Gilpin Hotel

‘Our favourite small hotel – simply the best run we’ve ever stayed at.’ The Cunliffe family’s ‘great’ country house hotel continues to please Guide readers. ‘Family run, it makes for a personal, amiable experience.’ Visitors praise the ‘friendly, attentive’ staff and the ‘thoughtfulness they exercise in making their guests happy’. ‘They’re clearly intent on providing what guests want, rather than what they want them to have.’ Sit in the elegant lounge (books, magazines, plump sofas); wander in the ‘lovely’ grounds (Victorian flower gardens, ancient trees, llama paddock). Most of the ‘well-equipped’ bedrooms are in the Edwardian main house; others are at the Lake House, which has its own spa, lake and boathouse. In 2016, five cedar-clad spa lodges sprang up in the grounds, with private treatment areas and views, from outdoor hot tubs, of the Lake District moors. Await evening: chef Hrishikesh Desai’s modern menus are ‘superb’ and this has been recognised this year with a Michelin star. ‘The turbot with shrimps and artichokes was the nicest meal we’d had in a long time.’ ‘An absolute joy.’ Aa new Asian restaurant, Gilpin Spice,  opened in late 2016. (Wolfgang Stroebe, Christopher Harris, Peter Govier). This hotel is a member of Pride of Britain hotels.