‘We have become addicted to this place,’ write trusted readers, following a return visit to this beautiful Elizabethan manor house (Relais & Châteaux).

A shooting lodge in the New Forest is home to the mother Pig, the first of Robin Hutson’s small but growing chain of family-friendly Pig hotels (see index).

A 17th-century house, ‘in a delightful position opposite the quay’, in an ‘attractive little town’, is today run as a smart restaurant-with-rooms.

Leafy trails through the New Forest lead to a gingerbread Arts and Crafts house, home to ‘perfect hosts’ Ciaran and Cheryl Maher’s personal B&B.

‘The enthusiastic welcome immediately made us feel at home again.’