Britain’s 30 greatest villages

Our experts across Britain reveal their favourite unspoilt villages, from salty Scottish ports to bucolic English beauties

Britain has no shortage of eye-catching villages, but a combination of good looks, convenience for day trippers and a few influential endorsements can be enough to turn what was once a peaceful retreat into an overtourism battleground inundated with selfie stick-wielding tourists from April till October. For the Cotswolds, think Castle Combe and Bourton-on-the-Water; for Cornwall, there’s Polperro and Mousehole – all now exist largely to serve tourists, not residents.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of beautiful but uncrowded British villages that do retain their authentic character, where medieval pubs and churches remain the beating heart of the community, and where welcoming shopkeepers stock treats from local producers. Here are 30 of the best, chosen by experts from across the country.

NORTH

1. Saltaire, West Yorkshire

This extraordinary suburb north of Bradford is an outstanding example of a model village. Built by textile magnate Titus Salt between 1853 and 1876, Saltaire was envisioned as an integrated mill complex. Terraced housing for workers and foremen is arranged in a gridiron of tidy streets along the edge of the railway line, with a large church, recreation hall and a public park beside the River Aire. Imposing and, in their way beautiful, the mill buildings loom over everything. Far from being “dark” or “satanic”, their cream-coloured stonework and harmonious geometries are uplifting to behold. Saltaire became a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2001. The main Salts Mill building, refurbished in the 1980s, is home to a permanent Hockney display, a small textile-cum-history museum (with a maquette of Saltaire), places to eat and drink, and two large bookshops. 
Spend two nights (minimum booking) in a cosy Saltaire terrace that has two double rooms – sleeping six in total – available via Airbnb from around £300.
Family-friendly Salts Diner does excellent salads, burgers and hand-stretched pizzas.
Combine a visit to Saltaire with a walk in to or out of Bradford, via Lister Park – which has a lovely art gallery with more Hockney works on the wall.
Chris Moss

2. Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire

The North York Moors, with its windswept moorland riven by plunging valleys, has plenty of becoming villages to catch the eye: Goathland (TV drama Heartbeat’s heartthrob), sweet Rosedale Abbey, time warp Lastingham… But Hutton-le-Hole combines its good looks – pillowy village green, white picket fences, babbling beck, creeper-covered cottages – with a firm sense of reality. Sheep graze the greens, volunteers help at the Ryedale Folk Museum, and the village hall organises community events (the annual duck race is a favourite). Explore the excellent Folk Museum’s collection of 20 reconstructed vernacular Yorkshire buildings, which includes a 1950s village shop (spy the Izal medicated loo paper and Sunlight soap). Watch chocolates being made at The Chocolate Factory, find hand-turned wood items, glassware and jewellery at Greenwood Crafts, pick up picnic treats from The Old School House Deli and Bakery or, on sunny days, relax with a drink outside The Crown Inn.
The Georgian-age Burnley Country House has seven smart bedrooms. Doubles from £99 b&b. 
The Barn Tea Room, overlooking the village green, has a proper Yorkshire menu, featuring home-made soup, sandwiches, quiches, pork pies and a dizzying selection of cakes.
Take the four-mile circular walk across the moors to Lastingham, a timeless village with an 11th-century crypt in St Mary’s church.
Helen Pickles

3. Dent, Cumbria

The oft-forgotten dale, Dentdale, lies on the western slopes of the Pennines, in Cumbria but with its heart in Yorkshire – where it was until 1970s boundary changes – and within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. With a sparsely populated sheep- and cattle-farming valley, Dent village comes as a surprise with its handsome 12th-century church (flagstones are made of the local black Dent ‘marble’), cat’s cradle of cobbled lanes, whitewashed houses, and clutch of pubs and cafes. It even boasts an eminent ‘son’; the Victorian Adam Sedgwick, one of the founders of modern geology and professor at Cambridge University, is commemorated with a granite fountain. There’s a village shop and a packed-to-the-rafters Heritage Centre which traces local folks’ working lives and social customs from the 16th century – including ‘The Terrible Knitters of Dent’. You’ll search in vain for Dent Station; it’s four miles away, a stop on the celebrated Settle-Carlisle railway and, at 1,150 feet, England’s highest mainline station.
On a corner site where two cobbled lanes meet, the George & Dragon is a traditional inn offering 10 cheery rooms and hearty Yorkshire food. Doubles from £130 b&b.
Meadowside Café combines a contemporary look with high-quality, home-made sandwiches, pies and cakes to a weekend evening bistro menu. 
Five miles down the valley, ‘book town’ Sedbergh has bookshops (old and new), ‘book cafes’ (eat-while-you-read), an artisan bakery and craft shops, plus walks in the Howgill Fells overlooking the town.
Helen Pickles

