In a buzzy spot near Boscombe beach, Mark Cribb’s quirky hotel has a happy, laid-back atmosphere.

Forged from the coastal villa of an aristocratic MP this ‘gloriously Gothic mini-Hogwarts, all gargoyles and turrets’ gazes out across the sea to Old Harry Rocks.

It is as if a cruise liner had docked on the banks of Dorset’s Stour several years ago, to the sound of popping corks, and everyone liked it so much that they’d stayed.

‘Definitely one to go back to.’ This ‘super hotel’, housed in a 16th-century priory on the River Frome, continues to gather fans.

After more than 50 years, this country house hotel and spa on the edge of the New Forest still sets the standard for luxury.

‘A handsome Georgian house’ and former coaching inn, overlooking the River Stour meadows in a market town, is today ‘a very pleasant hotel’ with ‘lovely staff'.

‘Set in a period property, this hotel pampers its clients like friends, and captures an age of country house hospitality,’ write readers this year, of Barbara Garnsworthy’s former dower house in a feudal village.