The fun, hip, relaxed ethos of this pub with exceptional-value rooms on the edge of the Fonthill Estate is evident from the minute you walk in the door. Guide insiders couldn't believe the buzz when they arrived at this 'comfy, characterful place' in the afternoon, long after lunch.

The ancient stone-built Bath Arms in woodlands on the Longleat estate 'is a welcome sight after a long journey', and doesn't disappoint within, with 'appealing menus' 'attentive and pleasant staff' and great-value, well-decorated rooms.

With its own farm shop, brewery and spa barn with outdoor hot tub and sauna as well as a kiddies' playground, this 'buzzy boozer' is 'so much more than a pub with rooms', writes our inspector.

Rescued from closure by two local couples, this gastropub at the heart of a picturesque village, has stylish bedrooms and cooking of a very high order.

This gastropub-with-rooms is set in a beguilingly pretty 17th-century Bath stone inn with mullioned windows and cascading wisteria, and lovely gardens outside.

In two adjacent buildings, dating from 1452 and 1538, Philip O'Shea's restaurant-with-rooms is in the heart of the historic market town.

Still very much a village local, with four simple, tasteful bedrooms, this atmospheric 19th-century beamed pub, serving staples and more exciting dishes, has been given a new lease of life by the Chickpea Group.

Ideally situated beside Corsham Court at the heart of the village, this former coaching inn has smartly refurbished bedrooms, a friendly, casual ambience and a menu of pub classics and fancier dishes, using produce from the kitchen garden.

An 18th-century part-thatched former tannery turned village ale house has been renovated in a style of rustic simplicity, with unfussy bedrooms and a dining room serving pub classics and more complex dishes.

A loyal following of guests returns time and again to this 17th-century house, with stone-mullioned windows in 'a lovely quiet location, with nice gardens'.

All the bases are covered for a fun, relaxing family escape at this Jacobean manor house, which has a crèche, cinema, spa, pools, comfortable country house-style bedrooms, and formal and informal dining.

There is a simple sophistication about both the interiors and the menus at this Georgian rectory, where bedrooms have contemporary and period furniture and subtle paint shades, and modern dishes tick the boxes for foodies.

In a small village on the Duchy of Somerset's estate, the Victorian Somerset Arms was relaunched in 2021 as an idealised rustic-chic country pub.

Centred on a Georgian farmhouse, with 26 ornamental gardens, a spa, gym, contemporary bedrooms, Michelin-starred dining-room, brasserie and kitchen garden terrace, this hotel has 'luxury' written all over it.

A 'laid-back, fire-in-the hearth, village pub atmosphere' prevails at this charming thatched gastropub with riverside guesthouse on the edge of Salisbury Plain.

With 'a great setting in large grounds' and the 'huge plus' of an outdoor heated pool, this ornate Italianate Victorian house in woodland and gardens impressed our inspectors, who found it a 'very relaxed place'.

Opposite the entrance to Wilton House, seat of the earls of Pembroke, this extensively refurbished Georgian building is once again run by Ido and Alison Davids, who were at the reins from 2000 to 2012.

Pull off the A303 to find this dining-pub-with-rooms, which set the style for the small Chickpea group (see also The Pembroke Arms, Salisbury).

Overlooking the River Avon, this 18th-century merchant's house has been imaginatively converted into a relaxed, modern-day inn with Nordic-influenced bedrooms, an industrial-chic bar and restaurant.

Welcoming and peaceful, Ben Maschler's thatched 14th-century inn has all the traditional comforts, sophisticated gastropub dishes and classics, simple-chic bedrooms, and the Nadder valley on the doorstep.

Approached down a mile-long avenue of lime and beech trees, this 'very grand and lovely' Palladian mansion exults in 500 acres of parkland and gardens.