4. Alnmouth, Northumberland

Travel on the east coast train line and Alnmouth is the coastal village that catches the eye; its terrace of sorbet-coloured houses gives it a Mediterranean zing. Wander down its neat main street, off which dart cobbled lanes, and it’s hard to believe the village was once a busy grain port until a storm, in 1806, altered the course of the River Aln. Today, it hums with four pubs, a handful of cafes and small restaurants – seafood a speciality – and a smart deli. The village store also includes the Post Office, while the Old School Gallery offers affordable art. And Alnmouth surely has one of the grandest village halls, a former granary converted into a church by the Victorian architect Anthony Salvin (he was working nearby on the Duke of Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle). Today, it’s busy with yoga, line dancing and Scouts meetings as well as music gigs and film nights. But the real joy is the beach, which stretches for two sandy miles.  
A five-minute walk from the beach, the three rooms of St Valery offer a relaxed and stylish adults-only B&B in a tall Victorian villa. Doubles from £175 b&b.
The bistro-style Whittling House, with its series of small dining areas, is a smart and lively spot serving dishes with a strong Northumbrian twist.
Head to Alnwick, 10 minutes’ drive, for its contemporary-style Alnwick Garden, grand Alnwick Castle (of Hogwarts’ fame) and Barter Books second-hand empire.
Helen Pickles

5. Cartmel, Cumbria

Outside the Lake District National Park, this southern Lakeland village is as alluring as any village within. Huddled in the shadow of its 12th-century Priory church are higgledy-piggledy narrow lanes lined with stone cottages, a market square, a cheerily bubbling river and, on the western side, what is surely the country’s most scenic racecourse.
The influence of chef-restaurateur Simon Rogan cannot be ignored: his Michelin-starred restaurants (L’Enclume and Rogan & Co) have elevated the offerings – although both restaurants are so low-key, they are by-passed by the casual observer. Stock up on sticky toffee pudding at the village shop, artisan cheeses at Cartmel Cheeses, local ales at Unsworth’s Yard Brewery and fine wines at the Drinkshop. Elsewhere, there’s an antiquarian bookshop, smart gift shops, a couple of tearooms and, astonishingly, five pubs. Highlights of the church, with its crenelated square belfry tower built, eye-catchingly, at a diagonal across the original tower, include medieval stained glass and misericords.
Sixteen smart but understated rooms – warm wools and woods, rich natural colours – and belonging to L’Enclume, are spread discreetly around the village. Doubles from £270 B&B.
For culinary sophistication, either three-Michelin-starred L’Enclume or sister (one star) Rogan & Co; for casual weekend eats (March-October), stone-baked pizzas from Cartmel Cheeses in Unsworth’s Yard.
Walk up Hampsfell for views over Morecambe Bay and the Lakeland fells, down to quaint Grange-over-Sands for tea at Hazelmere Café, and return (a five-six mile loop).
Helen Pickles

SOUTH WEST

6. Mells, Somerset

Chocolate-box-charming, tucked in tantalising Mendips countryside and home to an achingly-cool old pub, Mells scores highly in village Top Trumps. The handsomest pile is Mells Manor, parts of which date from the 15th century, when it was owned by Glastonbury Abbey; it’s been occupied by the Horner family since 1543. It’s not all ancient history though. A lovely outing is a walk by the Mells Stream, via the atmospherically overgrown and crumbly 18th- and 19th-century ruins of Fussell’s Ironworks, which once exported farm tools around the globe. The remains are now Grade-II listed and a vital roosting site for horseshoe bats. Don’t miss the community-owned village shop and cafe, a friendly spot selling basics plus treats from The Real Cake Company in nearby Radstock and Little Jack Horner sausage rolls, whose bakery is in Mells itself. 
Dating from 1480 but given a hip revamp in 2013, the Talbot is a dreamy country gastro-pub with rooms. B&B doubles from £125pn.
The Talbot. Or pizza at the wonderful Walled Garden, a non-profit community nursery and outdoor café amid rectory ruins.
If it’s Independent Market day (first Sunday of the month), head east to Frome. Historic Wells and hippy Glastonbury are just south-west.
Sarah Baxter

7. Cranborne, Dorset

Comely Cranborne is a little village with a big appetite. It’s owned by the Cranborne Estate: the estate manor, built as a royal hunting lodge in the 12th century, is private, but the surrounding gardens are open for tours (Wednesdays, March-October) and the garden centre and cafe in the former walled kitchen garden are open daily. The estate helps nurture village businesses too, which are mainly foodie. The main hub is Cranborne Stores, which sells everything from Meggy Moo’s milk to Cranborne Chase Cider. The stores also stocks manchego-like Hardy’s and other award-winners from the Book and Bucket Cheese Company – or you can buy direct from the dairy, on the village outskirts. Also just outside is Holwell Farm, whose barns house Orchard Bay Bakery (pop along for Friday pizza nights) and Sixpenny Brewery: order a citrusy Gold in the taproom or a four-pint cartoon to takeaway.   
The Fleur de Lys is a 17th-century coaching inn in the heart of the village. B&B doubles from £95pn.
La Fosse is a tiny but award-wining restaurant-with-rooms – chef Mark Hartstone trained at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.
Salisbury Cathedral’s soaring spire and the history-layered hill of Old Sarum are a short drive north.
Sarah Baxter

