Within the city walls and right next to the Minster, this super-smart hotel gives you gorgeous bedrooms and delicious food

Ease through a beautiful wrought iron gate to a courtyard and an elegant 1700s creamy stone holiday house, part of the château estate

An achingly elegant boutique hotel set in Mallorca's olives and orchards: candlelit organic dinners, infinity pool, a smart little bar...

A privilege to be able to stay within the famous gardens of magnificent Château de Courances. The painter's village of Barbizon is nearby

Gather the clans and just come. It's lovely here among acres of wildlife-filled grounds – a Sawday's Community Champion

A 1750 one-storey former farm building, beautifully converted into a lovely hideaway for walkers, nature lovers and peace seekers

Great gulps of ozone will engulf you at this architect-designed 1960s beach house - light, bright and sparkling, just like the ocean

Starry skies, wild beauty and total peace are yours in these sustainable, solar-powered eco-lodges

A cosy and pretty old cottage for rest or romance, with garden and pool in a small hamlet surrounded by walnut orchards and mixed woodland

Homely furnishings and 17th-century charm at this estate on the Severn, whose owners are mad about horses and give you fine home produce

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

Wonky floors and handmade beds in a restored coaching inn for 4, 6 or 8 - sociable evenings round the farmhouse table, walks from the door

By a lake, enclosed by woodland - a contemporary house and barn, full of handmade furniture – laze in a hammock, walk the Jurassic Coast

Find good taste, peacefulness and warm hospitality, steps away from the car-free Via Toledo, in the heart of the city

Bright and spacious barn for two and a baby on the South Downs Way, close to Brighton and the coast

A peaceful, stylish getaway for two within the charming owners' home with shared pool, fabulous views – and all of Provence to (re)visit

Quaint barns dotted among truffle oaks and rosemary, each one constructed the old-fashioned way and close to the Dordogne and Vézère

Gloriously green rural self-catering apartments with pool and lovely, friendly owners