The hotel: before we start, a word from the owners. Bre and Graham Carrington-Sykes don’t like the word “hotel”. “It’s our home,” says Bre, who is Irish and rarely misses an opportunity for a friendly chat. “We try to give guests the kind of welcome they would expect in a private house.”

More from Bre in a bit. First, a quick tour. Sychnant Pass House is a modest Edwardian pile in the northeast corner of Snowdonia National Park. It has 10 bedrooms, three dogs, two cats and a scrunchy gravel driveway leading into three acres of grounds.

The setting is dreamy. From the front porch, you look out across fern-covered hills that roll down into the Vale of Conwy. You’d declare it an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty yourself, if the penpushers in Whitehall hadn’t beaten you to it.

The house is cosy, just the right side of cluttered. Bre greets you at the door: “Come in, come in. Let me take your bags; make yourself at home.” Bre’s from Tipperary. It’s hard not to like her. Graham, her husband, is Welsh but was raised in Scotland. She hosts; he cooks. They live in, with their 12-year-old son, Conor.

Bre shows me around. There is a comfortable lounge with fat sofas and an open fire, a library with 800 videos, a heated indoor swimming pool, a

sauna, a gym and a hot tub on the back terrace, where guests can neck champagne as they gaze up at the night sky. Not bad for a place that doesn’t want to be a hotel.

The rooms are a mixed bag. A couple are on the small side, although tastefully decorated. Mine is huge, with a heavy four-poster bed, a whirlpool bath and a wooden balcony overlooked by a mature oak. Two new suites, opening next month, will have their own decks with hot tubs. There are some nice touches: waffle robes, a decanter of sherry in each room, bubbly bathroom stuff by Gilchrist & Soames.

But what makes Sychnant Pass special is the genuinely warm welcome. Running a country-house hotel is a tricky balancing act. Too grand or aloof, and guests feel intimidated, afraid to clink their cutlery. Get overly pally, and the effect is cloying and intrusive.

Bre and Graham manage to get it just right. And Conor’s a nice lad. (Me: “What’s the best thing about living in a hotel?” Conor: “Free drinks. And you get your bed made every day.”)

Can Graham cook? He trained in Switzerland and has worked at Gleneagles and Turnberry, which makes him sound suspiciously like a hotelier. He certainly knows his stuff. Dinner is hearty fare, delicately executed: leek and potato soup with homemade soda bread is outstanding, as is the half-rack of lamb with fresh rosemary and redcurrant jus. The rib-eye steak with black-pudding mash is another winner, and there is a decent wine list. In the morning, a full Welsh breakfast is cooked to order. And you can ask for seconds.

Sounds like I’ll need to burn off some calories. You could start on the front lawn by playing football with Maisie the collie (she’s quite good). Better still, pull on your walking boots and hike up to the Sychnant Pass, where you can join the 60-mile North Wales Path. Head east across hills of gorse and heather and you’ll be rewarded with sublime clifftop views over Llandudno. Venture further and you’ll reach a crest from which you look down across the mouth of the River Conwy and the soaring medieval towers of Conwy Castle.

A castle! Can I go inside? You can, and you should. It’s a mighty structure, remarkably well preserved — a World Heritage Site, no less — with a maze of passageways and turrets to explore. You could walk from the hotel, about an hour each way. And when I’m tired of walking? Hit the beach. Llandudno has two, both of them Blue Flagged. The less developed is West Shore, which has a long promenade and views across to Anglesey and the peaks of Snowdonia.

Who should go? Anyone who likes working up an appetite — and sating it.

Who shouldn’t? Fidophobics and antifelines. The rooms are even named after TS Eliot’s Practical Cats.

Sychnant Pass House (01492 596868, www.sychnant-pass-house.co.uk); doubles from £95 to £180, B&B. Children and well-behaved dogs welcome

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