Soar Mill Cove Hotel

A single-storey hotel enfolded in a gorse-clad valley, a stroll through National Trust land to the eponymous cove, has been in the Makepeace family for three generations. With flexible family suites and high tea for tinies, it happily accommodates children. Book a cove-facing room for ‘a wonderful view down to the cove with the sea beyond’. Readers have differing opinions on the contemporary, unfussy rooms, which have full-height glass doors to a patio. ‘We had a spacious family room,’ one tells us. ‘The beds were very comfortable, with good-quality sheets.’ Another praises a ‘good-sized room with comfortable chairs’, a ‘well-designed bathroom with the best shower in a bath I have ever seen’. A third reader, though, decreed his country-facing room was ‘simple’ rather than ‘stylish’, while another complained of a ‘dated, windowless bathroom’. Opinions on the food are less divided. ‘Food was first class. Wonderful soufflé, pan-roasted salmon, hand-picked Salcombe crab.’ Awake to a full Devon breakfast and take a packed lunch to the beach. ‘The night sky was a deep navy with stars aplenty.’ (Richard Bright, 
SR, and others)