The holiday starts on the bumpy track along to this Arts & Crafts style modern house with plenty of space and a wrap-around garden

Visit the walled city of Evora, have dinner with the friendliest hosts, pet the dogs & donkeys. Head out for culture, vineyards and menhirs

Enjoy views over the lake, eat good food in the restaurant, sleep in antique-filled bedrooms, have a proper rest

A fuss-free, informal place to stay with family - your own entrance straight from the garden and tasty breakfasts set up in a summer house

Stylish B&B rooms in a peaceful little château, amongst rolling hills, woods and farmland - bikes and boules to borrow, lovely pool to share

Pretty, thatched, perfectly round: a romantic village bolthole with retro touches. Grab flip-flops, leads and run the dogs on Pendower beach

Colourful coastal apartments and studios where you can be nicely independent, and enjoy a communal café and health club with Art Deco pool

Close to sandy beaches between Penzance and Helston, three places to stay with characterful interiors and freshly baked scones waiting

A rural haven in a lovely garden with comfortable bedrooms, brilliant breakfasts and bikes for hire – explore the Parque Natural

Foodies will love the irresistible cooking - along with local wine and a typically Tuscan setting. Bedrooms are pretty

A lovely, spacious 1830s house in the heart of arty Westport with nearly an acre of garden, an apple orchard and the river running past

Retreat to this sweet, peaceful cottage with suntrap courtyard garden enveloped in rolling hills just a short hop from the Jurassic Coast

A joy for foodies, peace seekers and lovers of period architecture… note the Honduran mahogany banister with inlaid jet and pearl

Family-run B&B in traditional trulli with hands-on hosts. Swim in the pool, explore the countryside, the coast is half an hour’s drive away

Two lovely old cottages, part of the 1700 stable block on the St Giles estate, with 5,000 acres to roam, for walkers and peace seekers

An expansive and generous 13th-century Catalan farmhouse, restored with verve and colour in the Pyrenees - a wonderful spot for groups

Come to recharge in the lovely Loire valley at this fine château surrounded by mature gardens and green countryside