Yalbury Cottage

‘Comfortable’ cottage-style bedrooms, ‘first-class’ food, ‘friendly, efficient, helpful’ staff and a ‘cosy’ atmosphere combine to form one ‘lovely little hotel’, say ‘delighted’ guests. Ariane and Jamie Jones run their restaurant-with-rooms in their 18th-century family home at the heart of Thomas Hardy country (the name recalls Yalbury Wood in Under the Greenwood Tree). Book ahead for a seat in the popular restaurant: Jamie Jones’s ‘delicious, beautifully presented’ dishes – ‘the chef has an eye for a picture’ – attract much attention. ‘We enjoyed a delicious fillet of aged beef with horseradish croquette potatoes; the Dorset plaice fillet came with creamy saffron mash.’ Each of the simply decorated bedrooms looks out over the garden or surrounding countryside. ‘Our spacious room under the thatch had a good-sized bathroom with a monsoon shower over the bath.’ A guest this year wished for more efficient heating. Rise and shine with ‘delicious home-made chunky marmalade, freshly squeezed juices, and a good country breakfast with thick bacon, herby sausages and little vine tomatoes’. (Peter Anderson, CJ, Gwyn Morgan)