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 Sarton’s ancient manor house is a hotspot for painting courses.

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

Les and Vanessa Scott’s playful, Palladian-style house is all 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.

‘Well liked by traditionalists and locals,’ Emma and Hugh Asher’s creeper-smothered hotel was buzzing on a Saturday night when Guide readers arrived.

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

‘There have been changes since last year at this restaurant-with-rooms in a small coastal town dominated by its 12th-century castle and famous for its oysters.

‘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.’

In the Stour valley, close to the Essex border, Richard Sunderland’s pub-with-rooms stands in the ‘village centre, surrounded by landscaped gardens, with views over lovely countryside’.

‘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.

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’.

A country retreat just outside St Albans occupies an extended 300-year-old manor house, once the home of Lord Louis Mountbatten.

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

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

‘A restaurant-with-rooms – and a very good restaurant at that.’ After visiting this year, a trusted reader sums up the appeal of Kevin (the chef) and Jacki Mangeolles’s 18th-century former coaching inn.

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.

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

‘Unpretentious and friendly’, the creeper-covered red-brick building has been a good base for outdoorsy sorts since the Tudors’ reign.

Amid acres of ‘lovely’ rose gardens and landscaped lawns, this family-run hotel combines old-fashioned comfort and modern flourishes with ‘superb service’.

Constable country reaches to the the doorstep of this affable, historic restaurant-with-rooms in a coastal village known for its swans.

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.

Waving wild flowers, part of Stephanie and Richard Challinor’s award-winning gardens, greet visitors to a pretty B&B that stands amid rolling fields.