The Nare Hotel

The Nare occupies one of the best positions on the Cornish coast: a south-facing headland on the Roseland Peninsula, with Carne Beach directly below the terrace and Gerrans Bay stretching away in front. It has been family-run for decades and wears that continuity well — this is a hotel of afternoon cream teas, dogs in the bar and guests who have been returning for thirty years, not a design statement.

The interiors are all antiques, fresh flowers, deep sofas and sea light, and the best rooms open onto private balconies with nothing between them and the Atlantic. A heated outdoor pool sits on the sea-facing lawn, with a second indoor pool, sauna and gym for less obliging Cornish weather.

Food leans hard on what comes out of the water in front of the hotel — Portloe crab, Falmouth Bay scallops, lobster from local pots — served either in the formal dining room or the more relaxed Quarterdeck. The hotel's own vintage motor yacht takes guests out along the coast, and the South West Coast Path runs directly past the gate towards St Mawes and the Roseland's hidden coves.