulous scenery’.

‘The Michelin star is well earned’ at Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s friendly restaurant-with-rooms close to the north Norfolk coast.

A stroll from the town centre, Rick and Jill Stein’s restaurant-with-rooms – ‘a foodie destination’ – opened as a modest bistro in 1975.

‘Stylish but informal, fun and relaxing – a grand job overall.’

Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison, run their Jacobean ancestral home as a characterful – some say eccentric – hotel where guests are ‘cosseted and cared for’ by ‘charming staff’.

A spirit of fun flits about Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan’s cliff-top hotel, from the sub-tropical sculpture garden full of surprises (‘you feel like Alice walking into Wonderland’) to the ‘delightfully humorous artwork scattered throughout’.

‘You can hear the sounds of birds all around’ this converted 14th-century farmhouse.

‘The valley in which this inn sits seems to me one of the loveliest places on earth; from the back of the inn, the views of fells, river and parkland landscape are just about perfect. And the stillness at night is magical.’

‘Relaxed and comfortable’, this ‘lovely, wacky’ hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay is ‘ideal for rest, fresh air, beach and coastal walks’.

Thick stone walls, beamed ceilings, works by local artists, an inglenook fire and ‘friendly, hospitable hosts’ give this 16th-century country house-turned-hotel heaps of rustic charm.

Approached via quiet lanes bordered by hedgerows and dark-limbed trees, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s Victorian hunting lodge-turned-country house hotel stands in extensive grounds stretching to a lake on the River Irfon.

Overlooking a bay on the Argyll coast, Calum and Rachel Ross’s ‘friendly, good-value’ country house, next door to the exotic Arduaine Garden, is in ‘the most stunning spot’.

‘Happily, as good as ever,’ writes a Guide reader this year, revisiting Graeme Lamb’s ‘well-run’ hotel on the Solway Firth, where the views stretch across the bay towards the hills of Cumbria.

Alight from the ferry on this unspoilt island, and chances are that Ivan Lisovyy, the ‘can-do’ manager of Jane and Alex Howard’s unpretentious 18th-century inn, will be there to greet you.

‘A treat of a hotel.’ ‘It has never failed us,’ say regular guests of this ‘exceptionally pleasant’ 1840s dower house by the beautiful, wooded Pass of Killiecrankie.

‘Everything is presented with care and style’ at Sally and David Ruthven-Fox’s small hotel on the ‘peaceful shores’ of Loch Sunart.