There are sublime sea views from this hilltop Gothic beauty, run by a dedicated and creative family, with elegant bedrooms and gourmet dining by candlelight.

A 17th-century country house on the edge of Brechfa Forest receives high praise for the warmth of the welcome, its ambience and top-notch, locally sourced food.

The epitome of country-house luxury with gourmet dining, Tim and Stefa Hart's hotel stands on a peninsula, overlooking beautiful gardens and the shining expanse of Rutland Water.

This Tudor Gothic-style Elizabethan mansion, extended over centuries, overlooks parkland with a rare 17th-century parterre, walled rose garden, cascade, lily pond and follies.

The superb setting of the Nye family's hotel overlooking salt marshes to the sea and Scolt Head Island is matched by 'exceptional food and service', say readers who go back year after year.

Perennial popular, professionally run but relaxed, this former coaching inn with views to the Shropshire hills is an ideal base for walkers and a perfect stopover within sight of the Welsh border.

Pass the little gate lodge to drive up to this bay-fronted country house in wooded grounds edged by a beach on Lough Swilly.

A jar of cookies in the bedroom is just one of the quirks at this fun, intimate boutique hotel, with bedrooms that mix vintage and modern, contemporary British cooking, great service – and Alnwick Castle a stroll away.

Family run, dog-friendly and beloved of readers, the Reynolds's small country-house hotel is praised for its comfort, service and ambitious cooking.

It was nearly Howard's end in 2015 before two local families stepped in to restore the fortunes of this 'traditional village pub on the village green', which makes a great base for exploring the Cotswolds with its 'upmarket pub food, good service and excellent breakfasts'.

Within a medieval castle and Georgian house above the Sound of Mull, this remote restaurant with rooms has four fantastic suites, spectacular views, and no less memorable cooking by chef-proprietor Colin Nicholson.

With produce sourced from its own farm and organic market garden, and beautifully styled and lavishly equipped bedrooms spread across cottages and above the village shop, this is a truly exceptional gastropub, a great place for foodies.

With peacocks in the garden, kilt-wearing staff, fire-warmed sitting rooms and antiques at every turn, this 17th-century country house is an indulgent place to stay.

Olga Polizzi's beautifully styled Georgian fishing lodge, built for the Duke of Bedford and scandalous Duchess Georgiana, stands in a picturesque designed landscape with the River Tamar running through.

The River Teign runs through the garden of this dog-friendly country-house hotel with a wide choice of rooms, a warm and friendly ambience, good food, and great walks from the door.

On this remote island of woodland, wetlands and sandy beaches, Julie-Anne Uggla's hotel combines the friendly ambience of a local drop-in with beautiful boutique bedrooms and locally sourced cooking of a very high order.

Forget bed and breakfast and make it wine, bed and breakfast at this boutique guest house in Ashley and Tom Fahey's Italianate Victorian villa overlooking the promenade.

High on the cliff top above Chesil Beach, this is an effortlessly hip, relaxed, fun hotel with a Cape Cod vibe, light and airy bedrooms, a bar serving cocktails and seriously good cooking in the restaurant.

For more than 40 years, Raymond Blanc has held two Michelin stars at this beautiful country-house hotel 'and in our opinion, it's a travesty that he hasn't been awarded three', say Guide insiders.

A New Forest bolthole, this country-house hotel has an easy glamour, romantic and family-friendly rooms, heart-warming Italian food and top-notch spa.

Where the road ends and the Irish Sea begins, this former Victorian hunting lodge with a private cove is secluded, unapologetically traditional and rich in comforts and good food.

An iconic landmark on the harbour front, this bright-blue-painted former harbourmaster's house is home to a hotel with a great choice of individually styled bedrooms and an unpretentious restaurant, big on fish.

'People come here for the food, and for good reason,' says a Guide insider of this buzzy pub with rooms, which is 'very much ye olde village inn, with rustic furniture and roaring fires under the beams'.

For more than 50 years, the Prideaux-Brune family have welcomed guests to their ancestral Jacobean manor house in an English country garden with the Divelish stream skipping through.

Overlooking the River Hodder in the Forest of Bowland, this sprawling 18th-century manor house is joyously traditional, with stone-flagged floors, open fires, bags of atmosphere and great food.

