Staying in this Georgian mansion in ‘flower-filled and perfectly tended gardens’ is 'a pretty faultless experience', with 'every detail properly attended to but the atmosphere still friendly and relaxed', say readers.

You can relax on a terrace beside the River Stour to the sound of lapping waves and popping corks at this streamlined, nautical-themed luxury hotel, spa and popular wedding venue.

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.

There is a fairy-tale aspect with more than a hint of Hogwarts to this 1820s marine villa with a sandy beach at the bottom of the garden in a village that inspired Noddy's Toy Town.

A playful mix of Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod and Edwardian seaside hotel, this white-painted villa above Chesil Beach has an easy-going stylishness, conducive to fun.

Within strolling distance of the town and the beach, a ‘friendly’, and eco-friendly, hotel in a handsome Victorian clifftop villa.

The Ollerod (Dorset dialect for cowslip), with boutique rooms and a dabster in the kitchen, is the perfect place for a bit’ a’ drap when you’re hungry and athirt.

‘As a family we have said we need to try to visit once a year at least,’ write readers after a visit to this child-friendly, dog-friendly hotel occupying a Georgian manor house above Chesil Beach.

It is more than 30 years since David and Mary Griffin-Shepherd and Marc Preston opened a restaurant-with-rooms in this market town overlooking Blackmore Vale in Hardy country.