Widescreen vistas of salt marshes and big skies rush to this family-friendly, quayside hotel. Helmed by Emma Stannard, with ‘universally friendly and efficient staff’, the north Norfolk grand dame is approaching its centenary.

‘The drama of dinner is played out in fine style’ at Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s ‘gorgeous’ restaurant-with-rooms in a coastal village.

A tiny lane just off the high street in a bustling market town leads to a striking Palladian villa set by a circular courtyard of hornbeam trees.

There is no mystery to the appeal of Emma and Hugh Asher’s ‘comfortable, ‘most welcoming’, country hotel with strong Agatha Christie associations.

‘We had a wonderful stay. It’s a fabulous pub in a gorgeous village, and just a couple of miles from the sea.’

‘One of the most unusual hotels we've ever visited.' Guide inspectors were left reeling by art dealer Ivor Braka's pub-with-rooms in the deer park of Gunton Hall.

New arrivals at this boutique B&B, in a ‘quiet, attractive street’ close to the seafront, are welcomed with ‘delicious’ afternoon tea and cakes.

In ‘a beautifully rural setting’, the North Norfolk countryside stretches away on all sides from Tim and Janie Elwes’s ivy-covered Georgian inn.

A creeper-covered, former 18th-century coaching inn, The Neptune has been run as a ‘most enjoyable restaurant-with-rooms’ since 2007 by Kevin and Jacki Mangeolles – and has held its Michelin star since 2009.

By the River Bure, ‘perfect peace and quiet’ drifts across ‘lush grounds’ up to James Holliday and Anna Duttson’s ‘splendid’, wisteria-hung Georgian house.

The wide sands and salt marshes of North Norfolk are within a flat, short-ish walk of Rebecca and Robert Bradley’s fine B&B.