The Angel Hotel

A ‘fine’ hotel with ‘professional yet friendly’ staff, this renovated 19th-century coaching inn is owned and run by the local Griffiths family. It is a ‘classy’ place decorated with ‘an eye for good taste’, say inspectors in 2016. (Good humour, too – look out for ‘amusing’ curtains printed with ‘amply petticoated ladies being wooed by sexy lute-players’.) Mingle with locals in the ‘handsome’ public rooms: ‘very much a town hotel’, The Angel welcomes visitors who come for drinks and casual dinners at the Foxhunter Bar, or for the ‘renowned’ afternoon tea. Bedrooms are in the main building, and adjacent mews and restored cottages nearby. ‘Our room was wonderfully comfortable and well lit, with an expansive bathroom. A sofa faced the big wall-mounted TV screen; the hospitality tray had Fairtrade teas. We appreciated the overnight shoeshine.’ Service is ‘exquisite’ in the Oak Room restaurant, where chef Wesley Hammond serves a ‘short but enticing’ menu, including ‘pecan pie good enough for Louisiana’. Wake to an extensive breakfast menu – ‘enough to satisfy a Welsh XV prop forward’ – with breakfast cocktails and good vegetarian options.