A Georgian gentleman’s residence and next-door Carolean town house combine as one hotel on cobbled Frenchgate.

A ‘lovely drive over moors’ leads to this hotel in a North Pennines village built from the stone of a dissolved 12th-century abbey.

The Buchanan family has run this ‘heart-warming’ hotel for two generations, but, bar two short breaks, it has been a local hostelry since the 16th century.

Heather and David Armstrong are warm and accommodating hosts at this ‘fascinating’ hotel, occupying a farmhouse and rustic-looking, purpose-built annexes.

‘Nothing could have prepared us for the beauty of Wold Cottage, where Katrina welcomed us with warmth and kindness.’

‘Arriving on a wet Sunday afternoon I was immediately made to feel welcome,’ writes a trusted reader who spent four happy nights at this old Dales village drovers’ inn.

‘Wonderful location in rural Northumberland. Friendly, peaceful; superb dinners and a lovely breakfast.’

‘Silver, copper, glass, china, pictures, rugs’ and other treasures are ‘trustingly displayed’ at Tim Culkin and Austin Lynch’s ‘wonderfully eccentric B&B’ just off the town square.

'Just outside a picturesque little village’, host to an annual gooseberry show, in the North York Moors national park, this ‘high-quality B&B’ is run by owners Georgina and Michael Curnow.

Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland again reached for the stars with its unique blend of sustainable hospitality and astronomy.

‘Excellent standards are being maintained,’ confirms a Guide trusty this year, after staying at this village inn with rooms overlooking the Vale of Mowbray.

‘The tranquillity is very appealing’ at the Stainsby family’s 18th-century coaching inn-turned-gastropub in a hamlet on the slopes of the Washburn valley.

Developments are afoot at this hotel, centred on a Georgian coach house, ‘in a glorious setting on a huge estate with beautiful walled garden’.

On a loop of the River Coquet, Sandra Thomas's hotel is a welcoming spot for travelling dogs and their two-legged friends.

‘Effortless charm and warmth’ personify Tiina Carr’s ‘vibrant’ hotel, a ‘stone’s throw’ from the Botanical Gardens.

Facing the leafy Stray’s open parkland, this alluring town-centre hotel is in a seamlessly converted Victorian coach house.

‘Just perfect,’ says readers this year of Kathryn and Stuart Dobson’s large Victorian manor house in the heart of Weardale.

Well placed for visits to Durham and its cathedral, Christine Hewitt’s Grade II* listed home is surrounded by extensive gardens among acres of rolling farmland and forest.

A former convent opposite Alnwick Castle has received a heavenly makeover into a luxurious boutique hotel.

Peace, quiet and a slapup breakfast are to be found at a B&B in England’s oldest active convent, next to the city’s medieval walls.

Opposite Red Beck, the stream that once powered its machinery, this former mill draws visitors to the wooded Shibden valley.

Michael and Sasha Ibbotson’s village pub-with-rooms has stone flags, wood panelling and log fires – the legacy of three centuries of hosting visitors following an ancient Celtic trail to York.

International joie de vivre is found in well-travelled Charlotte and David Reilly’s revamped former Victorian school and headmaster’s house.

Travellers heading between London and Sunderland have long stopped at this Georgian inn which skirts the North York moors.