You don't have to blow a fortune to stay at this relaxed yet refined hotel in some converted barns, the former home of Langham Glass, and featuring many charming nods to its heritage.

With the feel of a private club rather than a hotel, this beautifully restored Georgian property lies behind the 18th-century facade of three shop-houses in a once-notorious area that is now filled with hip eateries and bars.

Readers return time and again to Gary and Donna MacRae's small, adults-only country-house hotel in woodland gardens, with immaculate bedrooms, fell views, and outstanding nightly set-price dinner, preceded by aperitifs and canapés in the lounge.

Set on a 300-acre working farm, this legendary country-house hotel began life in 1964 as a restaurant run by farmer's wife Myrtle Allen, using produce from the farm and walled kitchen garden, and has grown into a thriving business, with cookery school, café and arts venue ,while keeping faith with its founding principles.

With the emphasis on laid-back luxury, this Regency mansion in parkland, once home to Percy Shelley's mother, is today a country-house hotel that is part of the Signet Collection, offering surprisingly affordable bedrooms, a swish spa, a brasserie and pan-Asian restaurant.

Just five minutes and a world away from Ashford International, Brad and Kristie Lomas's 17th-century manor house in an oasis garden is a fine country-house hotel and foodie destination.

There are sublime sea views from this hilltop Gothic beauty, run by a dedicated and creative family, with elegant bedrooms and gourmet dining by candlelight.

Guests' happiness is paramount for host John Edward Joyce at his characterful, eclectically furnished country house with charming bedrooms and exquisite but unstuffy fine dining in the Mustard Seed restaurant.

Banish images of fast-food outlets and slot machines when you break your journey at Tebay on wild and woolly Shap Fell, 60 miles from the Scottish border.

The red-and-white candy-striped parasols outside this wisteria-swagged foodie pub with beautifully styles rooms send an irresistible message: come in, it’s fun.

Birdwatchers and bon vivants beat a path to Tracy and Galton Blackiston's Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms in a flint farmhouse with Blakeney nature reserve on the doorstep.

Fiona and Richard Trevor are perfect hands-on hosts at this former manse with breathtaking views across Badcall Bay to Assynt, immaculate, comfortable bedrooms, imaginative cooking and a truly warm, hospitable vibe.

The 'amazing views' over Bigbury-on-Sea's sands towards Burgh Island are what first impress about this former Edwardian holiday home, but guests also appreciate the 'wonderful welcome, comfortable, characterful bedrooms, and accomplished cooking' at The Henley.

At the heart of Wordsworth country, this Victorian Gothic mansion in 43 acres is home to a cool, super-luxury hotel, where chef Paul Leonard draws inspiration from the Lakeland landscape to compose Michelin-starred menus using produce from the walled kitchen garden and Cumbria's abundant larder.

Three Grade I listed Georgian townhouses combine as one boutique but indulgently child-friendly hotel and spa, with highly individual and beautiful bedrooms, all with vinyl record player and espresso machine, touches of whimsy, a bar serving cocktails and imaginative small and large plates.

Pigs have foraged in the New Forest since the Norman Conquest, but a different breed arrived in 2011, when Robin Hutson took on a Georgian hunting lodge and reinvented the English country-house hotel, with a shabby-chic style mixing designer wallpapers and boot-sale finds in characterful house rooms and hideaway suites. Seasonal menus feature produce from the bountiful kitchen garden.

With a Michelin-starred restaurant, Grade II listed garden, 17th-century pele tower and French drawing room, Askham Hall sounds as if it might be very formal; not a bit of it. 'The most homely stately hotel we have ever stayed in,' reports one reader.

From bread to truffles, they cook as much as possible on site in this 'very cosy and friendly hotel', in the rolling South Hams countryside between wild Dartmoor and the sandy beaches of Bigbury Bay.

Where Exmoor meets the Bristol Channel, this foodie retreat that oozes personality and style has 'very comfortable rooms with lovely sea views; the food is up there with many Michelin-starred restaurants'.

Huddled below wooded hills, beside a stone bridge over the River Monnow, this whitewashed former 17th-century coaching inn serves delicious food and has great walks from the door to help you justify eating it.

