We give our Cesar Awards to the ten best hotels of the year. Named after Cesar Ritz, the most celebrated of hoteliers, these are the Oscars of hotel keeping.
Cesar Winners 2022
Cesar Winners
Askham Hall
Penrith
It’s relaxed rather than grand at Charles Lowther’s comfortably cluttered ancestral pile, with its classic English country garden, a 17th-century pele tower, family heirlooms and a Michelin-starred restaurant. Dogs and children are welcome.
Helen Browning’s Royal Oak
Bishopstone
There’s character aplenty at this pub on an organic farm, with bedrooms named after different fields, a communal area called The Wallow with table football, and everything from milk to meat supplied from the surrounding fields.
Porth Tocyn Hotel
Abersoch
It’s the relaxed atmosphere together with everything from a games room and outdoor pool to cots and baby- listening devices that make this hotel a firm family favourite. There is no charge for children sharing their parents' room either.
The Bell at Skenfrith
Skenfrith
A firm favourite with readers, The Bell faced a challenging time when the River Monnow flooded and flowed through its ground floor. Now the dog-friendly pub is better than ever, with a fresh look, great food and riverside walks.
Plantation House
Plymouth
Chef/patron Richard Hendey cooks as much as possible on the premises at his small hotel, from bread to ruffles. Readers rave over his nightly-changing menus, which feature local Devonshire produce and fresh food from the kitchen garden.
Hillside
Ventnor
There’s plenty of Scandi chic at Gert Bach’s thatched cottage with its stripped-back pale interiors highlighted by colourful abstract art canvases and Solent views. The terraced gardens supply the kitchen, which produces simple but superb dishes.
Newbegin House
Beverley
Guests receive a warm welcome plus a garden tour at Walter and Nuala Sweeney’s refined Georgian town house. Bedrooms are supplied with sherry, fresh milk and flowers, there’s a superb choice at breakfast, and everything is great value.
Woodcroft House
Perth
The scenic setting, spacious rooms, warm welcome and fine cooking stood out for our inspectors at this Arts and Crafts-style Victorian guest house with three rooms. Take your own wine to dinners ordered in advance from extensive menus.
Locanda on the Weir
Minehead
Italian foodie flair meets West Country charm at this uber-stylish restaurant with rooms on Exmoor’s coast, where chef Pio Catemario di Quadri cooks up a storm while Cindy Siu creates eclectic, appealing interiors worthy of the food.
Rayanne House
Holywood
On certain nights, chef/patron Conor McClelland replicates the entire nine-course meal served on the Titanic the night she sank. Lavish rooms include the golf-themed Rory McIlroy bedroom, and a breakfast of titanic proportions is served.
Cesar Winners 2021
Cesar Winners
La Sablonnerie
Little Sark
Reached by horse-drawn carriage over a scenic isthmus, Elizabeth Perrée’s 400-year-old farmhouse on car-free Sark is as charming as its owner. There are cliffs and coves to explore before returning to tuck into local lobster and scallops.
Lewtrenchard Manor
Okehampton
With stucco ceilings, antique-filled rooms and ornate fireplaces, the Murray family’s manor house is clearly made to be shared with someone special. After dinner à deux in the wood-panelled dining room, you can retire to a sleigh bed or four-poster.
The Peat Inn
Cupar
Our inspectors were bowled over by the food created by Michelin-starred chef/patron Geoffrey Smeddle in his old coaching inn with modern interior. Dishes might include pastrami of sea trout, loin of deer.
The Scarlet
Mawgan Porth
Readers’ complimentary reports on this adults-only hotel flood our inbox. The seaside setting, spa and smiling service, alongside an effective environmental policy, win repeated praise. Over the past year we haven’t had a single negative comment.
Coes Faen
Barmouth
Proof positive that sustainability can be stylish, Sara and Richard Parry-Jones’s hotel has the wow factor as soon as the door opens to a glass staircase built into the hillside. There is biomass heating, and roofs have sheep’s wool insulation.
Baraset Barn
Stratford-upon-Avon
Fantastic food, amazing value and a side serving of culture in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon are the hallmarks of this restaurant-with-rooms. The barn is as atmospheric as they come, with a flagstone floor and an impossibly high vaulted ceiling.
