Stowy here, ladies and gentlemen - your intrepid Sunday Times hotel inspector.

I’m just back from visiting the winners of the Good Hotel Guide’s annual César Awards and this is the best list in seven years.

Not that they’ve ever been bad.

The Good Hotel Guide focuses entirely on independently owned hotels in Britain and Ireland, banging the drum for a style of hotel-keeping that has been all but forgotten in the recent mania for fancy taps and designer everything: one where the location, the warmth of the welcome and the quality of the cooking matter most.

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Its Césars go to properties that are outstanding in their own class, not those that conform to a stereotype.

Now and again, though, I’ve felt that the editors have erred a little on the side of the have-a-go heroes of the hotel world and lost sight of the overall quality of the experience. Not this year. Six of the 10 properties are stunners. Two, Ballyvolane House and the Gurnard’s Head, have a kind of magic about them that comes when a sensational location and a singular sense of style collide. Only one is a dud.

If you’ve behaved particularly well recently, and fancy spoiling yourself as a reward, I suggest that you book at least one of the better properties here today. Because tomorrow, the new edition of the GHG will be published, and everyone will be at it.

1 THE STAR CASTLE, ST MARY’S, ISLES OF SCILLY
Island Hotel of the Year
“Well, you’ve picked your moment,” the receptionist said as she showed me to my room a week or so ago. “The weather hasn’t been this good since, oh ... June.”

I’ll say. I arrived on a dazzling day to be in the Scillies: the sky a faultless blue, the Atlantic playful as a kitten. Did it colour my perceptions? Of course it did. The hotel is set in a small but exquisite 16th-century castle with views of St Mary’s harbour. From the battlements, you can watch the sun set over secret bays and distant headlands. Much of the appeal of a hotel like this is its location, and when mother nature is feeling cooperative - well, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

The room: number 224, and I’d recommend it. It was in the garden annexe, and both vast and well furnished - thick, creamy curtains, high-quality bed linen, two big armchairs, and a flat-screen TV. The rooms have their own sun decks too, just in case you luck into weather like mine. 8/10
The food: the weakest link here was the pudding. In late September, my summer-berry confection seemed fake. As for the seared Cornish scallops and locally caught cod, however - hallelujah! 8/10
The service: unfailingly polite and efficient. 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Does it deserve its César? Yes - even when the sun doesn’t shine. 01720 422317, www.star-castle.co.uk ; doubles from £144, half-board

2 THE GURNARD’S HEAD, ZENNOR, CORNWALL
Dining Pub of the Year
The rest of the Stowy family was with me when I came to Zennor, and we were the last to arrive that day. I’d told them beforehand that we had a three-month baby, but nobody had thought to keep a room for us in which you could fit a cot. They had to move the chest of drawers into the corridor.

It wasn’t a great start, then, but things picked up. This is a laid-back, right-on kind of place - they take their food sourcing very seriously - and if you need looking after, or are travelling with children, I wouldn’t recommend it. If not, I can’t think of many places that will suit you better. The location, on the last stretch of Cornwall coast that hasn’t been swamped by tourism, is superb, and so is the food. I wish I’d known about it in the days before my son was around.
The room: make sure you arrive early, so you get a bigger room. In ours, the bathroom was an oversized cupboard, and the pretty, pale-blue walls could have done with a lick of paint. 6/10
The food: the meal of the year. A fillet of roast hake with rosemary mash, pancetta and spinach, served with a béarnaise sauce, was an entirely successful combination of flavours and textures.10/10
The service: pubby, but also friendly and enthusiastic.7/10
Value for money: 9/10
Does it deserve its César? Yes. 01736 796928, www.gurnardshead.co.uk ; doubles from £80, B&B; main courses from about £15

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