You can order a picnic hamper and walk down to a private beach through lovely gardens at Paul and Fiona Robinson’s New England-inspired hotel, or just relax on the deck, gazing across Gerrans Bay.

‘Expensive certainly, but it’s worth paying for quality.’

‘A super place. The real deal.’ Praise from Guide insiders for Chris and Sally Searle’s B&B, in the rectory where Thomas Hardy courted Emma Gifford.

‘Perched high on the Lizard cliffs with views out to sea and the sound of waves at night, the setting could not be more romantic.’

After a day spent exploring the shops and galleries of St Ives, guests at Malcolm Herring’s hilltop private hotel can relax on the seaward terrace with a Blue Hayes Colada and feel serenely above it all.

‘They really want to give you a treat and spoil you.’ ‘A lovely and relaxing couple of days.’ Much praise this year for Charles and Edmund Inkin’s ‘buzzy’ dining pub.  

‘Forget overcrowded St Ives – there’s a real treat of a stay in Penzance.’ Quirky character fills the ‘beautifully restored’ brick-and-granite former 18th-century former admiral’s house, but ‘this inviting boutique hotel is all about the hostess, Susan Stuart’.

In an unspoilt fishing village, stepped lawns are all that separates this ‘welcoming, relaxed hotel’ from the sea.

Blow all cares away with a welcoming glass of champagne on arrival at Andrea and Simon Copper’s sleekly designed, child-free retreat.

‘One of our favourite hotels,’ enthuses a reader about Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan’s quirky and luxurious cliff-top hideaway in this south Cornish seaside hamlet.

‘We found seats on the attractive terrace’ with ‘views across St Mawes harbour to Falmouth Bay’ reports a lunchtime visitor to Caroline and David Richards’s ‘superb’ hotel.

Chef Paul Ainsworth’s parents owned a Southampton guest house, where dinner might be dad’s corned beef hash with Bisto gravy. His own enterprises are more high end, the rooms here complementing Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at No. 6 in downtown Padstow.

This ‘fantastic, large family home’ was repurposed a decade ago as a B&B and popular wedding venue by its owners, the Le Grice family, who have lived at Treave for seven generations.

Once the refuge of seamen, this ‘marvellously situated’ Victorian building has transformed into a stylish quayside hotel with dazzling estuary views.

A tranquil retreat from the bustle of nearby St Ives, Mark and Fenella Thomas’s chic Edwardian house stands above Carbis Bay.

A great deal of effort has been put in by the owners and it shows.’ Angela and Olivier Noverraz’s ‘beautifully appointed’ 1850s mid-terrace house has bags of style and an eco-conscious ethos.

A faintly bohemian B&B on the Roseland peninsula throws riotous colour and eye-catching features together in joyful combinations.

‘A different but special experience.’ Near the mouth of the Camel estuary, Paul and Lesley Stapleton have lovingly transformed their listed early 13th-century manor house into a ‘very relaxing’ B&B.