It had ‘that “special” feel of a very good and well-run hotel’, found a visitor to this country house hotel and spa (Relais & Châteaux) in deepest Thomas Hardy country.

'In its glory, in the very beautiful Otter valley', this Elizabethan manor house is the fifth member of Robin Hutson’s Pig family.

‘Wow! This was good.’ A regular Guide reader offered high praise after visiting Paul and Fiona Robinson’s ‘delightful’ hotel that gazes across Gerrans Bay on the Roseland peninsula.

‘The style is one of the unique assets’ at Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan’s cliff-top hotel overlooking sub-tropical gardens filled with whimsical sculpture and statuary.

‘Definitely one to go back to.’ This ‘super hotel’, housed in a 16th-century priory on the River Frome, continues to gather fans.

A consortium headed by Office Space in Town has just acquired hotel space in Devon. This gleaming white Art Deco hotel on a tidal island, sold by its former owners after 17 years, is undergoing a multi-million-pound make-over,

Thatched cottages and sheep-dotted fields swaddle the single-track roads to this 17th-century mellow-stone Nadder valley house in an ‘unspoilt’ village.

Up 137 steps, through ‘glorious’ gardens, ‘one of the most comfortable establishments I’ve ever stayed in’ occupies a higgle piggle of houses with ‘extraordinary views’ across Falmouth Bay.

‘The situation, the view and interior are all marvellous,’ writes a reader this year, of Karen and David Richards’s ‘superb hotel’ (Relais & Château) right by the harbour wall in a fishing village on the Roseland peninsula.

Tim and Anne Riley’s small hotel stands serenely on a steep hillside on the edge of a village where the Exmoor National Park meets the sea.

Rumoured to have been built for his mistress by the Duke of Wellington, although less imposing than its Hyde Park Corner namesake (aka No. 1, London), this is a fine Georgian house, run as a B&B by Nicholas and Claire Potts.

‘What a super place to stay for tackling some of the Coastal Path; it ticks all possible boxes,’ writes a Guide inspector in 2018 of Sally and Chris Searle’s historic B&B.

Widescreen coastal views, ‘calm, muted, clotted-cream colours’ and ‘delightful suntrap gardens’ are a successful formula for Malcolm Herring’s ‘unashamedly luxurious’ small hotel.

A Regency cottage-orné, built by Jeffry Wyatville as a fishing lodge for Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, is run today in characteristic relaxed-chic style by Olga Polizzi (see also Tresanton, St Mawes).

This ‘youthful, buzzy’ spot, say returning guests this year, is liked for its ‘good rooms, helpful, friendly staff, excellent food – and no flashy bits’.

While families whoop it up at sister hotel Bedruthan (previous entry), grown-ups enjoy the serenity at this adults-only hotel and spa.

‘I have travelled widely but never stayed in a place where I truly felt I was with a close friend.’ Owner Susan Stuart ‘has created a real treat’, says a Guide regular after this year’s visit to the ‘beautifully restored listed house’.

Michael Caines’s ‘beautifully restored’ Georgian manor house stands in parkland beside the luminous Exe estuary.

With thrilling views over Lyme Bay, the Jurassic Coast and the Cobb, Kathryn Haskins luxury hotel and restaurant is swaddled by lush clifftop gardens.

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

Stepped lawns, then buckets and spades in the sand are all that separates this ‘welcoming, relaxed hotel’ from the sea.

‘Full of surprises:, curiosities and vintage pieces burst through Fran and Pieter Hamman’s 19th-century manor house on the edge of Dartmoor national park.

Watched over by a 150-year-old lighthouse, the coastal spot that inspired Coleridge bears the statue of the ancient mariner; but, just up from the famous harbour, Jason Robinson’s bijou B&B has more youthful appeal.

The eye-catching interior of Lyn and Jason Martin’s refurbished Regency B&B is bested only by the coastal views from its lofty sash windows.