‘The welcome is always friendly’ at Joanna and Mark Donovan’s ‘likeable’ country hotel in a former priests’ house dating back to the 13th century.

Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison, run their Jacobean ancestral home as a characterful – some say eccentric – hotel where guests are ‘cosseted and cared for’ by ‘charming staff’.

‘The setting, ambience and gardens are possibly the most attractive of any hotel we’ve stayed in, anywhere,’ writes a Guide reader this year of the Turner family’s country hotel, in a 16th-century priory on the River Frome.

‘High standards are upheld’ at Ariane and Jamie Jones’s ‘lovely’ restaurant-with-rooms deep in Thomas Hardy country, say returning guests in 2017.

Just the ticket for ‘young children and their exhausted parents’, this Georgian manor house stands in ‘beautiful, romantic’ countryside. It has a ‘friendly, relaxed’ atmosphere that’s ‘really geared for kids’.

‘Stylish and modern’, Robert Wilson and Tim Lloyd’s ‘welcoming’ hotel gleams on the banks of the River Stour, shipshape inside and out.

‘The very friendly people are a key feature’ of this ‘excellent, expectation-exceeding’ restaurant-with-rooms, a short walk from the centre of historic Shaftesbury.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles skirted this stone-built 16th-century inn, named the Sow and Acorn in Thomas Hardy’s novel, but locals and visitors today know better.

The fourth of Robin Hutson’s informal, coolly rustic hotels, this little Pig went to the beach, settling in a ‘wonderful location’ – a rambling manor house in gardens facing Studland Bay.

Mary-Lou Sturridge and Tony Mackintosh (late of London’s Groucho Club) have turned a once-derelict B&B into a ‘laid-back but sophisticated’ restaurant-with-rooms within sound of the waves.

Between the High Street and the River Stour, this informal inn occupies a ‘handsome’ Georgian house well placed for exploring Hardy country.

‘A little oasis’ in the market town, this ‘pleasant’ hotel stands in a ‘lovely’ walled garden ideal for an alfresco drink or two.

There’s a relaxed atmosphere at Mark Cribb’s friendly small hotel, within a saunter of the beach and Boscombe Pier.

In a pretty village five miles from Sherborne, chef/patron Sarah Lethbridge and her husband, Anthony, are the hands-on hosts at the country pub they restored nearly ten years ago.

Close to the seafront, this handsome Victorian villa takes a practice-what-you-preach approach to environmental consciousness.

Imaginative pub food and wood-fired summertime pizzas combine with upmarket country comforts at this quirkily renovated roadside inn.

The interior of this refurbished Regency house has much that is eye-catching, but the views out the sash windows are more than a match – the best bedrooms look along the coast.