Winter stretches for miles ahead, promising louring drizzle, flinty skies and round-the-clock Celebrity Big Brother. Which means it’s time for a spot of hibernation.

We’ve found 10 ideal destinations to hunker down beside a fizzing log fire - a mix of cosy inns, country-house hotels, even a youth hostel - all offering cockle-warming platefuls and a big fat bed to crash in. Blues banished, guaranteed.

1 THREE ACRES
Brushford, Somerset
Ed and Julie Christian’s Exmoor hideaway must be the comfiest of English country-house B&Bs. The dining room has cakes home-baked in Julie’s kitchen; the bedrooms are scented with hand-sewn lavender swags; and there’s Roger the retriever, who acts as the Christians’ official meeter-and-greeter.

Breakfast is a particular indulgence, laden with old-fashioned specials such as devilled kidneys and bubble and squeak. Tranquillity comes as standard, thanks to the tucked-away setting, but even in winter there’s a busy menu of country pursuits: ask about a 4WD safari to spot red deer on the moor.
Doubles from £100, B&B; 01398 323730, www.threeacrescountryhouse.co.uk

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2 WALLETT’S COURT
Dover, Kent
The ultimate in manorial chic, the Court is packed to the oak panels with flickering firelight, squashy sofas and award-winning steak and chips. There is a miniature spa in the old hay barn, wild walks atop the White Cliffs, and several four-posters waiting upstairs.

Hugh Grant favours room 5 (though he only moved because of the ghost in room 4).
Two nights for the price of one in winter, including two breakfasts, one dinner, from £99.50pp; 01304 852424, wallettscourthotel.com

3 HOWARD ARMS
Ilmington, Warwickshire
The Howard Arms would be the ideal place to compile an I-Spy guide to posh contemporary innkeeping: it’s got the scrubbed 17th-century brickwork, the individually designed bedrooms (with iPod docks), a blackboard list of local suppliers longer than the menu, and an inglenook wide enough to smoke the Boscobel oak.

The food crackles as heartily as the fire — pigeon and black-pudding salad; beef-and-mustard pie with garlic mash — and the setting is splendiferous: a mellow-yellow village in a crook of the Cotswold hills, close enough to Stratford to be a great base for Shakespeare-going.
Special-offer doubles from £70, B&B, in winter (normally from £115); 01608 682226, www.howardarms.com

4 THE BULL
Long Melford, Suffolk
Here’s a traditional English hotel in the best sense of the word. For a start, it’s properly old. Don’t be fooled by the immaculate Tudor timbering — the Bull pre-dates the Battle of Bosworth by 35 years. The medieval “great hall” is now the lounge, with cavernous Elizabethan fireplace and a “wild man” carved on the beam to ward off evil spirits.

There’s a gaggle of smiley Suffolk ladies staffing the place, and the belly-stoking food includes roast pigeon and liver and bacon. Just try to resist chucking the bones over your shoulder, Henry VIII-style.
Two-night winter doubles from £80 per night, B&B (normally £120); 01787 378494, thebull-hotel.com

5 PLAS TAN-YR-ALLT
Tremadog, Gwynedd
When you drive up, this place looks sturdily Snowdonian: a whitewashed villa, its stubby chimneys smoking happily under a crag on the “Portmeirion coast”. Then you step inside the crimson hallway to be greeted by Philippe Starck chairs, Percy the talking parrot, and a big welcome from owners Nick Golding and Michael Bewick.

The couple have married country-house clutter (loud clocks, fat books, family photos) with theatrical touches (comedy cushions beside the drawing-room fire, a loo dressed up as a library, and house-party dining around a fabulous refectory table). It’s simply divine, boyo.
Doubles from £120, B&B; open Thu-Sun in January, closed all of February, reopens Fri, March 6; 01766 514545, tanyrallt.co.uk

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