There is much to fire the young imagination at this 17th-century manor house above Chesil beach, the setting for John Meade Falkner’s 1898 tale of smuggling, Moonfleet. Owned by Luxury Family Hotels, with ‘two swimming pools, a huge games room’, football pitch, fossil hunts and more, it has ‘everything children could want’. The service and welcome are ‘brilliant’, though a reader found occasional communication problems with the ‘keen-to-please’ staff. ‘Bedrooms were very good, beds comfortable, every extra you could need.’ An Ofsted crèche frees parents for pampering in the spa – or a glass of fizz on the terrace. At night, ‘You could have the children eat between 5 and 6.30; the hotel then provides a listening service, while adults go down and have a nice meal’. A nice meal, indeed. Michael Culley sources local ingredients for such dishes as pan-fried Lyme Bay scallops; Jurassic Coast lamb rump, dauphinoise potato, golden beetroot, kalettes, red wine jus. A hot buffet breakfast, ‘but they would also cook you individual dishes from a menu. A good choice.’ Picnic hampers are available for the beach. This family hotel ‘did exactly what it said on the tin’. (CH, and others)