The Grasmere Hotel
Grasmere
Walks from the doorstep, views of Helm Crag, and fires to gather round for pre-dinner drinks make the Winsland family’s Victorian country house hotel a clear winner. As is the food, with imaginative menus, homemade bread, and kippers for breakfast.
Roundwood House
Mountrath
There’s a library in the double-height stables and a delicious dinner is served with a serenade from chef Paddy Flynn, who runs this 18th-century country house with his wife, Hannah. The Georgian interiors have a relaxed, homely atmosphere.
The Angel Inn
Skipton
Local ales are served as well as Michelin-starred food at this Dales pub with beams and luxury rooms. Chef/patron Michael Wignall uses local food but global inspiration to create such dishes as Yorkshire duck with soy, black bean and miso.
From £70 per night
Swan House
Hastings
Historic mixes with hip in this half-timbered house with inglenook fireplace that has been given a stylish makeover. Brendan McDonagh gets as much praise for his warm welcome and breakfasts as his partner, Lionel Copley, does for his interior design.
Cesar Winners 2020
Cesar Winners
Southernhay House
Exeter
Silk, Spice… the bedrooms at Deborah Clark and Tony Orchard’s boutique hotel recall the original owner. A Georgian Orientalist and diplomat, he’d have enjoyed drinks on the pretty veranda, dinner alfresco, a free- standing bath in a glamorous bedroom.
Old Downton Lodge
Ludlow
Deep in the countryside, Willem and Pippa Vlok have created superb accommodation in historic farm buildings around parterre gardens. From dinner in a room resembling a medieval great hall, to a perfect breakfast, everything delighted our inspectors.
The Airds Hotel
Port Appin
From cream teas by the fire to drinks on the loch shore, Shaun and Jenny McKivragan’s former ferry inn is a place for indulgence. Bedrooms have designer fabrics, Bulgari toiletries; dinner brings superb West Coast produce. Breakfast is exceptional.
The Quay House
Clifden
Generosity of spirit abounds at Julia and Paddy Foyle’s fun B&B, filled with entertaining auction finds. Bedrooms have immense character, a terrace or balcony, perhaps a harbour view. Breakfast in the conservatory is all you could ask – and more.
Underleigh House
Hope
Perfect hosts Vivienne and Philip Taylor set high standards at their Peak District longhouse home. Three of four well- equipped guest bedrooms are suites. A log burner warms the cosy lounge. Breakfast brings an array of fresh and very local produce.
The Old Coastguard
Penzance
Readers feel thoroughly spoilt at the Inkin brothers’ informal dining pub in a pretty fishing village. Most bedrooms have a sea view. In sunny weather, you can eat local seafood on the terrace in the palm-filled garden. Simple things done with style.
The Angel Hotel
Abergavenny
William Griffiths’s Georgian former coaching inn is the very model of a town hotel; family run, with friendly staff, a relaxed locals bar, eclectic menus, modern artworks. Afternoon tea is a particular treat, with cakes from the hotel’s own bakery.
North House
Cowes
Just minutes from the yacht-filled Solent lies Luke Staples and Lewis Green’s chic, immaculately run boutique hotel, with top-notch, locally sourced food, a pretty garden for alfresco dining, hands-on owners and thoroughly charming young staff.
Read’s
Faversham
Our inspectors loved everything at David and Rona Pitchford’s Georgian manor house, but it’s Mr Pitchford’s cooking that really sets it apart. A typical dish: roast Kentish lamb, smoked potato puree, haggis and lovage tart, roasted onion, lamb sauce.
The Pipe and Glass Inn
South Dalton
With a cosy, beamed bar and Michelin-starred cooking in the child-friendly, veggie-friendly restaurant, James and Kate Mackenzie’s former coaching inn is a winner. Smart bedrooms have a terrific bathroom, and everything in the garden is edible.
Cesar Winners 2019
Cesar Winners
The Nare
Veryan-in-Roseland
With its spa, its pools, balconies and sub-tropical gardens overlooking sandy Carne Beach, Toby Ashworth’s hotel is the perfect mix of family-friendliness and luxury. Top marks for Cornish cream teas, local seafood, a talented new chef, smiling staff and traditional values.