8. Lustleigh, Devon

If it was anywhere else, this idyllic, ever-so-English thatched village would be mobbed by tour groups. But narrow, winding lanes, a shortage of parking and a ban on coaches mean all but the most determined visitors make it. Set in a thickly-wooded cleave in Dartmoor National Park, Lustleigh’s setting is sublime and the community is famously close-knit and supportive. Time a visit with cricket match on the village green, have a just-baked scone at the tea rooms, visit the art gallery, or brave a steep uphill hike through pretty apple orchards. There’s a friendly village shop, dairy, Post Office and Grade I-listed medieval parish church, complete with a beautifully preserved chancel screen. 
The Cleave Inn has decent budget rooms, while the best pick for self-catering is Two Pound Cottage or Coach House Lodge.
The thatched Cleave Inn serves excellent pub grub, while Primrose Tea Rooms (01647 277365) is the place for afternoon tea. 
Take a road trip across Dartmoor, taking in prehistoric villages, a Victorian prison museum and one of the UK’s oldest dwarf-oak woodlands. 
Suzy Bennett

9. Shaldon, Devon

Mysteriously bypassed by the tourist trail, Shaldon, on the Teign estuary, is a waterside village pretty enough to rival Salcombe, its overcrowded neighbour further down the coast. Elegant Georgian homes, a neatly-kept bowling green, botanical gardens, a wildlife sanctuary and two rust-red beaches – one accessed through an smugglers’ tunnel – make this one of Devon’s best-kept secrets. Shaldon describes itself as “a quaint English drinking village with a fishing problem”, and residents love a knees-up. Events run by local volunteers include a water carnival, music festival and beach bonfire night. Shaldon has its share of holiday homes, but there are plenty of shops geared for locals, including an award-winning butcher who has been in business for over 100 years. 
The Ness Hotel occupies a handsome Georgian villa overlooking the sea, while Shaldon Beach Huts are ergonomic marvels sleeping up to four people.  
Pioneering Café Ode, by Ness Cove, has a strong eco ethos, while The London Inn serves great pub food. 
If you don’t fancy getting wet, don your walking boots for a hike along a cliff path or to Dartmoor.
Suzy Bennett

10. Lizard, Cornwall

Cornwall has plenty of winning picture-book seaside villages – Mousehole, Polperro and Port Isaac to name but a few – but to escape the tourist horde and get a sense of Cornish tradition and community, visit Britain’s most southerly village, Lizard. 
It may not be conventionally pretty but it is full of small pleasures and treasures, as Victorian holidaymakers discovered, like winding lanes, lined with thatched cottages and cute 1930s bungalows, that lead to clifftop panoramas. People come from afar to buy locally-reared meat from Retallacks, grab one of Ann’s famous pasties, and stock up on homemade jams sold outside local homes, with payment by honesty box. Just off the village green lies Cross Common Nursery, which specialises in citrus trees and exotic plants. And you still occasionally hear the buzz of a sander as an artisan turns the area’s rare blood-red serpentine stone into dishes and doorstops. 
The Housel Bay Hotel has far-reaching sea views from its clifftop eyrie. A handsome small Edwardian hotel, rooms are decorated in Scandi style and there’s a choice of informal and fine dining. Double rooms from around £105 per night including breakfast.
The licensed Wavecrest Cafe at Lizard Point serves ices, cream teas and classic seaside favourites (try the fish burger) on a terrace just feet from the cliff edge.
Pull on your walking boots and stride out along a relatively easy stretch of Cornwall’s coastal footpath from the famed Kynance Cove to the crab-fishing village of Cadgwith for a well-deserved pint in its 18th-century smugglers inn.
Gill Charlton

CENTRAL

11. Laxfield, Suffolk

One of Britain’s best-preserved medieval villages, Lavenham is undeniably lovely – but is the rather obvious, chocolate-boxy Suffolk choice. If you’d prefer something well beneath the radar, try Laxfield instead, a proper village minding its own business amid north Suffolk’s spaghetti of rural lanes. Here, you’ll discover a community happily getting on with things, with some hidden treasures. Most eye-catching is the timber-frame and herringbone-brick Guildhall, built in 1515 and now home to the little Laxfield Museum. This faces imposing All Saints Church, one of the many in Suffolk that iconoclast William Dowsing – born in Laxfield in 1596 – did his best to de-Catholicise. However, it still contains one of country’s finest Seven Sacraments fonts. The church looms above the village’s two pubs. One of which is the King’s Head – known by regulars as the Low House – a 16th-century thatched inn with no bar. Beers, including ales from small local breweries, are poured straight from the tap room’s casks.
Blyth Rise Stays, on the village edge, has cool, restful, adults-only Igluhuts and Lake Lodges. Four nights from £445. 
The Low House serves good homecooked dishes such as Suffolk pork sausages and venison pie in its dining room, snugs and large garden.
Lots of options. Seaside Southwold is close. But start with Framlingham, a handsome market town with a remarkable 12th-century castle.
Sarah Baxter

