RUSTIC CHIC
13 ROYAL OAK COTTAGES, West Sussex What could be snugglier than a flint cottage with a fizzing log fire, its own wine cellar and come-hither views of billowing English hills? Ditto the above, but with a fantastic pub next door. The Royal Oak, at East Lavant, tastily positioned between Chichester and the South Downs, has just fixed up this smart pair of holiday cottages, which means you’re your own boss – but can pop up the lane and partake copiously of French-influenced nosh and Ballard’s Best. Both sleep 4, £1,240/£1,240; www.royaloakeastlavant.co.uk

NEST OF COTTAGES
14 BEECHCROFT, East Sussex Talk about picturesque. This gaggle of beguilingly restored byres and bull pens, in the village of Cowbeech, is a dead ringer for Tolkien’s Shire. There are four cottages in all, beamy as anything, and strewn beside a reedy lake. The Oast House, dating to 1683, is the pick, with its master bedroom in the original roundel. It sleeps five, but Beechcroft can host 17 hobbits in all. Sleep 2, 4, 5 and 6, Oast House £883/£1,016; beechcroft.org

LOVE SHACK
15 PEVERELL’S TOWER, Kent Handsome princes, look away now. These days, instead of beating up witches and making ladders out of tresses, all you need do to romance your Rapunzel is book a stay at Peverell’s Tower. It’s the 13th-century gatehouse of Dover Castle, beautifully accoutred and just made for two. Lately, they’ve opened up the roof terrace, so you can let your hair down under the stars. Sleeps 2, £920/£1,072; www.english-heritage.org.uk

PARTY HOUSE
16 OYSTER SHACK, Kent The once workaday fishing town of Whitstable has come out of its shell recently, and this weatherboarded artists’ retreat on a quiet stretch of Tankerton Beach is the coolest let in town. Hook a sea bass from the foreshore, warm your cockles in the art-stuffed lounge or shuck oysters on the deck, in front of a Turneresque sunset. Sleeps 8-10, £2,400/£2,750; artistsbeachhouse.uniquehomestays.com

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LIVE-IN HISTORY
17 OLD CAMPDEN HOUSE, Gloucestershire Visitors to the characterful Cotswold town of Chipping Campden are forever poking their heads through the gateposts of Old Campden House and saying, “Wow! Wonder who lives there.” Well, you can – courtesy of the Landmark Trust, which has restored the twin banqueting houses of a lost Jacobean mansion, with their flamboyant strap work and museum-piece interiors. They’re divine, but you’ll need to bring your own nibbles – we suggest chilled 17th-century Tokay and crystallised petals. Sleep 4 and 6, £1,002/£1,742 for the larger one; landmarktrust.org.uk

CONTEMPORARY COOL
18 MARKET TOWN HOUSE, Gloucestershire It’s owned by the photographer Maria Stengard-Green, the self-styled pioneer of “organic décollage” – and you could call this a masterpiece of décollagedecor. She has taken a skewwhiff stone merchant’s house in the posh Cotswold wool town of Tetbury and overlaid its Elizabethan flagstones and fireplaces with white paintwork, angular furniture and contemporary art. It makes a funky family party house, with a Wii and a PS2 in the drawing room and dinner-party chefs on call. Sleeps 8, £1,500/£1,795; cvtravel.co.uk

NEST OF COTTAGES
19 FIELD COTTAGE, Herefordshire Field Cottage drifts among apple orchards in drowsiest cider country, enlivened only by views of the Black Mountains and some of England’s freshest air. It has spick white interiors by Penny Morrison, of Bath Priory fame, and you can team it with a bevy of other impeccable cottage conversions on the same farm. Plan outings to Hay-on-Wye and Ludlow; the Michelin-starred Stagg at Titley is a two-mile stride across the Arrow Valley. Sleeps 5, £580/£610; whiteheronproperties.com

NEST OF COTTAGES
20 WETTON BARNS, Staffordshire The Duke of Devonshire offers a spread of eye-catching self-catering accommodation on his Derbyshire estate, including a hunting tower built in 1582, but this nest of six natty barn conversions at Wetton offers family-size flexibility in a knockout setting – it’s poised between the Dove and the Manifold, the White Peak’s most delectable dales. Its cottages (just over the border in Staffordshire) sleep between four and eight – 30 in total – and all have fresh decor and flaming logs. Thor’s Barn sleeps 6, £744/£872; chatsworth.org

RUSTIC CHIC
21 RIDING HOUSE, Derbyshire Book to stay at Milkmaid’s Cottage or Shepherd’s Cottage, in the Hope Valley, and you get to meet the real-life milkmaid and shepherd. David and Denise Matthews are the hands-on husbanders of Riding House Farm, panoramically positioned beneath Lose Hill Ridge, and guests are welcome to range free around their farmyard; visit the calf house and help to feed the lambs. The cottages sleep two and four in unfussy comfort. Shepherd’s Cottage sleeps 4, £480/ £540; riding-house-cottages.co.uk

LOVE SHACK
22 DOVECOTE, Monmouthshire Here’s a charmer: a romantic round tower for two, with a circular bedchamber and drawbridge access to its own private arcadia. The Dovecote’s spiral staircase links four levels of curvaceous cosiness, including a hearty kitchen with a Rayburn for toe-toasting after your Wye Valley walks. The two-acre garden is regularly stalked by deer, and it’s a 10-minute stroll down to the rustic riverside Boat Inn. Sleeps 2, £315/£700; welsh-cottages.co.uk

FAMILY SEASIDE
23 No 27 HIGH STREET, SOLVA, Pembrokeshire Don’t let the unimaginative name put you off. Families seeking a home from home on the Pembrokeshire coast will love this gracious 1820s villa, plumly located among the confetti-coloured cottages of Solva, with its harbour, delisand cafes. Wake to sash-windowviews of St Brides Bay, and devote evenings to Swingball and sundowners in the lovely garden. Sleeps 4, £369/£712; coastalcottages.co.uk

LIVE-IN HISTORY
24 EGRYN, Gwynedd The National Trust lets a happy array of holiday places in Wales – check out its Blytonesque little byres on the Stackpole estate, near Tenby – but Egryn is special. It’s a Middle Ages “hall house”, complete with medieval dining chamber, so important in conservation terms, they occasionally open it to day-trippers. And a five-minute walk lands you bang on Barmouth beach. Sleeps 9, £1,571/£2,455; www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk

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