In a pretty conservation village, ‘helpful’, ‘hospitable’ hosts Julie and Paul Evans run their relaxed small hotel with ‘enthusiasm and professionalism’.

The ‘well-kept’ gardens reach into woodland thick with rabbits and roe deer, while the ‘remarkable’ bar within the 17th-century coaching inn stocks over 70 malt whiskies. The whole is a ‘lovely’ country hotel, whose many fans think it ‘a special place’.

‘A near-faultless stay.’ In a ‘great’ location – ‘so easily reached from the centre, yet so quiet’ – Laurence and Helen Beere’s ‘excellent’ hotel continues to please guests with its ‘personable, efficient’ staff, ‘delicious’ food and ‘generously sized’ rooms.

‘A nice welcome’ and ‘an excellent dinner’ await at this ‘very pleasant place’, a stone-built former priests’ house by the River Brit, deep in Thomas Hardy’s Wessex.

A ‘friendly’ welcome awaits at Louise and David Farrance’s ‘peaceful’ B&B, in a 15th-century farmhouse along a country lane.

In a ‘scenic’ setting facing ‘tranquil’ marshland – ‘a joy for painters’ – the Stannard family’s ‘popular’ traditional hotel attracts all generations of regular guests, who praise the ‘remarkably high standards of service and amenities’.

Parents ‘sleep like babies’ at this ‘fantastic’ family-friendly hotel, a Jacobean manor house in ‘glorious’ countryside.

‘With a tradition of service that’s second to none, this is without doubt one of the finest country house hotels – if not the finest – in England,’ raves a regular Guide reader this year.

The rocky coastline may have been hell for sailors, but a short hop by propeller plane and boat brings you to the smallest of the inhabited Scilly Isles, something more like heaven.

When John Remington, vicar of Cartmel, entertained the Duke of Devonshire at this 17th-century stone manor in 1842, he built the very fine dining room in his honour (visitors still admire its panelling, bay windows and ornate moulded ceiling today).

Jim and Wendy Sarton’s 15th-century, timber-framed, wisteria-festooned manor house is popular with artists, who come for residential painting courses held from February to November; Dedham Vale, beloved by John Constable, invites exploration all year round.

‘Utterly peaceful’, with ‘fabulous views’ of the hidden Heddon valley, Mark and Pat Cowell’s ‘unpretentious’ hotel ‘brings back the feel of country living’.

Plush, lush and ‘convivial’, this luxury hotel on the edge of the ‘stunning’, rural Ribble valley is ‘an old favourite of local residents’.

In raffish Soho, this ‘stunningly original’ boutique hotel occupies three Georgian houses. ‘Friendly, efficient’ staff open the door to reveal a lavish, intriguing collection of ‘old architectural features, old furniture, old books and paintings – much to investigate and appreciate’.

With ancient foundations, this black-and-white-timbered Tudor pile, on the high street of a medieval town, has been run as an inn since at least 1564.

‘The surroundings are idyllic and the food absolutely perfect’ at Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s highly regarded restaurant-with-rooms, say regular Guide readers this year.

Rick and Jill Stein’s original venture, a small seafood bistro with red-checked tablecloths, is now a ‘first-division’ restaurant-with-rooms, a short walk from the centre of this busy fishing port.

An ‘easy informality’ fills this ‘fun’ hotel, in an ‘unspoilt’ Cotswold village in the green Slad valley. The newest in the Calcot Hotels group, it enters the Guide thanks to inspectors who found it ‘a happy place, with attentive staff’.

‘A poetic setting of beach and sea and garden.’ An ‘abundance of calm’ settles upon this smart seaside hotel, thanks to the ‘very hands-on’ owners, Paul and Fiona Robinson, and their well-trained staff.

There’s charm a-plenty at Jenny Hadfield’s B&B on cobbled Mermaid Street, its interior a characterful mix of low beams, blazing fires, dark panelling, labyrinthine passages and steep stairs.

An ancestral home today under the care of three members of the Prideaux-Brune family, this Dorset-stone 17th-century country house has been a hotel since 1972.

There are, ‘quite literally’, fairies at the bottom of the garden at Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan’s ‘friendly’ cliff-top hotel, on a ‘remote’ country road ‘with spectacular views of the sea’.

White-glove service may be the norm at any luxury hotel, but even the youngest guests receive white-mitten treatment at this exceptionally family-friendly spot.

Find peace, tranquillity and a finely cooked English beef fillet at Janine and Richard Burton’s ‘well-run’ hotel and restaurant on the High Street of this ‘lovely’ market town.