Guests feel ‘thoroughly spoilt’ at this welcoming hotel, tucked away in wooded seclusion at the end of a quarter-mile private drive.

Elizabeth Barrett (not yet Browning) would have known this ‘charming, traditional' white stucco seafront hotel when she moved to Sidmouth in 1832 for the balmy climate.

‘An idyllic place. . . absolute heaven.’ So say regular visitors to Martyn Scarterfield and Petra Lampe’s dog-friendly B&B with ‘fabulous views’ over Bigbury Bay.

At the centre of a row of quarrymen’s cottages, built in 1820 of the same local granite, this ‘charming hotel’ is true to its motto, ‘steadfastly traditional’. It is in the small village of Haytor Vale, ‘just below the famous Haytor rocks’ on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor.

Et in Arcadia we go – to Olga Polizzi’s Regency cottage-orné, in gardens and pleasure grounds with woodland walks and waterfalls, arboretum, fount and follies.

‘This place has a lot going for it.' A trusted reader commends this country house hotel and spa, ‘beautifully located’, on the edge of Dartmoor national park.

High on the south Devon coast, Gara Rock re-enters the Guide following a stylish revamp, and a relaunch as a ‘well-being retreat’.

‘A very welcoming place.’ Deep in the Taw valley, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s wisteria-hung 18th-century manor house is a characterful ‘high standard’ hideaway, surrounded by orchards and woodlands.

The Far East meets the South West at Stuart Litster and Kevin Hooper’s inviting B&B in a South Hams coastal village.

People get hooked on Adam Fox-Edwards’s country sports hotel close to Dartmoor, with its tackle shop in an original cock-fighting pit, ghillies for hire, and 20 miles of fishing on the Tamar and tributaries.

In ‘an amazing situation' amid 'bleak and beautiful Dartmoor', Chris Daly’s 18th-century manor house-turned-hotel is ‘truly special’ with 'lovely staff', say Guide readers.

Cosy hotel or traditional pub? This 14th-century thatched inn offers the best of both, and will certainly 'tempt us from London again', says a recent visitor.

Possibly the oldest inn in England, with a medieval wooden window pre-dating glass, this thatched village pub in the Teign valley is ‘a gem’.

‘Nothing is too much trouble’ at this timber-framed pub-with-rooms, a few steps from Bayards Cove, where the Pilgrim Fathers departed for America.

'Thoroughly dependable yet stylish in an old-fashioned way', the Grose family have looked after this ‘family-friendly’ hotel for more than 120 years.

This lively hotel, in a sheltered cove, is surrounded by a wide terrace which faces the beach.

Weird, wonderful, full of colour: Rinus and Aniet van de Sande’s well-liked, ‘quirky’, late Victorian hotel receives praise for its confluence of art, culture and hospitality.

‘It was not only the view that made our stay, but the whole ambience,’ writes a Guide regular this year, about this Victorian hotel and spa on the Salcombe estuary.

A stone’s throw from the River Exe, this characterful property with a rich history has welcomed the weary since the 1720s.

Abutting the Roman city walls, this style-savvy red brick old coaching inn (Young’s Brewery) has a lively atmosphere.

Close to the beach, Phil Harnett and Vicki Osborne’s recently refurbished B&B makes a tranquil ‘home from home’.