Hotel Portmeirion

Portmeirion is the life's work of the architect Clough Williams-Ellis, who spent fifty years assembling a village of campaniles, colonnades and pastel facades on a private wooded peninsula above the Dwyryd estuary. Guests staying overnight get the place largely to themselves once the day visitors have gone, which is the real argument for booking a room here.

Accommodation is spread across three parts of the estate. The Hotel Portmeirion sits right on the water with the best views in the village; Castell Deudraeth is a Victorian crenellated house a short walk up the hill, more contemporary in feel, with a brasserie; and the village itself holds a further collection of rooms, suites and cottages tucked behind the coloured doors.

The grounds run to seventy acres of subtropical woodland known as Y Gwyllt, laced with paths down to a tidal beach and out to the headland. A heated outdoor pool operates in the warmer months, and stays include entry to the village and gardens.