‘Every comfort is anticipated’ at this ‘classy, tasteful’ Elizabethan manor house, from the garden flowers in the public rooms to ‘the most extensive cheese trolley we’ve ever seen’. ‘It’s like being in a private home,’ says a Guide reader this year. ‘In the morning, Andrew Thomason, the manager, greeted us; at evening turn-down, a hot-water bottle was left on our enormous bed, along with the Radio Times and the TV remote control.’ The stone-built mansion is the former home of ‘wild gardener’ William Robinson; ‘impeccably maintained’, his gardens are ‘colourful, stunning’. Inside, where ‘huge log fires’ burn in the sitting rooms, ‘everything is generously sized: lounges, rooms, beds’. From May 2018, the hotel will reveal its new restaurant, in a garden-facing glass extension – a fitting backdrop for chef George Blogg’s Michelin-starred, potager-to-plate cooking. Using produce from the orchards and ‘the best kitchen garden ever’, his dishes might include terrine of heritage beetroot, smoked cow’s curd, puffed grains, wild sorrel – ‘each plate a joy to look at’. (Nigel Barton, Zara Elliot, F and IW). Gravetye Manor is a member of Pride of Britain hotels. The hotel will be closed from January to April 2018 while the new restaurant is built.