12. Great Massingham, Norfolk

While North Norfolk’s flint-built coastal villages, including Blakeney, Cley and Burnham Overy Staithe, share top billing alongside its spectacular sandy beaches, there are plenty of equally pretty but far less visited enclaves to discover. Head into the county’s quiet, rural hinterland to find the captivating village of Great Massingham, 13 miles east of King’s Lynn. A jumble of mellow, pantile-roofed buildings, dominated by the imposing square tower of St. Mary’s church, with its ornate 13th-century porch, are grouped around the broad village green and duck pond. The creeper-clad facade of the Dabbling Duck inn and the whitewashed Massingham Stores and Post Office, where you can buy locally-produced artisan cheeses, bread and vegetables, add to its bucolic charm – and don’t miss the organic teas, award-winning hot chocolate and homemade cakes, scones and traybakes available from The Cartshed Tearoom.
Norfolk Hideaways offers a choice of self-catering cottages, sleeping from two to six people.
The Dabbling Duck proffers Norfolk produce, a takeaway service and comfortable bedrooms. 
Houghton Hall, with its 18th-century house, walled garden and contemporary sculptures.
Sophie Butler

13. Wing, Rutland

For a start, it sounds delightful – and seemingly appropriate given Wing’s proximity to the birdwatching reserves on Rutland Water. Actually, the name derives from the Old Norse vengi, meaning ‘open field’. This about sums up Wing’s rural, off-grid feel. With just a handful of streets overlooking the Chater Valley, the pretty village has a scatter of fine, 17th-century ironstone houses and a goodly 12th-century church. It also has a rare turf maze, thought to have been cut by medieval monks, and a farm shop at Wing Hall, which stocks plenty of great Rutland produce, including the estate’s own free-range eggs and award-winning Hambleton Bakery bread. Somewhat less expected is Ahimsa, a slaughter-free dairy – some call it ‘yoga-farming’ – located a mile or so away, where you can buy eco milk and cheese and even book cow-cuddling experiences.
Wing Hall has a campsite and wooden shepherd’s huts, set amid free-roaming sheep. Huts from £85pn.
The excellent Kings Arms does inventive things with food, ensuring nothing is wasted. Expect muntjac and squirrel on the menu. It has rooms too.
Rutland Water. Cycle around it on a 23-mile virtually traffic-free trail or visit the nature reserves, where osprey might been seen.
Sarah Baxter

14. Ombersley, Worcestershire

Absolutely nobody goes to Ombersley. It’s a backwater – literally, the River Severn meanders nearby – in the pastoral no-man’s land between the Cotswolds, the Malverns and the Shropshire Hills. But while it may not be designated a National Landscape, this pocket of Worcestershire is certainly pretty, and Ombersley is its best-looking village. It’s a drowsy enclave of black-and-white, wattle-and-daub buildings, listed and listing, including various ancient inns (medieval King’s Arms is an old-school boozer; Georgian coaching inn Crown and Sandys has local ales on tap) and Tudor cottages and houses – which, this being Worcestershire, remain very much lived-in. A handsome Gothic Revival redbrick, Checketts country deli is a relative newcomer to the village – it opened in 1902 – where you can buy quality produce from the surrounding farms and orchards. A stroll down the lane brings you to Holt Fleet on the River Severn, and a pub of the same name serving drinks on the lawn overlooking the water.
There are two country-house hotels with spas a 15-minute drive away: Brockencote Hall (doubles from around £135) or the slightly funkier Elms (£169 B&B). 
The Venture In may be set in a 600-year-old building, but there’s a modern sophistication to their dishes of local and seasonal ingredients. For a more laidback lunch, Checketts serves terrific farm-to-fork fare.
If you like old statelies, Witley Court is a wildly romantic Italianate ruin. Small children love good-value Little Owl Farm Park, where they can feed goats, hold chicks, cheer sheep races and drive go-karts; older ones might prefer the big game and rollercoasters at West Midlands Safari Park. Severn Valley Railway steam trains puff right past the elephants.
Laura Fowler

15. Broadway, Worcestershire

Set at the northernmost edge of the Cotswolds, Broadway is a bit too far from London for daytrippers, commuting Tory MPs and the Soho Farmhouse set. Still, it is hardly a secret. William Morris “discovered” it in the 1880s, and brought an arty crowd for holidays in the country; the Broadway Group included Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Elgar, and John Singer Sargent – who painted his Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose in the gardens of 14th-century Abbots Grange, now a splendid boutique B&B.
They loved Broadway’s sleepy feel, combined with its embarrassment of mellow-yellow manor houses and coaching inns – medieval, Tudor, Georgian – built when the village was a prosperous staging post, until the 19th-century advent of rail bypassed the village – inadvertently preserving it in time, like amber. Around its village green, handsome honeystone rubs shoulders with black-and-white wonkiness, all liberally embellished with mullioned windows, clipped yew and wisteria bowers in an orgy of quintessential Cotswold quaintness.
Now Broadway is a staging post once more, for walkers on the Cotswold Way, while the art legacy continues in the many galleries which line the high street.
Abbots Grange is magical (doubles from around £250); 16th-century Lygon Arms (doubles from around £200) deeply inviting; Broadway Hotel (from around £160) on the green is great value. Up the hill near Broadway Tower, dreamy Dormy House (from £309 B&B) has knockout views.
James Martin is behind the grill restaurant at the Lygon Arms; while Dormy House offers eight-course tasting menus.
The walking is glorious. Start with a yomp up Fish Hill to Broadway Tower, the pre-Raphaelites’ eccentric holiday home, for far-reaching views all the way to Wales. Kids might prefer bottle-feeding lambs at Cotswold Farm Park.
Laura Fowler

