This modest Georgian house, built for the Earl and Countess of Poulett, has been much extended since Jane Austen visited and fell in love with Lyme. A hotel since 1901, it has been run by the Haskins family for more than 40 years. In a ‘brilliant situation’ overlooking the bay and the Cobb, it has ‘the feel of a country house rather than a hotel’, writes one of many readers to praise the ‘exceptionally friendly and helpful staff’. Bright, contemporary bedrooms, some on the ground floor, are supplied with ‘good-quality tea and ground coffee and very nice soap and shampoo in refillable containers’. In the light-filled Ammonite restaurant, local produce features in ‘outstanding’ dishes such as slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, and stone bass and crab roll, ‘all presented to a high standard’. There is a ‘lovely drawing room’, a ‘cosy bar’. Sun loungers and a pergola in the garden ‘make it a blissful spot on a sunny day’. ‘One of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in.’ Picnics can be ordered for beach days and fossil hunting. (J. Kersley, Catherine Cockle, Tracy Katrina O'Brien, and others)