A lovely old 19th-century inn by the sea with hand-pumped ales, fresh local and seasonal food and spoiling bedrooms, some with sea views

A romantic creekside cottage down a web of narrow lanes in a tumbling green valley – mess about on the water to your heart’s content

Feel French in this very beautiful 300-year-old house with a large garden and pool in a hilltop medieval village of winding, cobbled streets

High in Ávila's unspoilt nature is this stylish, eco-brilliant family hotel: mountains, massages, pool, organic dinners... a special escape

Bring boots, maps, your dog and an appetite for high places and deep comfort in this restored farm conversion

Classic-modern luxury, a charming young hostess and a peaceful setting – perfect for breakfast-lovers, wine buffs and all the family

Beautiful views over Bantry Bay from this thoughtfully restored house with stylish rooms, gardens and woodland – a wonderful escape

Ease yourself into a rather more gracious lifestyle from this sweet retreat on a historic estate with gorgeous walled gardens

Charmingly rambling, inside and out: blazing fires, riotous patterns, oak panelling, a prolific garden and comfortable antique beds

By a bubbling brook in the Mendips, close to Bath and Bristol, a wonderfully revived and welcoming inn with smart rooms and scrumptious food

A beautifully converted dairy with a magical garden in a quiet village surrounded by lovely countryside

A charming hotel in a quiet neighbourhood in medieval Bologna, just the ticket for a city escape filled with food, history and culture

Nestled next to the main house, this feels part cottage and part townhouse, making a cosy retreat just a couple of miles from the coast

Perfect luxury in deepest Normandy: gorgeous gardens, a heavenly pool, and interiors worthy of an art gallery

A warm family and starlit suppers in a grand estate by Soller, near wildflower walks and beaches. Citrus mingles with exotic fragrances

Outside a perfect bastide village, an elegant manoir for lazy days in the Dordogne, fabulous dinners and glorious gardens

An art-filled home poised above Hastings Old Town in a wonderfully private, peaceful spot and with a lush, tropical garden