You don't have to blow a fortune to stay at this relaxed yet refined hotel in some converted barns, the former home of Langham Glass, and featuring many charming nods to its heritage.

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

A favourite hangout of the England football team, the former home of Lord Louis Mountbatten is 'well-run', with contemporary bedrooms, cosseting suites, a good choice of eating and drinking spaces, and a magnificent spa.

On the north Norfolk coast, Thornham's saltmarshes and unspoiled beaches are a paradise for birdwatchers and walkers. Every bit as blissful, is this chic bolthole with a garden hot tub near the town's artisan shops, restaurants and pubs.

'It's fearsomely expensive but for a treat you're in safe hands' at this Tudor inn, now a restaurant-with-rooms 'in the idyllic landscape of the Stour valley'.

On a Georgian square overlooking a green, this former coaching inn and popular local drop-in offers an interesting choice of bedrooms, dog-friendly dining, an enthusiastic host, and a short menu of appetising modern dishes.

A watermill in meadowland is run as a hotel with rustic-chic and contemporary bedrooms, by chef/patron Lee Bye, whose exciting dishes can be enjoyed in the oak-beamed restaurant among the mill's workings.

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.

Perfect for a country weekend, this 17th-century thatched pub has contemporary-cum-rustic-chic bedrooms in a 'barn', beams, bar stools, banquettes and bare boards, superior pub grub, and a separate menu for your pooch.

In a lovely Suffolk village, this wonky, yellow-painted, timber-frame inn is an inviting place, with log fires, appealing, characterful bedrooms, and a mix of pub classics and more adventurous dishes served in the bar, restaurant and alfresco.

A superb base for exploring the surrounding Norfolk Broads, this country-house hotel in a 'beautiful Georgian building' has a private lake and gardens on the River Bure.

On the Holkham Estate, closed to unspoilt beaches, this Victorian inn is now a hotel and restaurant with individually styled bedrooms, cosy spaces to relax in, and a menu of seasonal, local and estate produce, served in the Orangery.

There is a relaxed ambience at this family-owned hotel overlooking Parker's Piece, with smart contemporary bedrooms, relaxed dining, bicycles to borrow, jazz evenings and spa treatments.

Deep in Suffolk fruit-farming country, this retreat hotel centres on the Great Barn, with rooms in barns and shepherds' huts, where eco-chic combines with modern comforts.

On the market square, this 18th-century inn with onsite brewery has jazzy bedrooms in dolly-mixture colours, Adnams beers in the Tap Room, pub classics and contemporary seasonal fare in the Still Room.

There is 'an air of a chic curiosity shop' about this singular hotel with café/deli, centred on a Palladian-style villa, up a narrow lane, where resident cats sun themselves on the front lawn. As the Guide went to press, Stratton's announced it was being sold.