You could imagine you were staying in the cherished home of old and dear friends when you book into Walter and Nuala Sweeney's five-star B&B, a handsome Georgian house filled with antiques and artworks, carriage clocks, curios and crammed bookshelves, and with fine original features.

Guide readers are unswervingly loyal to this family-friendly country house by the sea, with peerless views to Snowdonia across Cardigan Bay, run by the Fletcher-Brewer family since opening in 1948.

Bags of character and a warm vibe are on offer at this pub with rooms on an organic farm in a pretty village on the Marlborough Downs.

Eco values as well as enjoyment are fundamental to this cliff-top hotel, with sea thrift-covered roof, sweeping curves, reed-filtered pool and walls of windows to soak up the light and the seascape.

The River Rothay runs past the back garden of this small country-house hotel with attractive, individually styled bedrooms and good food.

Reopened in July 2025 after a £3 million refurbishment for the Original Collection, this extraordinary Jacobean-style manor house in landscaped gardens, the work of an eccentric Victorian squire and parson, has country-house style bedrooms and fine-dining restaurant, dogs and children welcome.

Close to Stratford-upon-Avon, this gastropub has 16 attractive, generously equipped bedrooms in an annexe block, each with a Juliet balcony or patio. It serves sophisticated dishes alongside pub classics indoors and out.

A dream destination for golfing gourmets, just a 12-minute drive from St Andrews, Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle's restaurant with rooms holds a Michelin star for Geoffrey's creative menus of ingredients sourced locally from land and sea.

Hannah and Paddy Flynn are welcoming hosts at their fabulous Palladian villa in native woodland, filled with heirlooms and auction finds, where guitar-strumming chef Paddy cooks a nightly menu, breakfast eggs are from the resident hens, and a library in the coach house is devoted to the study of civilisation.

Michael and Johanna Wignall have reimagined a 15th-century Dales inn, creating super-stylish, uncluttered, luxury bedrooms, most in a converted barn with views over Rylstone Fell, and intimate dining spaces in which to sample Michael's technically brilliant, modern, seasonal, Michelin-starred menus.

Behind a neo-classical façade, this Georgian coaching inn is a happy mix of local drop-in, hotel and restaurant, with 'comfortable rooms, good food and welcoming staff', says a returning reader.

A Roman Doric portico makes a swanky statement about this Grade II listed Georgian house, but within lies a stylish yet relaxed and fun boutique hotel that is an oasis in the heart of the city.

In an enchanting Cornish fishing village not far from beaches and gardens, the Inkin brothers' third pub with rooms has long been a firm favourite with readers.

With their background in TV and film, Sara Curran and Peter Sussman are experts in presentation. Since taking over in April 2022, they have hung artworks collected on their travels, refreshed the beautiful interiors, and added a Michelin-recommended brasserie to their 'exceptional hotel'.

Amid rolling hills, where Shropshire nudges Herefordshire, Pippa and Willem Vlok's restaurant with rooms comprises a picturesque set piece of medieval and Georgian farm buildings.

With walks from the doorstep, views of Peak District hills, a peaceful garden, breakfast feasts and restful bedrooms, it's no surprise that Underleigh wins so much praise.

A Georgian manor house is home to a restaurant with spacious, old-fashioned bedrooms, where Frederick Forster, a former Roux Scholar, has been winning plaudits for his creative ways with locally sourced ingredients.

In an enchanting village, this coaching inn retains the ambience of a friendly local, with its beamed bar and real ales. But indulgent main-house bedrooms with private patio together with Michelin-starred chef James Mackenzie's spin on classic British dishes, lift it way above the ordinary.

Overlooking subtropical gardens and sandy Carne Beach, the Ashworth family's hotel delights readers with its country-house style, superlative service and retro classics in the dining room.

The rustic-chic bedrooms in farmhouse, cider house and barn at this rural Wye valley retreat in the Forest of Dean are all excellent, but the cooking is a still-greater attraction.

The Michelin-starred cuisine at this thatched gastropub in quiet Harome is the draw, but the rooms are special too, as is the setting, close to the North York Moors for a day's walking.

