Fifteen minutes from the wild and wonderful Northumberland coast, on the Charlton Hall estate, Richard Shell’s Duxford Group has splurged on this fun and affordable hotel, with bold, brilliant, frankly bonkers interiors and an Alice in Wonderland vibe to make you grin like a Cheshire cat. Within new-built and restored farm buildings you find an explosion of colour and caprice, stripes, checks, zigzags, florals, woodsy faux foliage, disco balls, Venetian arches…. Reception occupies a former gin gang, a horse-engine house, where a neon tree-and-lights installation recalls Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’, while boutique rooms and suites are spread across hotel, farmhouse, cottage and barn. Some have a hot tub and private garden, while new lake cabins have a terrace with copper spa bath. You can sip cocktails or take tea in the bar. In The Orangery restaurant, the evening menu (simpler at lunchtime) ranges around steaks, burgers, fish and chips, and such inventive dishes as pan-roasted sea bass with Bombay potatoes and bhaji, or sweet potato, courgette and red pepper curry. In warmer months, The Tipi is the place for pizzas and live music.