16. Wootton, Oxfordshire

Dive down rural lanes north of Woodstock and Blenheim Palace, and you’ll come to the glorious hub of honey-stone houses that is Wootton. With a 13th-century church, community shop and lively village hall, it’s a proper old-school village complete with a palpable sense of enthusiasm for the area from local residents ‒ it’s easy to understand why they love it here. Wootton is very much a tucked-away retreat yet easy to access from Oxford (12 miles to the southeast) or Woodstock (three miles south). This is where to head for a tranquil country break with wonderful surrounding landscape to stride through; in particular, there’s an excellent two-and-a-quarter hour walk taking in the rivers Glyme and Dorn. Adding to the appeal here is a very stylish pub and one of the nation’s greatest historic sites (Blenheim Palace) on the doorstep.
Overlooking fields on the northern edge of the village, Killingworth Castle is a 17th-century inn with eight comfy-chic rooms in the old stables (from £139).
Killingworth Castle is much applauded for its seriously foodie (if pricey) menu – think exquisitely presented salt-aged duck breast with forced rhubarb. For lunch pick up picnic fare from the well-stocked Wootton Stores.

Head to Blenheim Palace, about a seven-minute drive south, to enjoy sumptuous stately interiors and, best of all, magnificent grounds laid out by Capability Brown. 
Harriet O’Brien

SOUTH EAST

17. Alfriston, East Sussex

Even Disney couldn’t create Alfriston. For a start they’d get the scones all wrong. Brim-full of historic charm this Sussex village has a green, or “Tye,” in the shadow of a splendid church, a generous sprinkling of listed buildings exhibiting knapped flint walls, a trio of ye olde pubs, a lowland river, a village square, a chalk figure standing watch on nearby chalk downland and a claim to fame in Alfriston Clergy House, which was the first building to be saved by the National Trust. This thatched-roofed beauty has a cottage garden and a meddler tree in the rear orchard. Tea stops include Badgers and the refreshingly un-twee Singing Kettle (with arguably the best scones in East Sussex).
It’s not just the village, but what’s on the doorstep. Friston Forest, the Cuckmere Valley, Beachy Head, Drusillas Park and the undulating vineyards of Rathfinny make Alfriston worthy of a long weekend.
Wingrove House has rooms (from £155 a night) and a three-bedroom self-catering cottage (from £175 a night; three-night minimum stay). 
The half-timbered George Inn was first licensed in 1397 and has an inglenook fireplace and a beer garden overlooking the green. 
Get close to the Long Man of Wilmington on a circular walk that takes in Windover Hill and views across the rolling down to the sea. Footpaths lead from the Tye to the South Downs Way.
Teresa Machan

18. Ditchling, East Sussex

Ditchling, at the foot of Ditchling Beacon, is the unofficial cradle of the South Downs National Park. It was here, in 2009, that then secretary of state the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP signed the order creating the UK’s newest National Park. The village has over 40 listed buildings, among them Wings Place, also known as Anne of Cleves House, a divorce-settlement manor bestowed by Henry VIII. An arty heritage is celebrated at Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, which shines a light on the stone carvers, carpenters, printers and weavers that made their home here, including sculptor and type designer Eric Gill and weaver Ethel Mairet. Pruden & Smith offers tours of its workshop and displays the original tools and work bench of silversmith Dunstan Pruden. There are 15 studios, gardens and galleries on May’s Artist Open Houses trail.
The Bull has six rooms including dog-friendly and family-friendly options above a refined pub with a roaring fire and a sun-trap garden. From £143.
Dog friendly, and licensed, the 1940s-styled Nutmeg Tree Tea Rooms pays homage to Ditching’s beloved Vera Lynn. The menu runs the gamut from an all-day breakfast to afternoon tea. Or book a table by the chardonnay vineyard at Ridgeview winery’s Rows and Vine restaurant.
Head up to Ditchling Beacon, once an iron-age hill fort and part of a chain of fires lit to warn of impending invasion, for 360-degree views across the low Weald to the sea. Finish with a tour and drop of Sussex sparkling at Ditchling’s Court Garden or Black Dog Hill vineyards.
Teresa Machan

19. Bosham, West Sussex

The loveliness of Bosham (pronounced “Bozzum”) cannot be overstated. Approach the old heart along Shore Road – which gets covered at high tide, only adding to the charm of the place – and you may just expire from sheer overload of beauty. Between a quay pleasingly strewn with little wooden boats and a Grade I-listed church, Bosham village green is perfectly orientated for sunset, when locals and regulars gather to picnic, pop corks, play badminton, drag sailing dinghies up the ramp from the water – the whole blissful bucolic scene painted rosy by the sinking sun. 
Find a seat in one of the pub gardens in summer, and life doesn’t get much better. Sailing is very much Bosham’s raison d’etre. It is situated at the end of an inlet in Chichester Harbour, a peaceful natural estuary encompassing islands, inlets, and backwaters where samphire grows wild and birds nest in their thousands.
The Millstream Hotel (from £185 B&B), with its elegant courtyard terrace, for dining amidst the roses.
The Millstream or, for pub fare and drinks, the Anchor Bleu, with jovial suntrap terraces fore and aft.
Go sailing. If you don’t sail, rent a kayak to explore Chichester Harbour from the water, or cycle/walk the shoreline path that takes you through more cute villages and nature reserves. West Wittering’s sand dunes are across the estuary.
Laura Fowler

