15 of Britain’s best pubs with rooms – from relaxing seaside havens to cosy country hamlets
Get away from your local but stay within easy walking distance of your bed by visiting some of these superb establishments
HERE’S to the pub. There may not be as many as there used to be, but the best manage to hold their place at the centre of their communities.
It’s good to get away from your local once in a while but still be within easy staggering distance of your bed. So why not stay in one?
Here are 15 of the top British pubs with rooms, that also have plenty more on offer.
Note: all room prices were correct at the time of publishing.
The Blue Lion, North Yorkshire
It is very woody - wooden bar, wooden floor, wooden tables, wooden chairs, wooden banquettes, a wooden grandfather clock . . .
And it looks great for it.
On the edge of the village green, this is in the middle of great walking country.
The food is classic Yorkshire fayre. Think roasts, suets and pies both savoury and sweet.
All are cooked and served with sophistication, not simply dumped on the plate, and the dining room looks like a posh Yorkshire nan’s house (that’s a good thing).
The pub takes its beer seriously, as well it should, with a great rotation of hand-pulled guest ales and beers from the local Black Sheep Brewery.
There are 15 bedrooms, six in converted stables and the rest in the main building.
Double rooms from
Cross Foxes, Gwynedd
The Cross Foxes is at the foot of Cadair Idris mountain, four miles away from Dolgellau in South Snowdonia.
The whole place, including the rooms, is decorated in very simple but sophisticated style.
The bar is fairly modern for the building and there is a large decked terrace for the summer months if you really want to feel like you are in the middle of Snowdonia.
The Grill restaurant serves excellent local food and head chef Kyle Wilkinson loves his puddings.
The Cross Foxes has six rooms - two are suites that can be turned into family rooms sleeping four.
Doubles start at.
The Crown, Southwold
The Crown is on the high street in the seaside town of Southwold, a few minutes’ walk from the beach.
The back bar, or snug as these places used to be called, is a beautifully cosy place to while away a few hours.
The two AA Rosette restaurant makes good use of local farmers and fishermen to serve a great range of classic dishes, with plenty of fish on the menu.
The wine list has also won awards.
There are 14 bedrooms including a suite, each unique and beautifully designed with fresh but rustic themes.
Double rooms start at for advanced bookings.
Lion and Pheasant, Shropshire
This Shrewsbury stalwart is a beautiful 16th century building with 22 fantastic, bright and airy rooms with real touches of luxury sitting under the ancient beams.
The bar has a great selection of wine and local ales – and serves cocktails, slightly incongruously in the low-ceilinged Inglenook Bar with its open fire.
The main bar is a little more open with oak floors and rustic furniture, and the restaurant has a well-planned menu of modern British classics served in a fresh, white-walled room with plenty of white linen to add an upmarket feel.
There’s also a bar menu with snacks, fish and chips, burgers and steaks.
Double rooms start at .
Gunton Arms, Norfolk
Located in a 100-acre deer park in the village of Thorpe Market, so expect to see a lot of venison on the menu.
The bar has the kind of cosy, welcoming darkness that will make you want to stay inside for hours - with its wood panelling and antique paintings, it’s like a 19th-century gentlemen’s club.
The restaurant initially looks very formal but there are quirky details and artworks to show the owners don’t take themselves too seriously.
The menu is very sophisticated and surprisingly good value, or you can choose to spend a lot and get one of their very good quality steak.
Rooms are gorgeous and start from
Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall
Bang in the middle of St Ives and Land’s End, the Gurnard’s is the perfect base for exploring Cornwall.
It’s just off the coastal path and if recuperating from a hike with a pint in front of an open fire is your thing, you’re in luck – there are TWO fireplaces.
Gurnard’s is as rustic as you’d hope for this area.
There are stone floors, chunky pine tables and book-lined walls.
A separate, slightly smarter, dining room serves food from a precise menu that locals rave about.
There’s also a great selection of Cornish beers and ciders and the wine list lives up to the quality of the restaurant.
Seven simply but smartly decorated rooms are available from
George and Dragon, Cumbria
A lovely Georgian building with flagstones and chunky wooden tables but cleared of the usual pub clutter so it is nice, bright and airy.
It’s in the village of Clifton, three miles from Penrith and is one of the Lake District’s best pubs for food, serving top-quality classic English grub with all the great continental twists we’ve come to expect.
A lot of the produce is from the pub’s own gardens which are at nearby Askham Hall.
Rooms at the George are variable - because of the age of the building, some are a bit pokey but the suites and superior rooms are great, and really, who cares when your temporary living room is a pub as great as this?
