HOTEL ROOMS WITH A VIEW

Most of us, when we check in to a hotel room, go straight to the window and look at the view. And which ones inspire the loudest wows? Those of the sea, of course! Here are some of our favourites… Owned by the Pritt family for three generations, THE WENTWORTH gazes across the beach at Aldeburgh with an air of solid reassurance. There are traditionally furnished lounges with antiques and open fires, and each of its several sea-facing rooms is equipped with a pair of binoculars for scanning the horizon. Doubles from £210 B&B (wentworth-aldeburgh.com). The cool and contemporary in Margate has a roof terrace overlooking the broad sandy bay (as painted by JMW Turner) that’s shared by several of the 20 rooms and is ideal for sunset cocktails. Other highlights include local fish and farm produce on the menu. Doubles from £130 B&B (sandshotelmargate.co.uk). This year, THE NARE on Cornwall’s Roseland peninsula has won a coveted César Award in the Good Hotel Guide. Although it can claim to be the ‘seaside hotel of the year’, it’s really a country house that happens to be on the coast, overlooking a grand sweep of a beach. Doubles from £284 B&B, including morning tea and afternoon cream tea (narehotel.co.uk).

Half of the rooms at

THE STAR CASTLE in St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, are within the 16th-century fortress, which was built to keep out the Spanish. The rest are in the garden, where there’s also an indoor pool, a conservatory seafood restaurant and a tennis court. Doubles from £179 B&B (star-castle.co.uk).

• Other seaside favourites include The Cary Arms in Devon; The White Horse at Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk; Hell Bay on Bryher, Isles of Scilly; The George at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight; and Tresanton in St Mawes, Cornwall (goodhotelguide.com).