20. Dedham, Essex

The much-maligned county of Essex has just National Landscape, and that is Dedham Vale. It is known as Constable Country – he painted the Hay Wain at Flatford, on the placid River Stour which divides Essex and Suffolk. A mile or so upstream, the village of Dedham is just as picturesque and has more to offer those who aren’t here to paint en plein air. The Dedham Boatyard serves seafood and local ales on a terrace overlooking the water, where cows cool off in summer. The Georgian high street has the pale-pink Essex Rose 16th-century tea room and the canary-yellow Sun Inn, a superb pub with rooms. There’s also a museum dedicated to the painter and hippophile Alfred Munnings; they hold painting days in summer, with life models both human and equine.
The Sun Inn (doubles from £125) has seven gorgeous rooms, a terrific restaurant and a verdant garden, plus bikes guests can borrow to explore the bucolic surroundings.
The Sun Inn or Dedham Boathouse, which serves zingy dishes with a focus on local veg and seafood.
Have a long lunch then take out a rowing boat and drift through the painterly prettiness of the Stour, ideally with someone else doing the rowing. Or borrow a bike and cycle along the river to Wrabness nature reserve and Grayson Perry’s marvellous House for Essex.
Laura Fowler

21. Chilham, Kent

Perched on the side of the Stour Valley, quaint little Chilham has it all, plus extras. There’s a medieval square lined by pleasingly wonky timber-frame buildings, two good pubs, a cute tea room, a post office and a historic church that was the last known resting place of the shrine of St Augustine after the Reformation. But it also has a handy train station (it’s about 90 minutes from London) and a magnificent Jacobean mansion, built on the site of an eight-century castle. The castle is private but its resplendent formal gardens and extensive parkland are open every Tuesday and Thursday in season (May-September). Oh, and if Chilham’s good looks seem familiar, that’s no surprise. At least 15 TV and movie productions have been shot here over the years, from the BBC’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma to episodes of Miss Marple.
The 15th-century Woolpack is a characterful old country pub with fresh, bright rooms. B&B doubles from £110pn.
The allegedly haunted and pretty-as-a-picture White Horse Inn does proper ales and pub grub. Good for live music too.
The cathedral city of Canterbury is eight minutes by train. Or walk there (11km), via rolling hop fields, along the Pilgrim’s Way.
Sarah Baxter

22. Hambleden, Buckinghamshire

The Chiltern Hills National Landscape (the new name for our AONBs), less than an hour by train from central London, is the Cotswolds without the crowds. Cottages of thatch, brick and flint flank village squares, with medieval churches and characterful pubs providing the centrepieces.
The Hambleden Valley in Buckinghamshire is home to a clutch of its prettiest villages. Skirmett, Fingest and Frieth, each with their own alluring country pub, are all worth a look, as is Turville, overlooked by Cobstone Windmill, which appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and whose Norman church starred in The Vicar of Dibley. Best of all, however, is impossibly peaceful Hambleden, with its babbling brook, old butchers and bakers (complete with signs; now, alas, private homes), 12th-century St Mary the Virgin church, village hall and charming and popular Stag and Huntsman inn. It too has been seen in several films and TV series, including Midsomer Murders and, appropriately, Sleepy Hollow.
Take a peek through the gates of its Elizabethan manor house, opposite the church, which was once the home of Lord Cardigan of Crimean War fame, pick up supplies from The Village Store (which stocks wine from the nearby Fawley Vineyard and beeswax candles courtesy of Hambleden hives) then spend a few hours listening to leather kiss willow, watching red kites overhead, at one of the country’s most picturesque cricket grounds. 
The Stag and Huntsman has eight rooms and two self-catering cottages, with doubles from £130. Or else there are sleeping quarters at the Chiltern Valley Winery, a mile up the road, in case you attend a tasting and cannot make it home. 
At the pub – or on a picnic blanket adorned with fresh bread and Marlow Cheese Company produce, sourced from a few miles up the road and sold at the village shop. 
Hire a boat from Hobbs of Henley and explore what is the most beautiful stretch of the Thames, from Sonning (see below) to Cookham. 
Oliver Smith

