In a hamlet just 25 minutes from Bath, 'the Carps' is a 'very nice country pub' offering 'very good' food, and oodles of atmosphere in the stone-walled, beamed bar, with fire and log-burner.

Big picture windows frame views of the Dart at this cool, contemporary hotel with a leisure vibe, uncluttered chic bedrooms, relaxed bistro dining in the riverside restaurant and alfresco.

You can dine in style in the Grand Ballroom or hunker down in the cosy old Pilchard inn at this extraordinary Art Deco hotel on a tidal island just a sea tractor ride from the 21st century.

There is great food and serious fun to be had at this clifftop hotel on the South West Coast Path, its interiors filled with whimsical touches, its bedrooms all unique, its subtropical gardens a wonderland of witty sculptures.

Country-house luxury abounds at this child-friendly, dog-friendly hotel, a Georgian mansion in ‘well-maintained gardens a huge joy to visit’.

A lovely, wisteria-swagged, 17th-century Bath stone inn, this is a gastropub with a wide choice of characterful rooms, a serious attitude to food, regular comedy nights and an irrepressible sense of fun.

'An exceptional seaside hotel', with views from the rooms and terrace to secluded Combesgate beach below, this family-friendly hotel is a former Edwardian gentleman's retreat.

Chef-proprietors Guy and Brittany Manning have brought skills honed at triple-Michelin-starred Per Se in Midtown Manhattan to this thatched gastropub on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with 'stupendous' food in the bar/restaurant and garden, and stylish guest bedrooms across the road, with decking from which to watch the ducks on the River Avon.

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.

In an idyllic location, cascading down the cliffs at St Mawes with views to St Anthony's lighthouse, Olga Polizzi's seaside hotel continues to delight readers. Once home to a yacht club, it is spread across a cluster of houses and has a feel of the French Riviera about it.

'Hotel settings don't get much more spectacular than the Polurrian's, on the cliff edge overlooking its own beach,' writes a guide insider. The relaxed family and dog-friendly hotel makes the most of the coastal views.

From bread to truffles, they cook as much as possible on site in this 'very cosy and friendly hotel', in the rolling South Hams countryside between wild Dartmoor and the sandy beaches of Bigbury Bay.

In wooded grounds with Dartmoor National Park on the doorstep, the Hassell family's country-house hotel and beautiful spa impresses with a warm welcome, great service, and a choice of dining venues.

Serving cider since 1851, this honey-stone village pub has been attracting attention since a lockdown makeover by enthusiastic new owners. Contemporary-chic bedrooms have good fabrics, a Roberts radio, posh toiletries, views over gently rolling countryside.

Set on a private sandy beach, this dog friendly, Barbados-inspired hotel has a terrific mix of rooms, suites and beach cabins as well as a sea-facing restaurant and beach bar and grill.

Steeped in romance, this Elizabethan manor-house hotel is a place of contrasts, blending history with modern amenities, from the Great Hall lounge and four-poster bedrooms, to Scandi-style wellness rooms with outdoor hot tub, a state-of-the art spa, a Michelin-starred restaurant and more informal brasserie.

In sub-tropical gardens with views over Lyme Bay, this family-run hotel offers a wide choice of accommodation, and imaginative, locally sourced food.

Ideally situated beside Corsham Court at the heart of the village, this former coaching inn has smartly refurbished bedrooms, a friendly, casual ambience and a menu of pub classics and fancier dishes, using produce from the kitchen garden.

Built as lodgings for the now-ruined abbey, 'Britain's oldest inn', much altered over centuries and cherished by its Texan owners, has a wide choice of beautifully presented rooms and appealing dining options.

In a village close to Bath, one of England's oldest inns offers characterful rooms and above-average pub fare.

With a youthful vibe and brimming with fun, this quirky hotel and local hangout, occupying a Georgian coach house above the harbour, has beach-shack chic bedrooms, a café, cocktail bar and curated art collection.

You drive down a single-track road on the edge of Dartmoor National Park and cross a brook to reach this dog-friendly, very ancient, thatched and whitewashed village pub, redolent of history, serving excellent, locally sourced pub classics, with rustic-chic bedrooms and two resident ghosts.

The Gloriana of Robin Hutson's Pig hotel collection, this Grade I-listed Elizabethan beauty in the peaceful Otter valley has the expected shabby-chic interiors, with French antiques, Zoffany fabrics and portraits of bewigged bigwigs, bedrooms decorated in restful pastels, a 25-mile menu making clever use of produce from the kitchen garden, and wood-fired flatbreads served outside a restored folly.

A 14th-century clergy house is home to this hotel, with bright, individually styled bedrooms, and a restaurant serving steaks and burgers as well as highly creative dishes, using locally sourced and home-grown produce.

There is a retro feel about this restaurant with rooms, little changed in more than three decades and run with pride, where affordable bedrooms are supplied with ground coffee and home-baked biscuits, and set-price and tasting menus demonstrate the chefs' skills without fancy gimmickry.

Three Grade I listed Georgian townhouses combine as one boutique but indulgently child-friendly hotel and spa, with highly individual and beautiful bedrooms, all with vinyl record player and espresso machine, touches of whimsy, a bar serving cocktails and imaginative small and large plates.

A dog and child-friendly hotel above Chesil Beach, this Georgian manor house is dedicated to family leisure and pleasure, with plenty to keep tots and teens amused, while the restaurant serves light bites by day, bistro-style dishes at dinner.

Occupying a Georgian mansion overlooking the Exe estuary, Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines's hotel is a foodie destination with an ambience of soft-spoken luxury, suites with a balcony or a terrace with fire pit and marble soak tub, and shepherds' huts for nights of bucolic bliss.

Steep stairs lead to old-fashioned, characterful beamed bedrooms at this cosy family-run inn in a rural Dartmoor village, reached by narrow back roads, where walkers and cyclists can work up an appetite to dine from an eclectic menu that mixes classic pub grub with some impressive gastro dishes, served by friendly, efficient staff.

Koos Bekker and Karen Roos have brought to Somerset the vision behind their hotel on a Dutch Cape wine estate, creating an idyll around Palladian Hadspen manor house, with farm-to-fork dining, dreamy spa, unique rooms in converted outbuildings, beautiful gardens – and a Roman villa as well as two interactive museums.