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 2021
Cesar Winners
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
From the landscaped gardens with ‘a five-star view’ over Rutland Water to the Michelin-starred dining, Tim and Stefa Hart’s acclaimed hotel nails English country house excellence.
Soar Mill Cove Hotel
Salcombe
It’s all about the sublime seaside setting at Keith Makepeace’s family-centric, dog-friendly hotel with ‘amazing views to take your breath away’.
Judges
Yarm
Shrouded from the world by rolling gardens and wooded dells and with ‘impeccably maintained grounds’, this creeper-covered Victorian country house was once a retreat for circuit judges.
Viewmount House
Longford
This elegant 17th-century country house set among orchards and beautifully designed gardens ‘ticks every box’ for readers.
Llys Meddyg
Newport
Near the edge of town, a walk from the beach, this 19th-century town house is a popular restaurant with smart contemporary rooms – and a rather chic yurt.
The Red Lion Freehouse
Pewsey
On the edge of Salisbury Plain not far from Stonehenge, this thatched 19th-century beer house is run as a friendly village local and Michelin-starred pub-with-rooms by chef/proprietors Guy and Brittany Manning.
The Mash Inn
Radnage
It is all about earth and fire at Nick Mash’s red brick 18th-century pub, reinvented as a restaurant-with-rooms, amid a rural community of hamlets.
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, one of Andrew Wildsmith’s small, sophisticated group (see also Hipping Hall, Cowan Bridge), manages to be stylish yet relaxed.
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
‘The many “green” features of this hotel are laudable,’ say Guide readers of the ‘colourful, interesting grounds’, ‘amazing’ dark sky observatory and sustainable approach at Dee and Richard Slade’s rural hotel.
The Blakeney Hotel
Holt
On the quayside overlooking the estuary and salt marshes, in the luminous landscape of north Norfolk, Emma Stannard’s ‘lovely, comfortable’, child-friendly hotel gets another thumbs-up from a trusted reader.
Hell Bay Hotel
Bryher
New England meets Newquay at the UK’s most westerly hotel, a stylish coastal retreat 30 miles from the Cornish mainland, on the smallest of the inhabited Isles of Scilly.
Gravetye Manor
East Grinstead
Jeremy and Elizabeth Hosking’s beloved and beautiful Elizabethan manor house stands in glorious gardens, amid 1,000 acres of woodland.
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
Amid the wooded mountain scenery of the Cairngorms national park, a Victorian tweed mill once driven by the rocky, rushing Gynack Burn lives on as a restaurant-with-rooms.
Ael y Bryn
Crymych
Year after year we receive rave reviews from readers extolling both house and hosts at Robert Smith and Arwel Hughes’s modern, single-storey B&B with beautifully tended gardens, gazing out to the Preseli hills.
Brocco on the Park
Sheffield
Behind the facade of an Edwardian villa, Scandi chic prevails in this multi-award-winning hotel.
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.
The Royal Oak
Swallowcliffe
The whitewashed, ivy-hung exterior of this former tannery-turned-ale house does little to betray its ‘stunning, modern’ interiors, nor the ‘warmth and charm’ that welcome visitors and locals.
Hotels chosen in 2016
Cesar Winners
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
With its towers and battlements, wood-panelled walls and ornate ceilings, this Victorian-folly castle set in acres of grounds still manages to be ‘very relaxed; we never felt we had to be on our best behaviour’.
Hazel Bank
Keswick
Occupying a prime spot in what is arguably the Lake District’s most picturesque valley, Hazel Bank has ‘stunning mountain views’, walks from the doorstep, and the chance of spotting a red squirrel.
The Lord Crewe Arms
Blanchland
Blending 12th-century stone origins with 21st-century country-inn comforts, plus robust food, this handsome hotel attracts walkers and weekenders.
Hotel Endsleigh
Tavistock
‘It’s hard to fathom just how many things the Endsleigh does right,’ says one reader, of this Grade I listed hotel set in 200 acres of fairy-tale gardens in the Tamar valley.
Grove of Narberth
Narberth
Jacobean splendour meets Arts and Crafts elegance at this gleaming white hotel, set in a leafy glade outside one of Pembrokeshire’s prettiest market towns.
The Coach House at Middleton Lodge
Richmond
Minutes from the motorway, this Georgian estate feels deeply rural, with its walled garden and hundreds of 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.