23. Sonning, Berkshire

Whatever you think of Theresa May’s leadership skills, you can’t fault her when it comes to finding herself an unhostile environment. She lives in Sonning, on that particularly affluent and culinary stretch of Berkshire’s Thames Valley, with a community that also includes George and Amal Clooney, and Jimmy Page. In Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K Jerome describes “sweet Sonning” as “the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river”. Granted, things have changed in the 130 years since it was written, but it remains sweet as a button, as English as Eton mess. Old Father Thames slides green and silent beneath weeping willows, reflecting the 18th-century arches of Sonning bridge and diverging here and there around islands, absurdly quaint. The village itself is a place of rose-rambled houses, charming pubs and restaurants, and a unique “dinner theatre”, The Mill, which puts on impressive productions in a Georgian mill set on an island.
The timber-framed Bull Inn (doubles from £120 B&B) is utterly charming, with craft ales, seven classic rooms and occasional performances in the garden.
Coppa Club’s youthful Great House, with its buzzy bar and riverside terrace with “igloos” for all-weather dining (it also has double rooms from £117 B&B).
Spend the day messing about on the Thames and its bucolic backwaters (rent canoes/SUPs at wokinghamwatersidecentre.com). For more high-energy watersports, head for Caversham Lakes.
Laura Fowler

WALES

24. Solva, Pembrokeshire

In a county full of seaside lovelies, Solva stands out. But be warned: once you clap eyes on this village, with its flower-draped, stone cottages in bright ice-cream pastels and deep, fjord-like harbour where boats gaily bob, you’ll be sorely tempted to jack in the day job and move to the coast pronto. No, its charms haven’t gone unnoticed, but visit in spring or autumn instead of the height of summer and you’ll feel the magic. 
You’ll be happy to hang out in the village itself, with its galleries, craft shops and pubs: the Ship Inn (cosy beams and craft beers) and the Harbour Inn (waterfront views). Or go for an exhilarating ramble on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, up and over gorse-clad cliffs and coves to St Davids. Stop for a spiritual moment at St Non’s where, legend has it, St David was born in 500AD.
Behind a pistachio-green façade, the 16th-century Cambrian Inn (doubles from £100) blends period features with bright, modern flair in rooms named after Pembrokeshire islands.
Order a boat-fresh seafood-platter from local legend Mrs Will the Fish and scoff it on the beach, or pop into MamGu for welshcakes in flavours from leek-cheese to chilli-chocolate. 
Pop over to nearby St Davids for a spin of its mighty medieval cathedral, harbouring the shrine of the country’s patron saint, followed by beach time at surf-battered Whitesands. 
Kerry Walker

25. Laugharne, Carmarthenshire

Famous as the onetime home and resting place of poet Dylan Thomas – whose former residence in the Boathouse is now a small museum – Laugharne is more than a pilgrimage site. It’s located on the right bank of the River Taf, with the estuary glistening half the day, and the mudbanks drawing in waders and corvids the rest of the time. The main drag, King Street, is lined with Georgian-style terraces, two of which house the popular Brown’s Hotel and New Three Mariners pubs. The skeletal castle ruin and old walls overlook lawns ideal for a picnic and Sir John’s Hill, a forest-clad hill protecting Laugharne from the Bristol Channel breezes, is great for a short poetry-themed walk. Without a railway station or a main road and with few bus links, Laugharne is quite cut off – which perhaps explains its romantic air.
Spend the night in one of the chic rooms at Brown’s; each one has slightly different, arty décor, plus a Welsh wool mattress, pod coffee machine and a mini fridge. Doubles from £140 per night, including breakfast.
Dexters at Brown’s serves superb steak dinners using 40-day dry-aged beef; fish and veggie options are also available.
The Wales Coast Path winds through Laugharne; the walk over Sir John’s Hill and on to Pendine Sands is great, and the contrast between Laugharne’s tucked-away position on the Taf and the wide-open beach (famously used for land speed trials) is dramatic.
Chris Moss

26. Aberffraw, Anglesey

Looking at dinky, sleepy Aberffraw on Anglesey’s southwest coast, you’d never guess it was the chief seat of the Princes of Gwynedd in the Middle Ages – a legacy still celebrated in its scallop-shaped biscuits. Nowadays, the village is a huddle of pretty stone and pastel-painted cottages peeking above the tidal waters of the River Ffraw. 
With the first glimmer of sun, you’ll race with childlike joy over wind-whipped dunes to its gorgeous sweep of powdery sand, Traeth Mawr. Views stretch across the Irish Sea to the glowering mountains of Snowdonia and the Llŷn Peninsula. If you fancy a slightly longer ramble, hook onto the coast path, which passes a Bronze Age burial cairn en route to the cove of Porth Cwyfan. Here medieval St Cwyfan’s Church sits on a rugged little island that gets completely cut off at high tide.
Capel Seion is a Grade II-listed converted chapel that offers accommodation for between six and 22 guests. 
Sustainably fished and farmed produce (including Menai oysters) land on plates at the glass-fronted, beach-facing Oyster Catcher in nearby Rhosneigr.
At the island’s southernmost tip, Traeth Llanddwyn is an uplifting three-and-a-half-mile expanse of beach, fringed by dune and Corsican pine. Walk out to Ynys Llanddwyn at low tide.
Kerry Walker

