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With staycations thrust upon us, it’s just as well that Britain’s hotels have undergone a renaissance and are now a holiday in themselves, writes Mariella Frostrup

With talk of hotel quarantine and travel restrictions lasting until after Easter, it looks increasingly likely that we are in for another staycation summer. Thank goodness, then, for the UK’s world-class hospitality industry.

Those old enough to remember the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s, before Bridget Jones had made a “minibreak” desirable and when sexy bathrooms were but a twinkle in the eye for Nick Jones of Soho House, will recall that it wasn’t always so. But things have changed. These days, when gongs are being handed out, I’m surprised that so few go to those who have irrevocably changed our leisure time for the better.

A weekend in December at The Pig at Harlyn Bay was a timely reminder, between lockdowns, of what standardsetters British hotels can be. The latest in this carnivore-celebrating chain can’t take credit for the blue skies and dazzling winter sun we experienced during our stay – but for casually sumptuous accommodation in a spectacular setting, with delectable meals to replace the calories lost stomping the Cornish coastal path, there can’t be a better choice.

This sympathetically restored seaside manor is heavy on lush green velvets and wooden floors, stylish bathrooms and dazzling minibar treats. With everything from shepherds’ huts in the garden to grand bedrooms in the main house, there is a room for every budget. But it’s not just pioneers of the Great British hotel reboot, such as The Pigs’ Robin Hutson and Nick Jones, that are making waves. The revolution in simple, local British cuisine and simply luxurious accommodation has finally made significant inroads in our ancient and unique country hostelries, too.

Previously, drink-driving laws and a monopoly of unimaginative brewers had called time on many country inns across the land – but now, despite present circumstances, I feel a glimmer of hope. In my own locale, The Three Horseshoes Inn in Batcombe, Somerset, has been snapped up by a well-to-do neighbour who plans to turn it into a welcoming gastronomic beacon with rooms. Close by, The Bull Inn was bought five years ago by the creators of Hauser & Wirth in

Bruton and transformed into another meat-lovers’ mecca, where Sunday lunch must be booked weeks in advance.

For those considering a similar enterprise, The Royal Oak in Ramsden, Oxfordshire – a 17th-century inn with a 21st-century makeover – serves as a blueprint for the perfect low-key bolthole. I’d previously been underwhelmed by this unprepossessing pub, heavy on cheap pine, and had a pinch-me moment when I returned to stay in the brief window between lockdowns to witness its transformation, thanks to film mogul Tim Bevan and his artist wife Amy.

Packed with diners of all ages, basking in the homely golden glow of its rather breathtaking barnlike extension, The Royal Oak now offers a gourmet experience with which no food critic could find fault, and bedrooms to rival the likes of nearby Soho Farmhouse. Despite the pub’s proximity to the aforementioned country club complex, Nick Jones and his wife, Kirsty Young, are regulars.

Now that we are reinventing our holiday habits thanks to Covid-19, climate change and our departure from Europe, perhaps this renaissance of our inns and hostelries – once the resting places of travellers up and down the land – is timely. Can you put hand on heart and say you have explored every corner of our four nations? I certainly can’t – and the Orkneys and Hebrides are next on my rather long list of places close to home that are less trammelled.

Future-proofing our hospitality industry, and in particular specialised local ventures, needs cross-party support. That is why the likes of Hutson and Angela Hartnett, his business partner in Hartnett Holder & Co, are calling for the Government to appoint a hospitality tsar to represent the interests of this most indispensable of businesses. Their Seat at the Table campaign calls for proper representation in government for an industry that is the UK’s third-largest employer and includes among its workers the young and self-employed who are hardest hit by the pandemic.

This past year has exacted a heavy toll on those who make our leisure time pleasurable. So perhaps, rather than feeling that the staycation is being foisted upon us, we should celebrate the bounty on our doorsteps and make it an annual tradition?

Can you put hand on heart and say you have explored every corner of our four nations?

To read more articles by Mariella Frostrup, see telegraph.co.uk/tt-mariella

Travel within the UK is currently subject to restrictions. See Page 3.

i The Pig serves ‘delectable meals to replace the calories lost stomping the Cornish coastal path’

i Country girl: Mariella Frostrup at The Pig at Harlyn Bay, one of Robin Hutson’s groundbreaking hotels