‘Can only talk in superlatives,’ writes a reader this year of Sue and James Murray’s historic manor house.

‘We couldn’t have enjoyed it more or been more welcome,’ write trusted Guide correspondents this year, after dropping by at Keith Makepeace’s long-established, family-run hotel with views across National Trust coastline to the open sea.

At the end of a ‘precipitous, twisty descent’, ‘courageous’ visitors are rewarded with ‘unrestricted views and a genuine, good-humoured welcome’ at Lana de Savary’s ‘fabulously secluded’ cliff-face hotel.

Minutes from the cathedral quarter, Deborah Clark and Anthony Orchard combine heritage and urban cool at their luxury town house hotel.

'In its glory, in the very beautiful Otter valley', this Elizabethan manor house is the fifth member of Robin Hutson’s Pig family.

A consortium headed by Office Space in Town has just acquired hotel space in Devon. This gleaming white Art Deco hotel on a tidal island, sold by its former owners after 17 years, is undergoing a multi-million-pound make-over,

A Regency cottage-orné, built by Jeffry Wyatville as a fishing lodge for Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, is run today in characteristic relaxed-chic style by Olga Polizzi (see also Tresanton, St Mawes).

On the edge of Dartmoor National Park, with views to granite Haytor, the Hassell family’s hotel is ‘a little off the beaten tracks – but worth finding’.

‘Beautifully located’ on the South West Coastal Path, this former Edwardian gentleman’s retreat has clifftop views of the three-mile-long beach.

Deep in the Taw valley, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s wisteria-hung 18th-century manor house is a characterful ‘high standard’ hideaway, surrounded by orchards and woodlands.

‘Full of surprises:, curiosities and vintage pieces burst through Fran and Pieter Hamman’s 19th-century manor house on the edge of Dartmoor national park.

In the former brew house, Bertie and Bryony Hancock’s sophisticated B&B is surrounded by the National Trust’s Buckland Abbey estate.

‘No wonder Adam has such a loyal clientele,’ wrote a regular Guide reader after this year’s visit to the country sports hotel, a mere fly cast from Dartmoor.

Michael Caines’s ‘beautifully restored’ Georgian manor house stands in parkland beside the luminous Exe estuary.

For 120 years the Grose family have looked after this family-friendly’ hotel approached by lanes ‘resplendent with wild flowers’.

Restored and refurbished by its owner, Claire Carter, this ‘lovely’ country house has a ‘luxurious, contemporary’ style and ‘friendly, welcoming staff who really make the place’.

This lively hotel, in a sheltered cove, is surrounded by a wide terrace which faces the beachl

Weird, wonderful, full of colour: Rinus and Aniet van de Sande’s well-liked, ‘quirky’, late-Victorian hotel receives praise for its confluence of art, culture and hospitality.

‘It was not only the view that made our stay, but the whole ambience,’ writers a Guide regular this year, of this Victorian hotel and spa on the Salcombe estuary.

A stone’s throw from the River Exe, this characterful property with a rich history has welcomed the weary since the 1720s.