Cedar Manor

‘Gracious’, ‘sincere’ owners Caroline and Jonathan Kaye run their well-liked small hotel with warmth and personality, agree guests in 2016. ‘They’re an energetic, hands-on couple who work well and closely with their small team of excellent staff.’ The 19th-century country retreat ‘cleverly combines period features with a pleasing modern design’. There’s ‘a high-end luxury feel’ throughout, and a ‘relaxed’ atmosphere where ‘everyone mingles over cocktails for hours’. ‘Superbly appointed’ bedrooms have ‘plenty of thoughtful touches – chocolate eggs over Easter weekend; an elegantly typed note about the clocks changing’. In the candlelit restaurant, Roger Pergl-Wilson’s modern dinners, with ‘generous’ servings of ‘varied home-baked breads’, are ‘excellent’ (leave room for the ‘imaginative desserts and home-made petits fours’). Wake to a heartening breakfast, served at table: home-made jams and marmalade; ‘delicious’ prunes soaked in brandy and Earl Grey tea; a good choice of cooked dishes. Pack a lunch of ‘generously filled sandwiches’ for a walk through woodland to the lake. (Pauline and Stephen Glover, John Firrell, and others)