In the Debatable Lands, just south of the Scottish border, Gerald and Margo Smith's stylish, Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms scored very highly with a trusted Guide reader – and no debate about that!

It may not be a castle but this rambling 18th-century manor house, wrapped in gardens and with views over the otherworldly karst landscape of the Burren, has its own romantic charm, a fine-dining restaurant,, modern comforts and an ambience of calm.

Antiques and ancestral portraits fill Lord and Lady Macdonald's hunting lodge, in a beautiful situation on the shores of Loch Na Dal. It is now run by daughter Isabella, with country-house bedrooms, a three-course dinner featuring home-grown produce, and a ghillie on hand for fishing, stalking and foraging.

With contemporary country-house comforts, a wide choice of bedrooms, glorious views , and modern Scottish cooking in a light-filled dining room, Struan and Louise Lothian's well-cared-for hotel is a lovely place to relax, and a great base for walkers and cyclists wishing to explore the Perthshire countryside.

The epitome of country-house luxury with gourmet dining, Tim and Stefa Hart's hotel stands on a peninsula, overlooking beautiful gardens and the shining expanse of Rutland Water.

You'll find everything you need for a holiday at this family-run, child-friendly, dog-friendly hotel tucked away in a valley, with a path to a secluded sandy beach.

Chef-proprietors Guy and Brittany Manning have brought skills honed at triple-Michelin-starred Per Se in Midtown Manhattan to this thatched gastropub on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with 'stupendous' food in the bar/restaurant and garden, and stylish guest bedrooms across the road, with decking from which to watch the ducks on the River Avon.

At the heart of Wordsworth country, this Victorian Gothic mansion in 43 acres is home to a cool, super-luxury hotel, where chef Paul Leonard draws inspiration from the Lakeland landscape to compose Michelin-starred menus using produce from the walled kitchen garden and Cumbria's abundant larder.

A superb base for stargazing at Battlesteads Observatory, this hotel, restaurant and village pub, with five new, dog-friendly eco-timber lodges, is commended for championing sustainable tourism, and for its use of home-grown produce in à la carte and tasting menus for omnivores and vegetarians.

With 'nothing in between to Canada', this pretty blue-and-white weatherboarded farmhouse, which sits above a secluded cove on Bryher's rugged west-facing coast, is England's most westerly hotel.

Amid 1,000 acres of historically important gardens, pleasure grounds and woodland, this romantic Elizabethan manor house, built by an ironmaster for his bride, forms an impressive backdrop for Michelin-starred cuisine.

Behind the solid exterior of an Edwardian park-side villa lies a Scandi-chic boutique hotel and popular drop-in restaurant.

Readers consistently praise this owner-run B&B with immaculate and generously supplied rooms in a single-storey building, beautifully maintained gardens with stream and wildlife pond, and, by arrangement, dinner cooked by caring and attentive hosts.

Rescued after languishing empty for seven years, this 18th-century part-thatched former tannery turned village ale house has been renovated in a style of rustic simplicity, with dog-friendly, unfussy bedrooms, a dining room serving a short menu of pub classics and more complex dishes, and a pleasant, leafy garden.

Readers return time and again to Gary and Donna MacRae's small, adults-only country-house hotel in woodland gardens, with immaculate bedrooms, fell views, and outstanding nightly set-price dinner, preceded by aperitifs and canapés in the lounge.

Leave the fuss and fret of the AI(M) at Scotch Corner to reconnect with the land at this idyllic hotel, centred on a Georgian coach house amid gardens, parkland and woodland.

Olga Polizzi's beautifully styled Georgian fishing lodge, built for the Duke of Bedford and scandalous Duchess Georgiana, stands in a picturesque designed landscape with the River Tamar running through.

With its towers and battlements this Victorian-folly castle, in 15 acres of grounds, looks imposing yet 'you actually feel like it is your castle'.

Down a tree-lined drive, amid meadows and mature garden, this romantic and secluded Georgian country house has cosseting bedrooms with a modern touch, suites in cottage annexes, two with a glass-box lounge, and both a fine-dining restaurant and a brasserie.

This historic hotel in a conservation village is home to the barrel-vaulted Crypt bar while bedrooms (most across the road at The Angel) blend contemporary chic and modern comfort with notes of rusticity.