‘A superb hotel,’ reports a trusted reader in 2019, of Robin Hutson’s Elizabethan manor at the end of a mile-long drive.

Built into a hillside on a tidal island, this sleek, white, concrete hotel has a seagoing aspect. Built in 1929 for a wealthy industrialist, it hosted the likes of Nancy Cunard, Noël Coward and Josephine Baker.

Et in Arcadia we go – to Olga Polizzi’s Regency cottage-orné, in gardens and pleasure grounds with woodland walks and waterfalls, arboretum, fount and follies.

On the South West Coastal Path, this former Edwardian gentleman’s retreat has cliff-top views of the three-mile-long beach.

‘A very welcoming place.’ Deep in the Taw valley, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s wisteria-hung 18th-century manor house is a characterful ‘high standard’ hideaway, surrounded by orchards and woodlands.

Welcome to Wonderland. On the edge of Dartmoor national park, Fran and Pieter Hamman’s Alice-themed hotel has been styled in the manner of a 19th-century collector’s mansion.

In the former brew house, Bertie and Bryony Hancock’s sophisticated B&B is surrounded by the National Trust’s Buckland Abbey estate.

People get hooked on Adam Fox-Edwards’s country sports hotel close to Dartmoor, with its tackle shop in an original cock-fighting pit, ghillies for hire, and 20 miles of fishing on the Tamar and tributaries.

‘The food is, of course, the highlight, closely followed by the extremely comfortable room, lovely surroundings and professional, friendly service.’

'Thoroughly dependable yet stylish in an old-fashioned way', the Grose family have looked after this ‘family-friendly’ hotel for more than 120 years.

This lively hotel, in a sheltered cove, is surrounded by a wide terrace which faces the beach.

Weird, wonderful, full of colour: Rinus and Aniet van de Sande’s well-liked, ‘quirky’, late Victorian hotel receives praise for its confluence of art, culture and hospitality.

‘It was not only the view that made our stay, but the whole ambience,’ writes a Guide regular this year, about this Victorian hotel and spa on the Salcombe estuary.

A stone’s throw from the River Exe, this characterful property with a rich history has welcomed the weary since the 1720s.