Agriturismo at its best - delightful hosts, communal meals of superb home-grown food, homely rooms, a garden filled with fragrant flowers...

Escape to the heart of the Haute-Savoie and this impressive château near Annecy, Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva

A smartly refurbished 500-year-old coaching inn with very comfortable bedrooms, good food and the Peak District at your feet

Step into a place full of life, colour, texture and clever design surrounded by beautiful gardens and lakes

An artist's house imbued with an understated elegance. Stay for dinner; be charmed by the garden where fruit trees throng, hens loiter

Like staying in a family home, only with Henri III furniture and rolling green views. Energetic hosts cook, farm, hunt, chat over champagne

Adorable cottage with a Highland lodge feel – walk straight into the hills, swim in the Spey, relax in the whisky room and sitooterie

A beautifully restored listed barn of Westmorland stone sitting in a conservation area village in spectacular walking country, near Appleby

Share an authentic and unpretentious part of Sardinia with generous hosts. Stay in rooms set across three properties, enjoy memorable meals

Near Mont St Michel, an 18th-century 'maison de plaisance' in historic grounds run by a charming family. Don't miss the table d'hôte!

In a small village on the borders, a Jacobean farmhouse luxuriously restored with lovely touches; the Brecon Beacons are close by

Three comfortable, modern apartments with private terraces, a lovely garden to wander, a pool, a vineyard and views of rolling hills

A fine designer house and pool above the coastal hurly-burly and one of the loveliest coves in Spain, backing onto a nature park. Happy hols

A light, airy and comfortable barn conversion on a farm with stunning views over the Dorset/Devon border just five miles to the sea

Grand and old and filled with history, the estate and such a pretty house are a tonic, as are the well-tended grounds and parkland

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

Vast rooms, thick stone walls and ancient flagged floors skilfully modernised to create comfort, surrounded by romantic château gardens

Converted barn with the most welcoming owners – the garden and pool are all yours; explore a less touristy part of the Dordogne