Hell Bay Hotel

Sitting above a secluded cove on Bryher’s rugged west-facing coast, with ‘nothing in between to Canada’, this pretty blue-and-white weatherboarded farmhouse-turned-hotel is a ‘10/10 experience’, say smitten guests. ‘Very comfortably appointed’ rooms are spread between several similarly weatherboarded buildings. All share a light and breezy New England style of ocean blues and sandy hues, Lloyd Loom furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows. Most have sea views, some have balconies, others a patio, all have bold Cornish seascapes. The ‘inventive but not fussy’ food on the short-choice, daily-changing menu focuses on local and Cornish products and could include gin-cured salmon followed by John Dory with potato, carrot and samphire fricassée. Chef Richard Kearsley’s lemon meringue pie is always popular. Or you can eat more casually in the bar – perhaps home-made burger, or bouillabaisse. In the summer, get messy on fresh crab, scallops and mussels in the rustic crab 
shack. Evenings are for a sundowner on the well-named Sunset Deck. Throughout, staff are ‘delightful and efficient and happy’. (David and Katherine Soanes)