‘We arrived hungry and tired, and came away feeling relaxed, recharged and utterly spoiled.’ Visitors celebrating a special occasion in 2018 at Caroline and Jonathan Kaye’s ‘impressive’ small hotel ‘felt welcome from the moment we walked in’. ‘The room was exceptional, the meal superb; the hosts made our stay memorable.’ ‘Caroline and Jonathan always go the extra mile’. Pleasing touches return their small Lake District hotel to its roots as a Victorian country house retreat, from the locally crafted furniture to replacing used water glasses in the bathrooms (‘a dying service’). Local produce feeds long-serving chef Roger Pergl-Wilson’s ‘imaginative menus’, which might include beetroot-and-liquorice-marinated gravlax with kohlrabi-fennel coleslaw; aubergine and chestnut tagine. Each of the ‘superbly appointed’ bedrooms is different, with a canopy bed here, a four-poster there; some overlook the eponymous Lebanese cedar through ecclesiastical windows. Morning is welcomed by a sturdy Cumbrian grill; locally smoked haddock with hollandaise and a poached egg; American-style pancakes – all cooked to order. (Pauline and Stephen Glover, and others)