Gregans Castle Hotel
Ballyvaughan
A generosity of spirit infuses Simon Haden and Frederieke McMurray’s Georgian country house, with magical views across the Burren to Galway Bay. Elegant interiors are filled with antiques, modern art, fresh garden flowers. The cooking is unpretentious but imaginative.
Kinloch Lodge
Isle of Skye
There are glorious loch views from bedrooms filled with antiques, at Lord and Lady Macdonald’s former hunting lodge on Skye. Ancestral portraits abound. A ghillie organises fishing and stalking, while chef Marcello Tully cooks delicious fare. Speed, bonny boat!
Tudor Farmhouse
Clearwell
Hari and Colin Fell have created luxurious contemporary accommodation within historic, rustic farm buildings. Eggs from the ducks and hens in the paddock, vegetables from the kitchen garden, wild garlic foraged from the Forest of Dean supply chef Rob Cox’s 20-mile menus.
The Star Inn at Harome
Helmsley
This chocolate-box-pretty-thatched village inn is infused with wit – the bar filled with odds and ends; a billiard table at the foot of a bed – but chef/patron Andrew Pern’s Michelin-starred cooking is seriously good. One room has both spa bath and piano.
Stoberry House
Wells
The bedrooms are luxurious, breakfast is exceptional at Tim and Frances Meeres Young’s 18th-century coach house overlooking the cathedral city. From the hosts’ attention to the smallest detail, to the beautifully landscaped gardens, this is a labour of love.
Knockendarroch Hotel
Pitlochry
Struan and Louise Lothian spare no effort to please guests at their friendly hotel. Fires burn in comfy lounges. There’s a cabinet of whiskies; rooms with balcony, with books, a four-poster, binoculars, loch views; a daily-changing menu of superb cooking.
Pentonbridge Inn
Penton
An exciting gourmet destination within sight of the Scottish border. Each smart bedroom is named after an infamous clan of Border Reivers – a daring departure.
The Salutation
Sandwich
There is a pleasurable away-from-it-all feeling at this Queen Anne-style Lutyens house with ‘secret garden’, on the edge of a jewel of a medieval town. New owners John and Dorothy Fothergill have refurbished with great style. Food and service win high praise.
From £90 per night
Restaurant James Sommerin
Penarth
Superb sea views, contemporary design and acclaimed Michelin-starred cooking prove to be winning ingredients at Louise and James Sommerin’s family-run enterprise on the Severn estuary.
Cesar Winners 2018
Cesar Winners
Hambleton Hall
Oakham
‘We have been staying at Hambleton Hall for over 20 years and have never been disappointed; the service is impeccable, the room immaculate, and the food outstanding.’
Soar Mill Cove Hotel
Salcombe
It's just a ten-minute walk to a beautifully uncrowded beach through National Trust land from this ocean-facing hotel, purpose built for families and fun.
Viewmount House
Longford
It is the attention to detail that so impresses at Beryl and James Kearney’s classical Georgian rebuild of a 17th-century house, set in themed gardens with a pond and orchard.
Judges
Yarm
A circular drive, creeper-covered facade, rolling lawns and woodland are as you would expect of a country home once a retreat for circuit judges.
Llys Meddyg
Newport
In a small town on the glorious Pembrokeshire coast, Ed and Lou Sykes run their 19th-century stone house as a smart restaurant-with-rooms, successfully blending character with cool contemporary design.
The Red Lion Freehouse
Pewsey
A thatched pub in a quiet village tucked into the folds of Salisbury Plain is home to a Michelin-starred restaurant, with a swish guest house across the road.
The Mash Inn
Radnage
This village inn with its aged red brick and bucolic surrounds has been reinvented as a restaurant-with-rooms where the food is both 'delicious and original', cooked on a custom-made wood-fired grill in the open kitchen.
Burrastow House
Walls
In a beautiful location overlooking the Sound of Vaila, on Shetland’s remote west coast, this 18th-century laird’s house, altered and extended, offers a home-from-home experience.
Forest Side
Grasmere
This Victorian Gothic mansion continues to delight guests with its stylish, laid-back atmosphere, enormous wooded gardens and inspired culinary creations.
