Take your lead from the locals beating a path to the door of this ‘handsomely refurbished’ 19th-century coaching inn: there are ‘very good scones, elegantly served on pretty china’ at the renowned afternoon tea, say trusted reporters this year. There’s much more besides. William Griffiths’s ‘fine family-run hotel’, on the main street of a ‘busy, almost gentrified’ market town, is ‘a classy place’ where staff are ‘professional yet friendly’. Charlotte Griffiths, William’s wife, is the manager; Pauline, his mother, who runs a local art gallery, has hung the public spaces with original works. Her artist’s eye is evident, too, in the ‘cheerful, wonderfully comfortable’ bedrooms. In the Oak Room restaurant, chef Wesley Hammond wins praise for his modern British dishes. ‘We had braised beef with a fancy bubble and squeak; pecan pie good enough for Louisiana. Everything looked good, and tasted as good as it looked.’ The breakfast menu, complete with breakfast cocktails, ‘would satisfy a Welsh XV prop forward’. Take a piece of it with you – the hotel’s new bakery, next door, sells sandwiches and all manner of baked goods.