There is a deceptive ‘wacky’ quality to the Fletcher-Brewers’ ‘lovely’ hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay, a casual vibe that belies the professionalism of the operation.

In a sylvan setting on the remote Lleyn peninsula, Gunna and Chris Chown’s Georgian country house has had an entry in the Guide for many years.

Spread across two of Harlech’s oldest houses, Glyn and Jacqueline Roberts’s restaurant-with-rooms won approval from Guide regulars this year, with ‘an excellent room, and lovely dinner on both nights’.

‘Lindsay is one of the most welcoming people I’ve ever met; the breakfasts, all freshly cooked by Gary, are delicious.’ Praise for the Ashcrofts, your hosts at this Georgian rectory on the beautiful Llyn peninsula.

The promised welcome in the vales is extended by Eluned Rowlands at this converted granite cowshed-turned-characterful B&B with views to Snowdonia and the Menai estuary

‘An absolute gem!’ wrote a reader, of this ‘stunning country house’, the former home of the Armstrong-Jones family, with views to the Menai Strait and Snowdonia on the doorstep.

In ‘the most fabulous location’, at the foot of the Rhinog mountains, overlooking Cardigan Bay, Peter and Paula Thompson’s guest house is ‘full of character’.

Up a ‘testing’ country lane beneath Cadair Idris, this quirky bolthole is run by the ‘impressive’ Angela and Bernhard Lanz, who ‘could not be more friendly or obliging’.

‘Alex and Lorraine’s 18th-century farmhouse offers a level of hospitality to rival many of the best small hotels in the UK.’

Coes Faen means ‘leg of stone’, bringing to mind Shelley’s Ozymandias, but there is no vainglory at Sara and Richard Parry-Jones’s adults-only hotel overlooking the Mawddach estuary.

At the foot of Snowdonia, the Pullees’ ‘eccentric’ hotel is run by the same family who hosted Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay as they trained to climb Everest, and not a lot has changed since.

Rich in antiques, fine wood panelling and painted ceilings. this sumptuous, well-refurbished country house hotel, in a historic Victorian manor house, lies on the edge of Snowdonia national park.

Clustered on the edge of a spectacular tidal estuary, this mansion house hotel – the focal point of Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis’s Italianate village – has welcomed guests including H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell.

On a secluded farmstead, Hilary and Stephen Murphy and daughter Laura's hotel is ‘in lovely countryside’ overlooking the Isle of Anglesey.

On the Mawddach trail, Marc Russell and Nicholas Banda's stone-built restaurant-with-rooms stands at the southern gateway to Snowdonia national park.