Widescreen vistas of salt marshes and big skies rush to this family-friendly, quayside hotel. Helmed by Emma Stannard, with ‘universally friendly and efficient staff’, the north Norfolk grand dame is approaching its centenary.

‘One of the most unusual hotels we've ever visited.' Guide inspectors were left reeling by art dealer Ivor Braka's pub-with-rooms in the deer park of Gunton Hall.

In ‘a beautifully rural setting’, the North Norfolk countryside stretches away on all sides from Tim and Janie Elwes’s ivy-covered Georgian inn.

A creeper-covered, former 18th-century coaching inn, The Neptune has been run as a ‘most enjoyable restaurant-with-rooms’ since 2007 by Kevin and Jacki Mangeolles – and has held its Michelin star since 2009.

At the centre of a ‘bustling’ Georgian market town, a higgledy-piggledy old building with an all-day café, a store, ‘very comfortable’ accommodation and a lively holiday atmosphere.

The wide sands and salt marshes of North Norfolk are within a flat, short-ish walk of Rebecca and Robert Bradley’s fine B&B.