There’s a huge sense of fun at this stylish hotel, whose logo is Vanity Fair’s caricature of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Oscar Wilde’s Nemesis.

There is a relaxed, timeless ambience at this grown-up 19th-century country house (Relais & Château), but things have moved on apace, with fine dining now at the very heart of the operation.

Deep in the Sussex countryside, a romantic Elizabethan manor house, built by an ironmaster for his bride, stands amid 1,000 acres of historically important gardens, pleasure grounds and woodland.

‘There is a timeless elegance to Raymond Blanc’s gorgeous country house hotel, where English–French relations reach a deliciously stylish entente cordiale,’ say Guide insiders.

A ‘stunning Jacobean building’ is, astonishingly, largely the creation of Victorian squire, parson and prolific author the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould.

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.

In a mobile-phone not-spot, deep in the rich foraging grounds of the Wye valley, Chris and Kirsty Harrod’s restaurant-with-rooms holds its Michelin star for a ninth year.

A dream destination for golfing gourmets, Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle’s restaurant-with-rooms offers Michelin-starred cooking just a 12-minute drive from St Andrews.

Set on a 300-acre working farm, this legendary Irish country-house hotel has grown from being a restaurant with rooms that is passionate about locally sourced food into a thriving business, with cookery school, café and arts venue.

Centred on a Georgian farmhouse, with 26 ornamental gardens, a spa, gym, contemporary bedrooms, Michelin-starred dining-room, brasserie and kitchen garden terrace, this hotel has ‘luxury' written all over it.

An Edwardian homage to 17th-century style, this beautiful manor house with rich Jacobean-inspired interiors is run as a luxury hotel with fine-dining restaurant.

Pack your Schiaparelli gowns, beach pants and playsuits, and board the 'sea tractor' for a trip back to the 1930s at this Art Deco hotel on a tidal island where the beau monde came to play.

‘It’s fearsomely expensive but for a treat you’re in safe hands’ at this Tudor inn, now a restaurant-with-rooms ‘in the idyllic landscape of the Stour valley’.

With its indulgent bedrooms, Michelin-starred dining, attentive staff and guaranteed privacy, many look to Gilpin as the ultimate in Lakeland luxury.

Every painting, sculpture and piece of furniture feels cherished and chosen at John Edward Joyce’s Victorian country mansion in landscaped gardens.

Jeremy Mogford’s conversion of the old Barclays Bank gets credit from a Guide insider for its 'brilliant location, right in the city centre'.

A whitewashed cottage on a steep woodland pass may seem an unlikely setting for Michelin-starred dining, but this restaurant-with-rooms charms both the eye and the palate.

Indulge in a Pornstar Martini in the sea-facing cocktail bar at this stuccoed, bow-fronted Georgian seafront hotel, for this is Brighton, after all – hip, tolerant and fun.

Hidden in a back street of Padstow’s old town, these sybaritic B&B suites, created by chef Paul Ainsworth and his wife, are an ideal retreat for foodies.

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

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.

Book well ahead to stay at this luxury restaurant-with-rooms, in a centuries-old hall, where reverence for terroir, traceability and sustainability are at the heart of Mark Birchall’s modern cuisine.

The humble setting of this former coaching inn, half a mile from the Scottish border, belies its chic bedrooms and creative cooking.

In a touristy village on the River Eamont, at the head Ullswater, this restaurant-with-rooms provided our inspector with ‘one of the finest dining experiences I’ve had’.

With their background in TV and film, Sara Curran and Peter Sussman, new owners of the former North House, are experts in presentation.

With its bright yellow front door and rhubarb-pink sitting room, this Georgian town house with cottages, forge and Michelin-starred dining is 'classic and chic, a place exuding love and care'.

‘Staying in the inner courtyard of a 13th-century castle was always going to be unforgettable,’ writes an inspector, on a visit to Colin Nicolson and Jessica Thompson’s restaurant-with-rooms.

Close to Loch Shiel, this old coaching inn has hosted travellers along the Road to the Isles since the 17th century.

There’s plenty to do at this sprawling luxury hotel with its Gothic-revival red-brick mansion on a 375-acre estate – a vast spa, championship golf course and tennis are among its attractions.

'The welcome and food are always wonderful,' write trusted readers on a return visit to this restaurant-with-rooms, occupying a Victorian terrace house in a coastal hamlet close to glorious Lunan Bay.

In a sleepy village in the Scottish Borders, Katrina and William Reynolds’ ‘friendly village inn’ is an ‘excellent-value’ base for walkers, cyclists, fisherfolk and visitors in search of a rural break.

Ireland’s only Michelin-starred pub is set within the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark, and offers uncluttered bedrooms with traditional charm, and exciting menus of seasonal produce based on sustainable gastronomy.

Cosy, low-ceilinged and wood fire-warmed, this smartly refurbished 17th-century pub in the centre of a Lake District village is ‘friendly, fun and very convivial’.

In restored Grade I listed woodland and lake gardens, an Italianate mansion is now home to a Michelin-starred restaurant with serenely beautiful bedrooms.

Robert and Helen Hicks’ restaurant with rooms, crafted from an 18th-century manse on the waterfront, is full of charming suprises.

Moments from the beach, with ‘sea views to the rear’, a 19th-century commercial hotel lives anew as a restaurant, with rooms above.

At the centre of a glorious Georgian crescent, two adjoining mansions are home to an elegant yet family-friendly hotel with oasis garden and beautiful spa.

The Milsom family’s Victorian country house hotel in Dedham Vale, in the heart of Constable country, has been subtly rebranded with the addition of a spa by the pool house.

The epitome of Edwardian grand-hotel luxury, with its liveried doormen, dazzling interiors, glamorous bedrooms and Michelin-starred dining, the Goring is, for all its cachet, welcoming and unaffected, with an acres of garden at the rear.

Four nights a week, Bryan Webb cooks exciting menus of local produce at this restaurant-with-rooms, with elegant, traditional bedrooms in the Georgian house, where he and wife Susan have been welcoming guests for more than four decades.