Widescreen vistas of salt marshes and big skies rush to this family-friendly, quayside hotel. Helmed by Emma Stannard, with 'universally friendly and efficient staff', the north Norfolk grand dame is approaching its centenary.

A tiny lane just off the high street in a bustling market town leads to a striking Palladian villa set by a circular courtyard of hornbeam trees.

In ‘a great location, just across from the beach’, Michael Pritt’s Victorian hotel has been family owned and run since 1920. ‘It always delights us,’ say readers who visit every year.

There is no mystery to the appeal of Emma and Hugh Asher's ‘comfortable, 'most welcoming', country hotel with strong Agatha Christie associations.

‘A lovely hotel with efficient, friendly staff,’ declares a trusted Guide reader this year after a third visit to the Nye family’s inn, which gazes across tidal salt marshes to Scolt Head Island and the open sea.

In landscaped gardens that gently melt into Constable country, with tables for alfresco drinking and dining, 'one of Suffolk’s oldest pubs has been renovated very smartly’.

A country retreat just outside St Albans occupies an extended 300-year-old manor house, once the home of Lord Louis Mountbatten.

A modern spa hotel, staffed by a friendly, welcoming team, in a 19th-century watermill in lovely surroundings five miles from the city centre.

‘We enjoyed our stay', say trusted readers this year, returning to this much-loved Suffolk restaurant-with-rooms in a coastal town dominated by its castle.

In a rural village overlooking a medieval packhorse bridge across the River Kennett, this ‘revitalised’ Victorian boozer was the first venture for Philip Turner’s spreading Chestnut group.

By the River Bure, ‘perfect peace and quiet’ drifts across ‘lush grounds’ up to James Holliday and Anna Duttson’s ‘splendid’, wisteria-hung Georgian house.

Once a smugglers’ haunt, the creeper-covered red brick building has become a great base for twitchers, outdoorsy types and their dogs.

Amid acres of ‘lovely’ rose gardens and landscaped lawns, this family-run hotel combines old-fashioned comfort and modern flourishes with ‘superb service’.

Constable country reaches to the doorstep of this affable, historic restaurant-with-rooms in a village known for its swans.

A bird call from the RSPB nature reserve at Minsmere, birders convene with locals at this 12th-century coaching inn, much-liked for its friendly atmosphere.

Moments from Bury’s ancient abbey, two Victorian town houses have been transformed into a smart spot in the town.