This famous old country house might not come cheap, but where else can you splash out in such decadent style for life’s big celebrations?

Tucked down a private driveway, this restored 19th-century farm building offers superb breakfasts, well-dressed beds and a beautiful garden

Simple but stylishly furnished village house, terrific hill-top views, low-impact design, organic cooking and a hot tub; utterly peaceful

A stone building designed by Sir John Soane in the stable yard of this historic and beautiful estate with deer park and woodland gardens

A gorgeous wooden-clad off-grid cottage deep in the National Park with far-reaching views, unfussy interiors and spoiling extra treatments

A renovated bright apartment with lots of space, a hop, skip and jump away from the shingle beach of seaside-jolly Deal

A light, bright and peaceful 18th-century palazzo in a very quiet town, with a sea-view terrace, peaceful bedrooms and delicious breakfasts

A Victorian farm steading cleverly repurposed as an open-plan holiday home with bright, colourful interiors, deep in the Perthshire hills

Treat yourselves to a stay on one of the oldest wine estates in Provence and a family house from the 1740s, complete with antiques

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

Rooms are good value, breakfast is taken overlooking the garden and there's superb veggie food next door - a Sawday's Community Champion

An 18th-century cottage for four on a working sheep farm: walk the Pentland Hills, get the bus to Edinburgh for culture

Elegant rooms behind a popular village pub with country walks from the door, and the spectacular Peak District and stately homes nearby

Find a stunning entrance hall and quirky interiors at this colourful and comfortable 1890 olive mill sitting pretty in the National Park

Generous simplicity and organic farm cooking in this rustic Tuscan farm with library, yoga, family apartments and natural lily-dotted pond

You get the best of all worlds here. Delicious beds, Provençal soaps, vineyard views, fresh croissants a stroll away…

Rare as a bird, a proper old fashioned French inn on the side of the road in a sleepy village, a restoration project for the new owners