With a waterside terrace, coolly stylish interiors, well-equipped bedrooms and a chef who honed his craft in Raymond Blanc’s kitchen, this Edwardian hotel in a fishing village on the Fal estuary is the place to idle away blissful days.

Hidden in a back street of Padstow’s old town, these sybaritic B&B suites, created by chef Paul Ainsworth and his wife, are an ideal retreat for foodies.

Avowedly family-friendly and fun yet stylish, this hotel with spa occupies a Baroque Victorian mansion in five acres above the Fowey estuary.

With golf, tennis, kayaking and powerboating, indoor pool and outdoor hot tub, this spa hotel in 65 acres of garden and woodland on the Helford river is a holiday resort in its own right.

‘This hotel is all about position – on the cliffs above the beach and beautiful gardens,’ a reader writes.

An iconic white Victorian hotel on a cliff-top is today a dog- and family-friendly hotel with spa, outdoor pool, informal bar dining, and more ambitious cooking in the Atlantic View restaurant.

There are ‘great views of the Camel Estuary’ from this 1920s, family-friendly hotel that is 'virtually on the famous golf course’.

Life on the water’s edge doesn’t come much closer than at this large hotel, the oldest in the maritime town.

A landmark Victorian building above Fistral Bay, this hotel is a mix of the grand and contemporary, with pools and spa treatments, a golf course, surf school, bedrooms in coastal colours, refined and informal dining.

With romantic Thomas Hardy associations, this Victorian rectory is run today as a B&B with traditional bedrooms, original features, lovingly tended garden, and home-grown produce at breakfast.

If you can't get enough of the freshest of seafood at this restaurant-with-rooms, you can learn to prepare your own lobster for grilling and the perfect hollandaise sauce at Rick Stein's cookery school across the road.

‘You feel as though you’re on the French Riviera’ at Olga Polizzi’s seaside hotel ‘in one of the most idyllic locations you could hope to come across’.

It's blue heaven, on a sunny day, to sit on the terrace of this adults-only, 1930s hotel overlooking a white-sand Blue Flag beach and the clear waters of St Ives Bay, with a chilled glass of wine or a cream tea.

Above the rugged cliffs and white-sand beaches of Lizard Point, Cornwall’s most southerly hotel is being reinvented as a contemporary retreat in harmony with nature and the seasons.