A stone footbridge leads across a rushing stream to the Wild family’s traditional hotel, its front garden, in warm weather, dotted with tables for afternoon tea in the sunshine.

Between artsy Chichester and the sandy beaches of West Wittering, Lloyd van Rooyen and Gavin Wilson’s hotel ‘exceeds expectations’.

The day is one long round of pleasure at this ‘luxurious but unstuffy’ Edwardian country house beneath the South Downs, where classic lawn sports and garden games make jolly the ‘gorgeous, well-maintained’ grounds.

A survivor from a more elegant age, this family-friendly Victorian hotel grandly stands on the seafront.

In a ‘prime High Street spot’, this ‘thoroughly enjoyable’ hotel has ‘the perfect mix of historic charm and up-to-date style and decor’.

‘Welcoming, generous, on top of its game – it’s altogether delightful.’ From the hand-woven rugs designed by a local artisan to the home-baked bread and home-cured bacon at breakfast, much is super-local (and just plain super) at this ‘stylishly quirky’, ‘beautifully refurbished’ B&B on the edge of the Old Town, say trusted Guide readers in 2016.

In ‘well-maintained ornamental gardens’, this ‘handsome hotel’ occupies an ‘extensively enlarged’ old farmhouse on the outskirts of a ‘delightful’ medieval village.

Whether for a fly-by visit or an extended stay, this 'atmospheric’ Elizabethan timber-framed manor house (Alexander Hotels) is liked for its ‘friendly staff’ and ‘well-presented meals’.

Guests at this privately owned hotel join a tradition begun by the rowdy bunch of sailors, shipbuilders and smugglers who once crowded the 18th-century watering hole.

Connoisseurs and amateurs of every vintage find modern accommodation in Christine and Colin Munday’s impressively reconstructed traditional Sussex barn, part of a complex including a restaurant and a wine shop.

Near the Chichester canal towpath, Mariella and William Fleming’s village pub-with-rooms has been rejuvenated with a fresh Scandinavian vibe.

Within the city’s Roman walls, this modern hotel occupies the former Ship, a Grade II* listed Georgian building steps from Priory Park.