‘In a beautiful setting’ in wooded grounds, with trout lake and the River Irfon running through it, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s hotel is especially praised for its ‘location, ambience and welcoming staff’.

If you do like to be beside the seaside, you’ll be beside yourself with glee at this opulent small hotel on the promenade of a quintessential Victorian coastal resort.

Gaze out from the marine hydrotherapy pool at this cliff-top hotel, and experience the illusion of being in the sea. Treatment rooms for couples have full-height sliding windows. Specialities include vinotherapy (exfoliation, not a nice glass of Pinot!).

Clustered on the edge of a spectacular tidal estuary, this mansion house hotel – the focal point of Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis’s Italianate village – has welcomed guests including H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell.

High on a cliff-top, overlooking Penarth Pier and the Bristol Channel, a hotel and spa in a neatly designed garden with water channels, gravel and lawns; well-spaced seating gives views over the sea.