Double rooms start at
Beckford Arms, Wiltshire
This ivy-covered beauty sits on the edge of the grounds of the Fonthill Estate, in Fonthill Bishop, and it is perfect for a bit of low-key luxury.
The bar is as traditional as you want for a country boozer with a huge open fire that occasionally roasts a piglet and a reassuring array of pewter tankards hanging above the bar.
There’s also a great beer selection, including the pub’s own brew, Phoenix. The menu ranges from good, solid pub food to the fancier.
You can get anything from a pork pie to venison terrine with pistachios and green peppercorns.
There are eight rooms with all the tech you could need and all the comfort you could want.
Double rooms start at
The Bell at Skenfirth, Monmouthshire
The Bell is the perfect country pub, the kind of place the Hugh Grant character would stay at the weekends in a Hollywood version of British life.
Skenfrith is a hamlet and the Bell is pretty much all there is to it.
It’s a 17th-century coaching inn with flagstone floors, oak beams, antique furniture and 11 bedrooms.
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There’s a great range of real ales in the bar and the restaurant follows all the proper conventions about local sources and seasonal produce.
You can eat outside on the garden terrace if the weather suits and you can also order a picnic basket and rug if you want to eat in the gardens or further afield.
Double rooms start at .
The Piddle Inn, Dorset
The Piddle Inn is a riverside pub in Piddletrenthide, Dorset.
There’s a terrace between the creeper-clad building and the River Piddle which is perfect for lazy summer afternoons - or the Dorset Downs are within easy walking distance if you’re not feeling lazy.
The pub is a real favourite of locals, and includes a dartboard, pool table and regular live music.
The food is more ploughman’s and pies than fine dining, and that’s a good thing. It’s very high-quality pub grub.
There are just three rooms, all nicely furnished and great value at - you can even take your dog for £10 supplement.
The Parkers Arms, Lancs
The Parkers Arms in Newton-in-Bowland, a village in the Ribble Valley, is just about as near to the ideal traditional country inn as you can get.
The bar has a great selection of hand-pulled cask ales with local brews from the nearby Bowland Brewery, close to Clitheroe.
And the restaurant is brilliant, with dishes that should be the envy of plenty of poncier metropolitan boozers.
It serves all the kinds of food you’d hope to get at a pub (and the odd surprise), cooked brilliantly and unpretentiously.
There are two rooms that have great views over the fells and the river Hodder.
They cost from , with an optional £10 extra per person for breakfast.
The Inn at Kingsbarns, St Andrews
The Inn has two family rooms sleeping up to four and two double rooms.
There’s a bar and a snug with an open fire and a decent choice of ales and wines, and the dining room serves good, solid grub that can be eaten outside in the courtyard.
If you are a whisky fan, check out the Kingsbarns Distillery - it is still relatively new so its produce won’t be old enough to be called single malt until 2018.
Kingsbarns is a gorgeous conservation village and there’s a beach just 15 minutes’ walk away.
And it is perfect for golfers, being surrounded by courses including St Andrews.
Double rooms start from.
The Swan Inn, Swinbrook, Oxs
The Swan at Swinbrook, Oxon, is a lovely Cotswold stone building next to the Windrush River, in the middle of the village.
The bar has a flagstone floor, heavy oak settles and log fire.
It also has local beers and lagers from the Cotswold Brewing Company and real ales.
The restaurant is much smarter than the bar and serves great local food.
The rooms have a cosy, country cottage feel to them, with 11 in total – five riverside and six in a converted stable.
Rooms start from
The Wellington Arms, Hamps
The Wellington Arms is an 18th-century hunting lodge on the edge of the Duke of Wellington’s Stratfield Estate.
It has a great bar, with a well-chosen booze selection, but it is really all about the restaurant - this is an extreme gastro pub.
There are wooden floors, Farrow & Ball paint and exposed brickwork.
The restaurant serves lovely seasonal and local produce.
Rooms are all slate tiles, sheepskin rugs, exposed beams and white walls and linen with a thread count of 400, if that means anything to you.
The rooms start from .
The East End Arms, Hamps
On the one hand (the right, as you enter) this is a great, basic Lymington boozer with great real ales and chatty locals.
And on the other hand, it’s a damn fine restaurant - the dining room is a complete contrast to the pub.
It’s airy with light floorboards and a perfectly selected wine list, while the menu, without being one of those laminated ones with far too many dishes, manages to run from pub favourites to top restaurant picks and the food is great.
There’s things from burgers and fish and chips to scallops and loin of venison, with something to suit everyone.
The pub boasts five decent-sized and tastefully decorated bedrooms starting from , which includes breakfast.
