The Queensberry

‘A near-faultless stay.’ In a ‘great’ location – ‘so easily reached from the centre, yet so quiet’ – Laurence and Helen Beere’s ‘excellent’ hotel continues to please guests with its ‘personable, efficient’ staff, ‘delicious’ food and ‘generously sized’ rooms. (The ‘very good’ cocktails help, too.) Pick one of the neat, modern bedrooms: they vary in size, from compact club rooms to junior suites with a seating area and space for a child’s bed. Inspectors found a top-floor room ‘quite hot (a fan was provided)’, but they appreciated the ‘abundant’ storage space; the ‘bright, well-designed’ bathroom; the turn-down service. Take tea in the ‘charming’ garden; come evening, stay in for dinner: the Olive Tree restaurant, where chef Chris Cleghorn’s modern dishes are ‘presented with a great deal of care’, ‘rightly has a very good reputation locally’. ‘We had beautifully cooked turbot preceded by a tasty, frothy amuse-bouche; delicious, warm bread rolls.’ In the morning, skip the ‘unfortunate’ toast and go for a ‘very good’ kipper. ‘The valet parking is a boon.’ (Peter Jowitt, and others)