‘The enthusiastic welcome immediately made us feel at home again.’

On a tranquil side street in a picture-postcard market town on the River Windrush, this higgledy-piggledy old inn pleased Guide inspectors with its ‘classic Cotswold ambience’.

Perennial visitors reported ‘a warm welcome’ from Clive James and David Stott at their restaurant-with-rooms – ‘a cherished institution to many Glyndebourne regulars’ – at the foot of the South Downs.

‘We much enjoyed our stay,’ writes a reader this year, of this Edwardian country house hotel in ‘grounds of a sporty nature’.

Behind a ‘gorgeous, checkerboard red-brick-and-stone facade’, in a hamlet a mile from Goodwood and ‘an easy, breezy drive from Chichester’, the former village grocer’s shop is run as a friendly B&B.

A shooting lodge in the New Forest is home to the mother Pig, the first of Robin Hutson’s small but growing chain of family-friendly Pig hotels (see index).

Veterans of the hospitality industry Rona and David Pitchford run Georgian Macknade Manor as an elegant restaurant-with-rooms.

Once a month a string quartet serenades afternoon tea at this Victorian seafront hotel nicknamed ‘The White Palace’.

Now a ‘gracious’ B&B, this restored Victorian train station and princely Pullman carriages on disused tracks ooze the romance of travel’s golden age.

A 17th-century house, ‘in a delightful position opposite the quay’, in an ‘attractive little town’, is today run as a smart restaurant-with-rooms.

‘A comfortable, cosy place with nice rooms to curl up in’, Sam and Janet Bakose’s 250-year-old inn stands on the A272 between Midhurst and Petworth, in the South Downs national park.

Guests are full of ‘high praise’ for Tobias Feilke’s ‘personal’ hospitality at his ‘homely’ B&B close to Lymington quay.

Brimming with an ‘interesting collection’ of curios from far-flung lands, Max O’Rourke’s characterful seafront hotel is both ‘splendidly quirky’ and ‘utterly relaxed’.

‘Opposite the walls of the castle in this ancient market town’, Lee and Katie Williams run their Grade II listed Regency town house as ‘a top-notch, great-value’ restaurant-with-rooms.

A metamorphosis is underway on the edge of the New Forest: formerly TerraVina, this comfortable Victorian villa has a new name and a revamped style.

Tucked away in an Old Town cul-de-sac, a short stroll from the seafront, this early Tudor black-and-white house is run as a welcoming B&B.

Tourists should ‘forget fancy London hotels’, say readers, and instead head out to Ruth and Samantha Trinder’s hotel close to Richmond Park, with tranquil riverside garden and terrace.

Facing the ‘wide sweep of tidal mudflats’ surrounding Pagham Harbour, this whitewashed restaurant-with-rooms stands as a ‘tucked-away’ beacon of ‘delicious food’ and ‘exceptional hospitality’.

In a gem of a medieval Cinque Port town, this Queen Anne-style house designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens has a new lease of life as an upmarket hotel.

‘As wonderful as ever,’ writes a regular visitor to Sarah Burgoyne’s ‘charmingly run’ Grade II listed, red brick Georgian manor house adjoining a private estate, close to Lewes.

‘At night, surrounded by floodlit cedars and oaks, it felt like a movie set,’ writes one reader this year, after visiting the luxury New Forest retreat.

‘Great place. Wonderful breakfast.’ A thumbs-up this year from visitors to David and Barbara Shaw’s unusual B&B, at a decommissioned granite lighthouse in a ‘dramatic, empty landscape’, in the South Downs national park.

Far-reaching views across sheep-spotted countryside spool away from this ‘splendid’ 300-year-old malthouse-turned-restaurant-with-rooms above the Evenlode valley.

Popular with locals, ramblers and foodies, this comfortably modernised Victorian freehouse-with-rooms welcomes visitors with ‘big smiles’ and a ‘warm-hearted atmosphere’.