Light-and-colour filled cottage with gardens and sea views on the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast, a short stroll from Chesil Beach

Charming, simple and elegant B&B with a lovely garden and kind owners in an area renowned for its good wine and food

Immaculate Cotswold beauty with great food, welcoming staff, handsome rooms and a sun-trap terrace, plus countryside walks from the door

A magical medieval castello, gloriously gothic with tower, moat and ghost, fit for a Shakespearian play.

Come to walk, cycle, fish and hunker down in style in front of the wood-burner - sleep in deep comfort in a lovingly converted barn

A cosy cottage on a farm down a long winding track, wonderfully rural with footpaths across fields or along the canal

Welcome to a dreamy fortified castle, once owned by French royalty, the perfect place to stay for history lovers and comfort seekers

If you need a great place in which to relax and don’t want to pay too much for it, try these excellent suites, which spoil you all the way

Elegant farmhouse B&B. Drawing room with a log fire, generous breakfasts with home produce, cookery courses and friendly welcoming hosts

Come on down to the farm and this wonderful eco conversion of an ancient piggery with heavily beamed ceilings and much warmth and comfort

You’ll eat well here, among locals who love the food. The village is quiet, the rooms serenely modern. A great base for a holiday en famille

A luxurious eco-retreat plus extra room in the Space Conker in private woodland with views to the Chaîne des Aravis and Mont Blanc

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

Fragrant gardens full of fruit trees, a lovingly renovated house just a few minutes’ walk from the village, and excellent breakfasts

A 17th-century townhouse sitting on a quiet side street with lots of original features and a west-facing patio screened by vines and lemons

Tucked down an alley off the main road through Midhurst, this well-designed, generous-spirited little house exudes character and quirk

A charming stone farmhouse, engulfed in ancient olive trees and with typically Provençal interiors - hugely comfortable

Moments from Chamonix, a sweet chalet with pretty gardens in sun or snow under a backdrop of Mont Blanc – perfect for the adventurous