27. Beddgelert, Gwynedd

Nestled deep in the heart of Snowdonia’s wildest mountains, riverside Beddgelert is a heart-warming glimpse of a bygone era, with its sprinkling of stone cottages, humpback bridge, pubs with roaring fires and singing locals, and a highland railway puffing on by. In summer everything blooms, while in winter chimney smoke hangs in the air. 
The village’s quirkiest feature is a statue of a famous hound. Myth has it Beddgelert (‘Gelert’s grave’) was named after Prince Llywelyn the Great’s dog, though in reality a local landlord made the whole thing up a couple of centuries ago to boost tourism.
At any time of year, this is a cracking base for chucking on boots to hit trails wiggling up into gnarly mountains. Warm up with a four-hour circular walk, ticking off the high moors of Grib Ddu, glacial Llyn Dinas lake and the Aberglaslyn Pass, a narrow gorge where the boulder-smashing Glaslyn River thunders past cliffs and lichen-wisped forests.
In an elegant Victorian house, Plas Tan y Graig (doubles from £129, B&B) has smart rooms with river and Aberglaslyn views, a garden terrace, and fill-your-boots breakfasts playing up local produce.
After hoofing it up the peaks, an unfussy meal at the Saracens Head is ideal. Go for a pint of Faithful Gelert and pub grub faves. Kids, muddy boots and dogs are welcome. 
Snowdon, of course. The nearby Rhyd Ddu Path is a tremendously beautiful (and surprisingly quiet) seven-mile stomp up to the 1,085m summit. Beddgelert is three miles from the trailhead.
Kerry Walker

SCOTLAND

28. Tobermory, Isle of Mull

How this wee Isle of Mull oasis absorbs so many summer visitors, ferry passengers and small cruise ships, whilst retaining its dignity and authentic edge, is as mystifying as how two bands pull off playing gigs simultaneously at The Mishnish, Tobermory’s legendary pub. The sinewy road to Tobermory helps deter tour buses, as does the distraction of Iona at the other end of Mull. Tobermory’s necklace of pastel-hued waterfront houses are postcard-perfect – no wonder the BBC chose ‘Balamory’ for its childrens’ TV series. Big kids are as ecstatic with restaurants bursting with fresh seafood, the HQ of award-winning Isle of Mull Cheddar (their Hebridean Blue is remarkable too), a chocolatier and a whisky distillery that offers tastings (it also does great gin). No summer holiday camp, Tobermory bustles year-round and the smartest visitors come in autumn as the wildlife comes into its own.  
Off-season savvy Scots ‘Rentahostel’ for exclusive use on Tobermory’s waterfront. The grand Victorian Western Isles Hotel boasts sublime Tobermory Bay views.

Cook a sack of Loch Spelve mussels at the hostel. Or tuck into Café Fish’s seafood, where ‘the only things frozen are the fishermen’. 
Walk west from the pier towards Tobermory Lighthouse. The modern world disappears eking along the coastal path peering down at seals and porpoises.
Robin McKelvie

29. Inverie, Highland

Inverie makes you think about the concept of ‘remote’. An ocean away from the fetishised ‘wild’ Highlands of too many distant TV documentaries, the real community thrives as a community despite bring cut off from the UK road and rail network. Sail in with whales and sea eagles, or hike 15 miles from Kinloch Hourn. Community ownership has led to an increase in population, their own green power supply, a well-stocked community shop – Knoydart venison loin for dinner, with locally foraged chanterelles? – and reforestation. And to much positivity. Visit for an intriguing window into how villages can prosper when power is devolved. Or just enjoy a pint from the village brewery in the UK mainland’s most remote pub, join the welcoming sisters and their baking in the superb tearoom, swim in waters alive with bioluminescence and savour some of Europe’s most mind-blowing, life-affirming hiking.
Cosy up at the Wee Hooses, putting money back into the community. Tardis-like, with loch views, a wee kitchen, dining table and comfy beds. 
The Old Forge, the UK mainland’s most remote pub, which was recently bought by the community. 
Knoydart Ranger Finlay offers easy ‘Knoydart in a Knutshell’ introductory tours, as well as tougher hikes into Knoydart’s epic mountains.
Robin McKelvie

30. St Monans, Fife

Forget flashy St Andrews; head instead to Fife’s East Neuk – Scotland’s secret Cornwall – and the less-visited village of St Monans. While other villages here on the Forth have given themselves over to tourism and second homes, St Monans proudly retains its fishing fleet and smokehouse. The boats busy in and out of a historic harbour designed by the Lighthouse Stevensons. The vibe is more Hanseatic than Highland, though, thanks to the rich historic North Sea trading links. Many of the glorious old merchant houses still have their stepped gables and orange-tiled roofs, lining a waterfront that looks like an oil painting; beloved of the East Neuk’s bountiful artists. Roots run deep here: St Monans Church dates from the 14th century; nearby Newark Castle is a rugged 16th-century wonder. Adventures tempt east and west on the Fife Coastal Path, with seafood for dinner overlooking the boats at sunset afterwards.

Grannie’s Harbour B&B. Grannie has done very well to snare a prime spot on the harbourfront; the third floor double boasts the best views.
East Pier Smokehouse dishes up freshly smoked delights; Craig Millar is the fine-dining man with the seafood plan at his waterfront restaurant.
Pop west to Anstruther to catch a boat or RIB out into the Forth, with Isle of May Boat Trips opening up St Monans’ joyous setting.
Robin McKelvie
This article was first published in May 2023 and has been revised and updated.