Titchwell Manor

With views over meadows and marshes to the sea, this hotel with award-winning dining bedazzles with its vibrant interiors within the walls of a Victorian farmhouse. Behind the scenes, bedrooms have more of a Hamptons-style coastal cool. Dog-friendly ground-floor rooms in the herb garden have a hot tub while two shepherds’ huts have a log-burner, a shower, a terrace with sunken spa bath. ‘Our room was warm and cosy, with an arched window overlooking a wall with grapes dangling,’ readers report. Dine casually in the eating rooms, or more formally in the ‘beautifully decorated’ conservatory. Chef/proprietor Eric Snaith’s parents bought the hotel back in 1988, so he had plenty of time to hone his cooking skills. Having enjoyed a meal at his chippie down the road in Thornham, our readers were disappointed with the hotel fish and chips, but they were replaced without question with a duck dish that was ‘absolutely wonderful, cooked perfectly, with a layered potato, sprout tops and delicious jus’. Breakfast, served by ‘really cheery staff’, was ‘the best we have enjoyed in a hotel for a good few years’. (Kevin and Victoria Seymour, SP)