Check in to a winner
This year’s champions of hospitality include a former youth hostel and Michelin-starred mansion
WhAT makes a truly great British hotel? Wonderful food and wine are a given, along with stylish rooms. But it’s personal service and attention to detail that really makes some places stand out.
At The Good hotel Guide, we pride ourselves on finding those small, independent hotels that go the extra mile. Our Cesar winners this year include a hotel that has totally reinvented the motorway service station and a pub where you might find yourself doing yoga next to the owners, Lord and Lady Northampton . . .
Best country hotel The Forest Side, Cumbria
MICheLIN-STARReD cuisine, elegant bedrooms and red squirrels in the garden are a recipe for success for this 20-room hotel. Chef Paul Leonard sources 90 per cent of his produce from a ten-mile radius. Light and airy bedrooms feature herdwick wool carpets and Bramley toiletries. The icing on the cake? Glorious walks from the door.
DETAILS: B&B doubles from £199 ( theforestside.com).
Best city hotel No. 15 by GuestHouse, Bath
NAMeD after the three Guest brothers who own it, this boutique property occupies a trio of Grade I-listed Georgian town houses.
The rooms are all different, with touches of whimsy such as a coffee maker in a dolls’ house or wallpaper inspired by the pergola in henrietta Park opposite. All have a turntable and access to the complimentary pantry. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 149 ( guesthousehotels.co.uk).
Best B&B Cambridge House, Reeth, North Yorkshire
A WARM welcome with cake isn’t the only thing guests enjoy at Sheila and Robert Mitchell’s B&B. Rooms have sweeping views over Swaledale, exposed stone walls, bathrobes and Noble Isle toiletries.
Sheila and Robert can advise on the surrounding area. Particular praise is heaped on the breakfasts, which include pancakes, smoked haddock, local eggs, croissants from the village bakery and Sheila’s award-winning marmalade. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 110 ( cambridgehousereeth.co.uk).
Best pub with rooms The Double Red Duke, Clanfield, Oxfordshire
PUBS with rooms become more and more stylish — and the Duke is no exception. The rooms in Georgie and Sam Pearman’s 17th-century inn have a country-chic air. They grill meat and fish over cherry and apple wood — you can sit at a counter and watch the chefs in action. The pub attracts a glitzy crowd of locals and weekenders. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 180 ( countrycreatures.com)
Best Southern hotel The Pig in Brockenhurst, New Forest, Hampshire
A WhOLe litter of pigs has entered the world since Robin hutson opened the first in 2011. While they’re all special, it’s this mother pig which can claim to have reinvented the english country hotel, with food sourced from a 25-mile radius and its kitchen garden. The ethos is hip not hooray, and there’s nothing too hammed up about the shabby-chic interiors.
DETAILS: Room- only doubles from £225 ( thepighotel.com).
Best South-Western hotel The Henley, Bigbury-on-Sea, South Devon
IT’S worth booking into this seaside bolthole just for the views over the sands to Burgh Island. Guests also appreciate the friendliness of owners, Petra Lampe and Martyn Scarterfield. Take the path down to the beach, sit on the decked terrace and tuck into Martyn’s evening meals. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 159 ( thehenleyhotel.co.uk).
Best East Anglian hotel Morston Hall, Holt, Norfolk
BIRDWATCheRS and bon vivants alike beat a path to Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s Michelin-starred restaurantwith-rooms, with Blakeney nature reserve on the doorstep. At night, feast on the seven- course tasting menu of local or home-grown produce.
DETAILS: Dinner and B&B from £190 per person ( morstonhall.com).
Best Midlands hotel The Falcon, Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
TheRe’S a reason they call Lord Northampton the Mystic Marquess. he and his wife have placed wellbeing at the core of their reinvented 16thcentury coaching inn on the Castle Ashby estate. Take a yoga class or a gong bath, book a nature trail in the estate’s grounds and swim in the lake designed by Capability Brown. The beautiful interiors are intended to relax you, with earthy, mossy tones reflecting the surrounding countryside. DETAILS: B&B doubles from £165 ( thefalconcastleashby.
Best B Northern hotel Westmorland Hotel, Penrith, Cumbria
TALK about reinventing the motorway service station. Formerly Tebay Services hotel, h this Lake District hotel on the M6 offers quiet rooms with fell views. Created by the resourceful Dunning family after the M6 carved up their hill farm, its delicious yet unfussy food features fresh farm produce. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 111 ( westmorlandhotel.com).
Best Scottish hotel
Eddrachilles, Scourie, Highlands ThIS spot overlooking Badcall Bay was a
youth hostel in the 1950s but is as far from a world of dormitories wth lumpy beds and even lumpier porridge as you can imagine. Cream tea is served in the conservatory, there’s a choice of 60 malt whiskies in the bar, and the menu changes nightly. Some rooms even have loch views.
DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 150 ( eddrachilles.com).
Best Welsh hotel Penally Abbey, Penally, Pembrokeshire
OWNeR Melanie Boissevain is an interior designer and it shows in the stylish, soothing rooms in this Strawberry hill Gothic house which is a five-minute drive from Tenby. Antiques rub shoulders with French market finds, blowsy wallpapers and Persian rugs.
enjoy modern British cuisine and views over the bay to the Gower Peninsula through the dining room’s romantic cusped windows. DETAILS: B& B doubles from £ 135 ( penally-abbey.com). n THE Good Hotel Guide 46th edition is out on Monday (£20, goodhotelguide.com)