Cranes, container ships, Holland-bound ferries … The views from this quayside Victorian hotel, with its striking iron-lace balcony overlooking the Stour and Orwell estuaries, are ocean-going, stirring, never dull.

They're serious about their food at this idyllic manor house hotel on the outskirts of Ambleside, with walks from the door and superb facilities for both humans and their four-legged friends.

‘A stylish stay in the Peak District, Wildhive’s ethos is to get back to nature without foregoing creature comforts,’ our inspector writes.

An 'unpretentious country hotel charging reasonable prices' with 'excellent food' on the banks of the River Teign, dog-friendly Mill End sweeps into the main Guide on a wave of approval.

Ducks glide on a pond and guests take tea in front of this beautifully proportioned Queen Anne-style mansion in a hamlet between the Cotswolds and the Mendip hills.

Avowedly family-friendly and fun yet stylish, this hotel with spa occupies a Baroque Victorian mansion in five acres above the Fowey estuary.

Deep in the Sussex countryside, a romantic Elizabethan manor house, built by an ironmaster for his bride, stands amid 1,000 acres of historically important gardens, pleasure grounds and woodland.

A landmark Victorian building above Fistral Bay, this hotel is a mix of the grand and contemporary, with pools and spa treatments, a golf course, surf school, bedrooms in coastal colours, refined and informal dining.

'It's ‘fiercely expensive’, but this Relais & Châteaux hotel in a chocolate-box village doesn’t stint on the traditional country house luxuries, drapes, stripes, sofas and chandeliers, florals, antiques, paintings.

A Georgian manor house above Chesil Beach, this is a dog- and people-friendly hotel designed for holidays and fun, catering to everyone from tinies to grown-ups with sophisticated tastes.

The Gloriana of Robin Hutson’s Pig hotel collection (see other entries), this Grade I-listed Elizabethan beauty stands in ‘wonderful grounds in a special location’ in the peaceful Otter valley.

There is a relaxed, timeless ambience at this grown-up 19th-century country house (Relais & Château), but things have moved on apace, with fine dining now at the very heart of the operation.

With walks from the doorstep, views of Peak District hills, a peaceful garden, breakfast feasts and restful bedrooms, it’s no surprise that Underleigh wins so much praise.

Much altered since it was begun in 1695, the Cunliffe-Lister family’s neo-Gothic, castellated fantasy castle is ‘a very special place, grand and imposing’, in ‘simply glorious’ pleasure grounds and parkland.

With golf, tennis, kayaking and powerboating, indoor pool and outdoor hot tub, this spa hotel in 65 acres of garden and woodland on the Helford river is a holiday resort in its own right.

‘An enchanting destination’ is how readers describe Olga Polizzi’s Regency hunting lodge, which stands by the River Tamar in an Elysian landscape designed by Humphry Repton.

One of Britain’s prettiest disused stations is today an excellent B&B, with bedrooms in the station building and restored Pullman coaches, cream teas served in the waiting room or on the platform, while breakfast is truly first class.

In a historic rural park, just ten minutes’ drive from the city centre, this Arts and Crafts mansion impresses with its grand interiors, bold design features and first-rate modern British cooking.

Agatha Christie memorabilia, murder-mystery weekends and Art Deco touches set the tone at this creeper-clad hotel, former home of doctor friends of Christie, in a bustling market town.

‘A stone’s throw from everything Oxford has to offer’, Jeremy Mogford’s second hotel (see the Old Bank) impressed our inspectors with its ‘peaceful, classy vibe’.

Above the rugged cliffs and white-sand beaches of Lizard Point, Cornwall’s most southerly hotel is being reinvented as a contemporary retreat in harmony with nature and the seasons.

This remote restaurant-with-rooms is unexpectedly stylish, with the odd wacky touch, such options as a ferry cabin and yurts in the grounds, and sophisticated modern Scottish cooking.

Guide readers are unswervingly loyal to this family-friendly country house by the sea, with peerless views to Snowdonia across Cardigan Bay, run by the Fletcher-Brewer family since opening in 1948.

Readers on their third visit to this ‘stunning Georgian building with wonderful grounds’, concluded that everything 'continues to be excellent'.

A Victorian mock-Tudor fishing lodge in wooded grounds on the River Irfon is today a spa hotel and foodie destination with a country house ambience and views to the Cambrian mountains.

To find a gem in a quiet corner of the visitor-thronged Lake District is not easy, but this smart village inn in the lovely Lyth valley is, as one reader reports, ‘always a favourite’.

There is a simple sophistication about both the interiors and the menus at this Georgian rectory, where bedrooms have contemporary and period furniture and subtle paint shades, and modern dishes tick the boxes for foodies.

A tree-lined drive leads to this 17th-century Wye Valley mansion, remodelled in 1912, replete with country-house comforts, important artworks, and a well-regarded fine-dining restaurant.

A dream destination for golfing gourmets, Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle’s restaurant-with-rooms offers Michelin-starred cooking just a 12-minute drive from St Andrews.

Bedrooms are spread between properties in Clough Williams-Ellis’s extraordinary Italianate resort village, but this hotel centres on a Victorian mansion with Art Deco bar and fine-dining restaurant.

Huddled below wooded hills, beside a stone bridge over the River Monnow, this whitewashed former 17th-century coaching inn is delightfully at ease in the landscape.

‘There is so much to love about this wonderful and unique place,’ wrote our inspector on a stay at this landmark cobalt blue former harbourmaster’s house on the harbour of a planned Georgian town.

The ferry from Oban brings you to the sole hotel, now under new ownership and management, on a beautiful island of fine sandy beaches, heather-clad hills, wild goats, ancient woodland, peat bogs and tidal flats.

Decorated in cool Scandi-Scots style, this former crofter’s house on the shores of Loch Dunvegan is a celebrated restaurant showcasing local produce, with, across the courtyard, spacious, split-level bedrooms painted in restful shades.

Wildlife spotters are in their element at this 18th-century lodge in ‘a beautiful setting’ on the shores of Loch Sunart.

'Surrounded by lovely, rolling, stone-wall country', this much-loved Peak District country-house hotel in a Grade II* listed 17th-century building ‘may not have all the luxuries of a modern boutique hotel, but the setting and grounds are stunning’.

Readers again lavish praise on this quayside hotel – ‘one of the best run and best maintained in Britain' – in a ‘stunning setting looking over salt marsh’.

Many regard Borrowdale as the Lake District’s most picturesque valley, and this comfortable Edwardian country house has one of its finest locations.

With romantic Thomas Hardy associations, this Victorian rectory is run today as a B&B with traditional bedrooms, original features, lovingly tended garden, and home-grown produce at breakfast.

In gardens bordered by a stream, the Wild family’s hotel, converted from three 17th-century cottages, a stroll from its own quayside, has well-equipped, country-classic bedrooms, formal and informal dining in restaurant and brasserie.