On show through walls of windows, the sea is a huge presence at this family-run hotel on the cliffs above a surfers' beach, which offers craft sessions as well as a spa and kids club.

Overlooking subtropical gardens and sandy Carne Beach, the Ashworth family's hotel delights readers with its country-house style, superlative service and retro classics in the dining room.

'People come here for the food, and for good reason,' says a Guide insider of this buzzy pub with rooms, which is 'very much ye olde village inn, with rustic furniture and roaring fires under the beams'.

For more than 40 years, Raymond Blanc has held two Michelin stars at this beautiful country-house hotel 'and in our opinion, it's a travesty that he hasn't been awarded three', say Guide insiders.

Birdwatchers and bon vivants beat a path to Tracy and Galton Blackiston's Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms in a flint farmhouse with Blakeney nature reserve on the doorstep.

A 'popular pub in a beautiful village', this 15th-century coaching inn with its old arched carriageway has been beautifully made over in casual-chic style. It was a second venture for Dan Brod and Charlie Luxton, with Matt Greenlees.

Hidden in a back street of Padstow's old town, these sybaritic B&B suites, created by chef Paul Ainsworth and his wife, are an ideal retreat for foodies.

Once a bolt hole for wealthy Venetians escaping the summer heat (plus Robert Browning, Freya Stark, Igor Stravinsky et al.), this charming little medieval hill town in the Veneto is known as 'the town of a hundred horizons'.

A charming 'village within a village', this collection of honeyed buildings houses impeccably designed rooms surrounded by pretty gardens, with spring-fed outdoor pool, spa, cookery school, bar, and short, modern menus of country produce in the Ox Barn.

Celebrity chef Rick Stein's famous fish restaurant and seafood bar, with coastal-inspired bedrooms, is the flagship of a mini ‘Padstein’ empire that includes a cookery school, a gift shop, fishmonger's and deli.

Antiques and ancestral portraits fill Lord and Lady Macdonald's hunting lodge, in a beautiful situation on the shores of Loch Na Dal. It is now run by daughter Isabella, with country-house bedrooms, a three-course dinner featuring home-grown produce, and a ghillie on hand for fishing, stalking and foraging.

Visitors to Daylesford Organic's farm shop can stay at this 18th-century Cotswold stone inn, a modern take on a traditional pub and the epitome of rustic chic, serving delicious and exciting dishes from a short menu of seasonal and sustainable produce.

Ten minutes from Henley-on-Thames, this chocolate-box-pretty, thatched gastropub has three swish, well-equipped bedrooms. The short restaurant menu mixes pub classics with more original dishes, while brunch, coffees, artisan pastries and simple cooked dishes are on offer at weekends in the barn.

A New Forest bolthole, this country-house hotel has an easy glamour, romantic and family-friendly rooms, heart-warming Italian food and top-notch spa.

Approached down a mile-long avenue of lime and beech trees, this grand Palladian mansion in 500 acres of parkland and gardens is a family friendly country-house hotel with spa, pools, an equestrian centre, luxury bedrooms, Michelin-starred menus in Restaurant Hywel Jones, and less formal dining in the Walled Garden Restaurant.

Olive and Hugo Guest's Georgian house on the family's smallholding is run as a guest house and restaurant with beautifully styled interiors, heated pool, tennis court, and an ethos inspired by Italian agriturismo, using home-grown produce for picnics, lunches, Aga-cooked kitchen suppers and gourmet dinners.

Chef-owner farmers Tom Adams and April Bloomfield draw inspiration from European agriturismo at their rustic-chic guest house and restaurant in an 18th-century farmhouse and grain barns.

Filled with vintage glassware, ornaments and curios, Annie Rowley's B&B in a historic market town is full of Georgian elegance, and has three top-floor bedrooms, a drawing room, and indulgent treats. Breakfast is taken communally.