The Grandtully Hotel, Perthshire

It’s hard to believe this was once a tired hostel, before Chris and Rachel Rowley, fresh from launching rural restaurant and cookery school with rooms Ballintaggart Farm a few miles up the road, got their hands on it. The setting is decidedly sleepy, which makes the inventive food and bold and convivial common spaces all the more special (the ‘Press for whisky’ button in the teal bar, a tribute to Soho haunt Bob Bob Ricard’s ‘Press for champagne’ bells, says it all). Rooms have roll-top baths and are far from identikit – number eight has a roof terrace, room three a record player – with splashes of colour that range from restful lilac to a knock-your-socks-off coral. From £150 per night, including breakfast (ballintaggart.com/grandtully-hotel).