The George of Stamford

‘Over five decades the dear old George has never missed a beat, and our stay was as perfect as ever in this beautiful, old but supremely comfortable hotel in a lovely town.’ A reader praises this historic coaching inn on the Great North Road, owned by Lawrence Hoskins for half a century. Some bedrooms have contemporary decor, and all have individually controlled air conditioning but, from antique four-posters to silver-domed carvery trolleys in the panelled Oak Room restaurant, which serves ‘perfect Dover sole and succulent roast beef’, this is a classic hotel of its kind. You can eat less formally in the Garden Room, where every taste is catered for, from pasta, fish and chips and burgers to steak-and-kidney pudding, lobster Benedict, ‘the best sea bass I can recall’. ‘Tea in the courtyard with a pianist playing songs from the 1930s has been a delight,’ another reader related, although wincing at prices ‘that seem well over the top’. Service at its best is ‘perfect’, though yet another reader found it haphazard. Still, ‘lovely to stay in a famous hotel of such character’. (Ralph Wilson, Geoffrey Bignell, and others)