A popular wedding venue, this Georgian former rectory with the ambience of a small country-house hotel scored highly with Guide inspectors for the superb cooking: a place worth visiting for the restaurant alone.

In a quiet, restful setting with its own small flock of sheep and free-range hens, this rustic-chic B&B is tucked away down a farm track by an old oak wood just three miles from the city centre.

There is a wide choice of generously equipped rooms at this substantial, dog friendly, family-friendly hotel on the edge of the Burghley Estate, with a pleasantly informal ambience and imaginative, seasonally inspired food served in the bistro.

Sarah and Jonathan Stamp's Georgian farmhouse B&B offers three lovely bedrooms for adults only, a first-rate breakfast, walking trails, a trout stream for fishing, and bucolic bliss.

With its wing armchairs, antique settles, warm lighting, and Farrow & Ball palette, the bar of this 19th-century ironstone and limestone village pub with rooms is reassuringly cosy and welcoming.

Refurbished throughout by a new owner, this Georgian coaching inn in the city's historic heart offers a good choice of comfortable bedrooms, bars and dining options.

Brother and sister partners Michael Thurlby and Sue Olver modernised their lively hotel in the centre with some striking decor, and have added additional accommodation in two separate buildings close by. Sally Rouse manages

An imposing presence on the old Great North Road, this creeper-covered coaching inn is a bit of old England, much loved for its timeless ambience, solidly traditional styling and retro classic dishes in the Oak Room, where a silver-domed carvery trolley still makes the rounds.

A 16th-century inn whose signal torch once guided travellers across the fens is today a beacon of hospitality, combining the pleasures of a cosy dining pub with individually styled bedrooms and smart modern bathrooms.

Bedrooms, some with access to a shared courtyard, are spread across the main house and converted outbuildings at this hotel In landscaped grounds on the edge of the Wolds, where interiors mix antiques with modern comforts, while fine and casual dining are on offer in the dog-friendly Pig and Whistle pub and restaurant.