St Cuthbert’s House
Seahouses
The term ‘B&B’ doesn’t do justice to this imaginatively converted chapel with its spoiling bedrooms, breakfast feasts, and warm welcome from Jeff and Jill Sutheran.
2017 Cesar Winners
Cesar Winners
Battlesteads
Hexham
A stroll from ‘the majestic flow’ of the North Tyne river, Dee and Richard Slade’s ‘well-run’ hotel, restaurant and village pub stand out for their ‘laudable’ approach to sustainable tourism.
The Blakeney Hotel
Holt
With its quayside position overlooking the boats of north Norfolk's salt marsh estuary towards Blakeney Point, this large, family-friendly hotel, established in 1922, has a loyal following.
Hell Bay Hotel
Bryher
You have to island-hop to reach this New England-style hotel on the rugged Atlantic west side of the smallest of the inhabited Isles of Scilly, but once there, the sense of escape is blissful.
Gravetye Manor
East Grinstead
At the end of its mile-long drive, this Elizabethan manor house with glorious gardens and superb dining is, for many guests, the ultimate country house hotel.
The Nobody Inn
Exeter
Down narrow, winding country lanes, Sue Burdge’s inn is so much the model of an olde-worlde Devon pub that it ‘could have been created by a set designer’.
The Cross at Kingussie
Kingussie
'Wonderful, innovative and perfectly cooked food' combine with 'charming and sociable hosts' in this 'sensational' restaurant-with-rooms by a bubbling burn in the Cairngorms national park.
Ael y Bryn
Crymych
One of Wales’s best-loved B&Bs stands in beautiful gardens, with a wildlife pond, a courtyard with a fountain, and glorious views to the Preseli hills.
Brocco on the Park
Sheffield
This Edwardian suburban villa, on the Peak District side of the city, surprises with Scandi-chic rooms, a buzzing restaurant and relaxed vibe.
The Royal Oak
Swallowcliffe
‘Rescued from dilapidation’, by locals, this ‘charming, white-painted, part-thatched’ former 18th-century tannery-turned-inn stands ‘on a quiet country lane, in a village buried in the Nadder valley’.
The Hardwick
Abergavenny
In an ‘attractive rural setting’ outside the town, chef/patron Stephen Terry has transformed a former roadside pub into a destination restaurant-with-rooms.
Hotels chosen in 2016
Cesar Winners
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
With its towers and battlements, this Victorian-folly castle in 20 acres of grounds looks the real deal yet is ‘extremely laid-back – you can’t fail to feel at home’.
Hazel Bank
Keswick
‘Relaxing’ and ‘luxurious’ are the oft-repeated descriptions of this small country house with captivating fell views, walks from the doorstep and an intimate atmosphere.
The Lord Crewe Arms
Blanchland
In a postcard-perfect village of honey-stone cottages with a sparkling river, this historic building blends atmosphere with 21st-century comforts and robust food.
Hotel Endsleigh
Tavistock
Olga Polizzi's cottage-orné with tall chimneys, verandas, gables and dormers, in an Arcadian landscape on the River Tamar, is full of flair – and of history.
Grove of Narberth
Narberth
Described in 1811 as the 'respectable old house of Grove, embosomed in trees’, the ancient seat of the Poyer family is today a luxurious country house hotel, embosomed in verdant grounds.
The Coach House at Middleton Lodge
Richmond
Not so much a hotel as a grand country estate, with bedrooms in cottages, former stables and outbuildings, a restaurant in the coach house and 200 acres to explore.
Zanzibar International Hotel
St Leonards-on-Sea
‘Splendidly quirky’ and ‘utterly relaxed’, Max O’Rourke’s seafront hotel brims with an ‘interesting collection’ of curios from far-flung lands.
Kilmichael Country House
BRODICK
Be prepared for shrieks of greeting as you turn in to the wooded drive of this ‘very special’ small mansion, the oldest house on Arran – and that’s just from the peacocks! Inside the house, owners Geoffrey Botterill and Antony Butterworth extend a ‘personable’ but less vociferous welcome, with offers of tea and home-made shortbread.