The Nare Hotel by Jamie Dunford Wood

This seaside hotel has great charm. Steps from the beach with sweeping seaviews, the hotel is great value off season though can be expensive - and busy - in high Cornish summer. It overlooks a wide and popular beach that attracts le tout Cornwall - and Notting Hill come to that - from far and wide - you definitely get that 'them and us' feel relaxing in your deckchair in your private garden terrace sipping your G+T while the hoi polloi struggle past with picnic hampers and tetchy children.

The interiors are done tastefully - plenty of local art, and some months in summer they have an artist in residence. In addition to the beach, they have both an indoor and an outdoor pool. The best rooms are, of course, full frontal ones - upstairs for balconies, ground floor for private garden sit-out areas.