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 experience.

With the sea to the fore and Tennyson Down rising up behind, this newly refurbished hotel has spectacular views and scarcely less impressive cooking in the revamped restaurant.

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'.

You can imagine nodding off in an armchair over the latest issue of Samuel Johnson's Idler, or William Hazlitt's polemics in the Tatler, when you step into this time-warp hotel and close the door on trendy Soho. It was here, on a Georgian terrace in the 1820s, that essayist Hazlitt penned his valediction, and antiques and furnishings keep faith with a bygone age.

Occupying two waterfront former warehouses, part of the town's maritime heritage, this new hotel has bedrooms modelled on captains' cabins and lined with reclaimed timbers.

In a market town between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, this pub with rooms deftly mixes historic charm – beams, crackling fires and exposed stonework – with an updated, modern touch.

Deep in Thomas Hardy country, this picture-perfect thatched cottage is a popular restaurant with rooms run with great charm by Ariane Jones and her husband, Jamie.

With distant views to the Orkney Islands, and with the ferry just half a mile away, this unusual, eco-friendly, dog-friendly B&B is a perfect guests who want space, privacy and imaginative food morning and evening.

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.

Named in honour of Shrewsbury's famous son, this Grade II* listed Sandford House, moments from the Severn towpath, has evolved into a B&B full of Darwin references, with animal and plant wallpapers, maps and natural history objets.

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 where you can enjoy a 'truly memorable meal'.

With beams, cottage-style bedrooms and beautiful gardens running down to the River Stour, this 16th-century Cotswold manor house in pretty South Warwickshire countryside not far from Stratford upon Avon makes a charming B&B.

Anne Boleyn's childhood home, reimagined by William Waldorf Astor as a fairytale moated castle, the seat of a Tudor courtier, stands in landscaped grounds with an Edwardian 'Tudor' village, home to this exceptional B&B.

In 'England's book town', under mighty Howgill Fells on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, this is just the place for a drover's platter and a pint – or Korean beef, shiso and sesame with a shot of wasabi vodka.

A Saxon royal hunting lodge in the Gloucestershire countryside, rebuilt over centuries, is run today as a private hotel by 'lovely hosts' Christopher Trim and Kathryn Warner.

Attached to a 15th-century fortified tower house, the Mernagh family's farmhouse B&B offers both history and comfort. Guests are welcomed to this lived-in and loved home with tea or coffee and home-baked biscuits.

Readers are unanimous in their praise for James Moffett's Peak District Hotel, a 17th-centiry gem, a paradise for walkers, where the welcome is friendly, the hospitality generous and the cooking hearty.

After a 2020 lockdown makeover and change of ownership, this personable, affordable Belgravia hotel is on good form, with smart bedrooms, a 'secret garden' and breakfast, brunch and lunches on offer in the Buttery.

You can paddleboard on the river, stroll to see the deer in Richmond Park, and feel a world away from central London at this smart, multifaceted Thames-side hotel.

Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Hilaire Belloc certainly remembered this Georgian coaching inn, from which he described setting out in The Four Men.

Thomas Hardy fans will be in their element at this local watering hole in Dorset, which was the model for 'The Sow and Acorn' in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

The fun, hip, relaxed ethos of this pub with exceptional-value rooms on the edge of the Fonthill Estate is evident from the minute you walk in the door. Guide insiders couldn't believe the buzz when they arrived at this 'comfy, characterful place' in the afternoon, long after lunch.

With smartly refurbished interiors and imaginative, locally sourced, restaurant-quality food, this dog-friendly country inn on the Lowther Estate is a happy mix of pub informality and country-house comforts.

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

Within this turreted and gabled Victorian villa built for the owner of the Newport–Freshwater railway is a B&B 'with the feel of a luxurious hotel' which offers 'superb value', our inspector reports.

For 40 years, Raymond Blanc has held two Michelin stars at this beautiful country-house hotel 'and it's not surprising – every mouthful of every meal is a triumph', say Guide insiders.

Within a Georgian house in a trendy corner of East London once home to Huguenot silk weavers, Peter McKay and Douglas Blain set out to weave a fantasy of their own.

Both culture and nature are on your doorstep at Maggi and Gerard Heelan's 'excellent B&B guesthouse' just five minutes' walk from the Opera House in this splendid Peak District spa town.

This Victorian gothic mansion might appear a little forbidding, but step inside and you are overwhelmed by a warm ambience and beautiful interiors, while some guests choose to sleep out in the woods in a timber-lined 'hive' or tree house.