Escape to a rural idyll on a working olive and citrus farm in the toe of Italy. Attentive hosts, good for kids and great food!

Airy, spacious, sunny. This Lot gîte is a delight: linen curtains, oak stair, sunny pool. Sarlat and painted caves are an easy venture away

Relax in peace & quiet: orchards, woods, organic farm, wildlife everywhere. Offa's Dyke nearby - start the day with Teona's veggie breakfast

You're overlooking the main square in medieval Umbertide from this cosy, second-floor apartment, so you'll feel very much like a local

This 300-year-old Cotswold pub, the hub of picture-book Sapperton from which there are glorious walks, is a superb place to eat and stay

Elegant country château with a family feel, for big groups with or without children, and those who seek inspiration

Beautiful cottages, donkey rides, a popular pool and restaurants to walk to. Dutch Peter knows all the walks in this heavenly valley!

Explore the coastal paths on foot or by bike, or simply sunbathe next to the pool... Leafy gardens, comfortable rooms and excellent dinners

In a hamlet in the Loire countryside is a friendly estate with a family-sized gite, a shared saltwater pool and heaps of old-world charm

High in the Tuscan hills, at the end of an avenue of cypresses, surrounded by parkland and acres of olives... a 13th-century dream

Glorious boutique hotel on the Sorrento Peninsula with Michelin-starred restaurant and superb cellar to explore

A recently renovated and very comfortable stand-alone limestone cottage with fabulous views on the edge of the Easton Walled Gardens

A stylish, canal-side inn – you get Sunday lunch, tow paths that lead into Edinburgh, then a pretty garden and cute rooms

High on a hill in the Tyne Valley, undisturbed except by birds singing and the wind whistling; views swoop down to a magical landscape

Four family-friendly self-catering casitas and an original cortijo in wildlife-rich acres near the sandy Costa de la Luz

A cracking English inn with open fires, great food, gorgeous rooms, happy staff, lovely gardens and well-kept English ales

High in the heavenly hills is this very smartly converted farm building, with underfloor heating, much glass, wood and exposed brickwork