Standing right on the quay overlooking estuary and salt marshes, in a coastal village of flint cottages, gift shops and galleries, Emma Stannard’s hotel is ideal for outdoorsy family holidays.

In the heart of Constable country, Wendy and Jim Sartin’s ancient manor house is a hotspot for painting courses.

‘An amazingly gorgeous hotel,’ writes a reader this year, of Tracy and Galston Blackiston’s restaurant-with-rooms, ‘ideally located’ for a seal trip to Blakeney Point.

Where does one find sanctuary in the middle of town? At the end of a discreet lane behind the main street, Les and Vanessa Scott’s playful, Palladian-style house is full of comfort and bonhomie.

‘Aldeburgh is such a delightful place, made perfect by having the Wentworth.’ Praise from a trusted reader for Michael Pritt’s Victorian hotel across the road from the shingle beach.

With the Norfolk countryside stretching away on all sides, Tim and Janie Elwes’s ivy-covered Georgian inn enjoys ‘a beautifully rural setting’.

‘In a peaceful village near Lavenham’, this 15th-century former coaching inn is ‘full of character warm, casual, intimate, relaxed’.

‘One of my favourite hotels,’ writes a trusted reader, who spent four nights at the Nye family’s inn with views across salt marshes to the sea. ‘Good location, nice room, excellent food.’

‘So cosy and welcoming’, a swish hotel (TA Hotel Collection, see also The Crown, Woodbridge, Shortlist) formed from three timber-framed 15th-century buildings in a medieval village.

Jeannette and Anthony Goodrich’s investment has reaped a rich return, converting a former bank – albeit one in a Georgian Grade II* listed town house admired by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner – into a ‘very attractive’ boutique hotel.

‘A delight not only for art lovers but for all who visit,’ say Guide inspectors this year of Ivor Braka’s unique pub-with-rooms that upgrades to a full entry.

Near the RSPB Titchwell Marsh nature reserve, this dog- and family-friendly hotel is sandwiched between fields and ochre-hued marshland, leading down to the North Sea.

Facing an expansive green ringed by lime trees in this quaint seaside town, Stephen and Antonia Bournes have refashioned a plain, old inn into a contemporary hotel and restaurant.

On a quiet residential street a stroll from the sea in a Victorian resort town, Jeanne Whittome’s boutique B&B impressed readers with its ‘bold, contemporary style’.

In the middle of a ‘pretty’ village, this ‘intimate’ restaurant-with-rooms is liked for its ‘high-quality’ accommodation and ‘excellent food’.

Standing in well-maintained gardens, an 19th-century water mill is now a modern spa hotel.

With views across gently undulating Hertfordshire countryside, this sprawling old building, with its outlying stables and barns, dates back to the 15th century.

In a ‘quaint village’ just off the Great North Road, Anne and Richard Furbank’s 19th-century coaching inn is done up with a dash of good-humour.

A ‘comfortable, welcoming’ spot in a market town close to the Suffolk coast, this popular 16th-century coaching inn now offers ‘cool’, modern interiors alongside traditional hospitality.

Paths through open countryside lead to the shady horse chestnut tree that guards this pretty, thatch-roofed country inn.

Overlooking verdant Parker’s Piece, this large, family-owned hotel is a short stroll to colleges, shops and cafes.

In a ‘lovely old building’ a stroll from marketplace, cathedral and castle, this upmarket B&B is run with commitment and enthusiasm by father and daughter Dennis and Holly Bacon.

A bit of country cool has turned a neglected Victorian pub into a ‘terrific’ inn that retains its village local cachet.

Dripping with chandeliers, replete with plaster mouldings, this glorious Regency confection may have served as a camouflage factory in the Second World War, but these days it positively flaunts its opulence.