‘We had a great time at this Boris Johnson of hotels (pretends to be bumbling, actually hugely professional),’ say guests this year of the Fletcher-Brewer family’s ‘lovely, wacky’ hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay.

Meadows, mountains and Michelin-starred meals attract visitors to Susan and Bryan Webb’s ‘lovely’, rural restaurant-with-rooms, in a mellow-stone Georgian gentry house.

The name may mean ‘house among thistles’, but the ‘meticulously kept’ combination of manicured lawns, knotted gardens and meadow flowers tells otherwise.

How times change: steps from the medieval castle, Glyn and Jacqueline Roberts’s ‘impressive’ restaurant-with-rooms occupies two of Harlech’s oldest buildings, described in 1798 as a cheerless spot offering no bed, just a dirt floor strewn with rushes. Today, Guide readers praise the ‘excellent’ contemporary rooms, each well equipped with a king-size bed, tea and coffee, fresh fruit, Welsh spring water, slippers.

‘Helpful and attentive hosts’ Gary and Lindsay Ashcroft run their B&B in this ‘handsome’ Georgian rectory standing in large, well-tended gardens.

A Bechstein grand piano presides over the beamed breakfast room in this granite former cowshed, today a modest, characterful B&B run by Eluned Rowlands.

Behind the stone portico and long bay windows of this ‘atmospheric’ 19th-century seafront house, find a wealth of period detail and ornament – paintings, lamps, antique furniture, clocks, figurines.

‘A real haven’ on the edge of Snowdonia national park, this small guest house is run by ‘charming hosts’ Katrina Le Saux and Peter Cottee. Their ‘beautiful’ Victorian house overlooks Bala Lake.

At the foot of Cadair Idris, Lorraine Hinkins and Alex Yorke’s ‘exceptional’ guest house is a ‘superb’ spot for walkers, anglers, cyclists and other guests in search of ‘excellent’ accommodation and ‘simple, yet seriously good meals’.

Delve into history at this gentlemanly Georgian house, set between the Snowdonia mountains and the Irish sea. Once the country home of the Armstrong-Jones family, it is today a sumptuous B&B run by ‘hands-on’ owners Neil and Marco Soares-Baines.

Fresh and fashionable, Sam Nayar and Gaenor Loftus’s design-savvy B&B is in a serene, white-stucco Victorian villa whose traditional facade gives no hint of the copper baths, cocktail chairs and crystal-encrusted wallpaper that lie within.

Why visit the Pullees’ ‘eccentric’ and ‘old-fashioned’ hotel at the foot of Snowdonia? Well, because it’s there. It was run by the same family back in 1953 when it hosted Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay as they trained to climb Everest, and not a lot has changed since then.

Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying at this Italianate village on the coast of Snowdonia national park – and a blithe spirit infuses the whole extraordinary caprice.

A ‘well-run’ hotel, this Georgian rebuild of a centuries-old inn (formerly Ye Olde Bulls Head) intriguingly mixes ancient and modern, from the convivial beamed bar to the stylish Loft restaurant under the eaves.

On one of the oldest streets of the town, a 17th-century hostelry once again provides good wine and comfortable accommodation to travellers in north Wales.

From cosseting mod cons to quirky glamping, Bre and Graham Carrington-Sykes have every angle covered at their ‘excellent’ 400-year-old farmstead below Offa’s Dyke.

In a leafy conservation area near the seafront, Ian Davies and Chris Jennings run their personable B&B in a sensitively refurbished late-Victorian villa.

A touch of romance in a Gothic setting, this handsomely refurbished Victorian rectory stands at the foot of Cadair Idris within the Snowdonia national park.

Birdsong announces the day at this ‘delightful, relaxed hideaway’ in a secluded hamlet in the Elwy valley.

History infuses the rooms – and sets the floors gently creaking – at the Lavin family’s atmospheric hotel and restaurant in the centre of this walled World Heritage town.

Quirky and ‘very different’, this good-humoured restaurant-with-rooms is ‘much enjoyed’ for its lively, inclusive atmosphere.