Come with friends for a cookery course, or with the kids, and enjoy the creative feel of the place - and the food! Venice 40 mins by train

Welcoming, dog-friendly pub with food to rave about, cracking countryside views and very comfortable bedrooms

Close to the expansive north Norfolk coast, this is a contemporary hotel with a laid-back vibe and excellent food

An adorable little 1800s cottage with a garden – simple, unpretentious and filled with the owner's colourful art on walls and lampshades

Sumptuous and pampering with monogrammed sheets and frescoed walls.More for honeymooners and couples than lolly-licking tots

A clutch of airy properties, most with their own jasmine-scented terraces arranged around a funky pool

Beautifully designed timber cabins in the Black Mountains, right next to a lovely old inn serving good, honest food from their own farm

Close to Saint-Jean-d'Angély, an elegant and spacious manor house with unfussy, comfortable interiors, bucolic views, big garden and pool

Set off on blissful walks, trek home to crumpets and tea. There’s no better place to escape the 21st century than rural Devon

A pretty upside-down cottage, formerly a dovecote, lovingly restored with sustainability the focus

Glass-and-timber doors bathe you with light, gaze at big skies and the river Dart lapping. Sublime year round, it's one of our favourites

Choose the atmospheric early Georgian house or the garden bedrooms, all have views, Paul's welcome is genuine and his dinners delicious

Stay in the very first holiday let in the history of this lovely little hamlet of nine houses, with a superb sailing club and a decent pub

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

In a leafy, peaceful part of Frome - a very civilised bolthole for two. A big garden is yours to share, friendly owners live next door

Enjoy southern life in a charming palazzo in Trapani. Come for coastal drives and baroque basilica, hand-twirled pasta and fresh calamari

Peaceful, traditional country house just 2 miles from central Dorking. Relaxed hosts, good food, beautiful gardens, walks galore - a retreat

An 18th-century limestone barn, now a quiet hideaway for a group of friends or family in a very rural spot surrounded by fields and woods