25 of the prettiest village mini breaks in the UK

Times

12 hours ago

Nearly a millennium since the Domesday Book, Britain's villages have maintained their ageless appeal and also moved with the times. The best ones cocoon both those who live there and visitors with a sense of community — just as they have for centuries. They may — like Evershot in Dorset — have adorable thatched cottages, or a babbling brook running through it like Cartmel in Cumbria, but it's the cherished churches and red telephone boxes that make them so important to the British psyche.
And villages have a special appeal in the summer months. This is when, in the best villages, you can spill out from the pub, pint in hand, to watch a leisurely game of cricket on the green. People organise fetes and set out honesty stalls with their surplus eggs, fruit and vegetables.
Even if we live in cities, we can still buy into the joy of a village. Forget a cricket pavilion on the green, the best accessory a village can have these days is a good hotel. They are perfect portals for locals and visitors to mingle, just as they might in a village hall but accessorised with great food and a top-notch bar.
Sometimes, like Eckington in the Cotswolds, a manor house next to the village opens up to paying guests. Venerable coaching inns, some dating from the 16th century, have also been given a new purpose in the 21st century in some villages. The best, like the Talbot Inn in the Somerset village of Mells, regularly hosts concerts. Some even put on operas or — taking a leaf from the WI — have book talks and cooking classes. And then there are the village pubs that have been rescued from the threat of closure by adding bedrooms. Whether your ideal village is veering towards a hamlet or one with a rom-com-worthy collection of trendy shops, we've got you covered in this list of the UK's 25 prettiest — all with a gorgeous place to stay.
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This New Forest village is a place of pilgrimage for posh petrolheads, thanks to its National Motor Museum, but there are plenty of other things to see. On one side of the River Beaulieu are the 13th-century ruins of its abbey plus Palace House, where the car-minded Montagu family have lived since 1538 (£30; nationalmotormuseum.org.uk). Beaulieu village is on the other side and with its melange of half-timbered and Georgian buildings, is regularly voted one of Britain's most beautiful villages. Travellers have been arriving at the Montagu Arms since the 17th century. There are now 33 rooms and suites, a posh restaurant and a pub, Monty's Inn (and, handily, plenty of car parking). Details B&B doubles from £176 (montaguarmshotel.co.uk)
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Tucked between Ilkley and Otley moors on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, Askwith has a clutch of stone buildings and a Victorian village school surrounded by superb walks. However, for all its aged furrows, this is a village looking to the future. One example is the Penny Bun restaurant with rooms, which opened in 2024. Named after a local mushroom, it's part of the Denton Reserve, which is working towards a more sustainable method of farming. All five bedrooms are filled with furniture made by local makers, the food is hyper-local and if the weather is clement, best enjoyed on a raised terrace that maximises the staggering views. Details B&B doubles from £200 (pennybunilkley.co.uk)
With its priory ruins and the River Eea trickling past its 18th-century homes, Cartmel has serious good looks. Pep comes from the racecourse just outside the village, sustenance from its two Michelin-starred restaurants and a shop that has industrial quantities of its sticky toffee pudding as well as local cheeses. There are plenty of places to stay in Cartmel, but my pick would be L'Enclume, not least because rooms come with a guaranteed reservation at Simon Rogan's justly famous restaurant. Rather than a traditional hotel building, the 16 rooms are dotted around this absurdly pretty village. Details B&B doubles from £280 (lenclume.co.uk)
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Surrounded by the vineyard-studded South Downs, Cuckfield's high-functioning village has chemists and cafés mixed in with posh antique shops and boutiques. Cuckfield's more well-heeled residents tend to be members of Ockenden Manor's spa. It's a short walk along the lane from the hotel and the high street and has an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, fed by a natural spring. They also treat the hotel as a handy place to socialise, including in the restaurant, where tables spill out into the garden in good weather. The rest of us can buy in by staying in one of the 27 bedrooms, with low beams and mullioned windows. Details B&B doubles from £247 (hshotels.co.uk)
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Thomas Hardy — in his day job as an architect — extended Summer Lodge in 1893. This late Victorian villa now delivers five-star West Country luxury, with extensive afternoon teas, an elegant restaurant, a beautifully tended garden, a spa and 25 antique-stuffed rooms. Just outside the gates is an old-fashioned bakery, post office and the 16th-century Acorn Inn. Also owned by the hotel, the inn was namechecked by Hardy in Tess of the D'Urbervilles as the Sow & Acorn but now serves pan-seared duck breast alongside Jurassic Coast-sourced haddock with chips. Details B&B doubles from £275 (summerlodgehotel.co.uk)
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Over the past 600 years Blakeney, just inland from the North Norfolk coast, has gone from being a medieval metropolis to a clear contender for Norfolk's cutest village. Surrounded by salt marshes, it has plenty of holiday desirability with boat trips to see seals, easy coastal walks, cafés and flint cottages. On the quayside, the Victorian Blakeney Hotel has 60 rooms, an indoor swimming pool and a restaurant and terrace bar, and steers a course between catering for posh holidaymakers and urbane locals. Details B&B doubles £176 (blakeney-hotel.co.uk)
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The ancient Romans loved this corner of Somerset near Frome, as does, well, pretty much anyone who comes here now. Surrounded by honey-coloured stone houses is the Walled Garden, a community-run shop, café and aesthetically perfect nursery that brings Mells into the 21st century with pizza amid the plants (thewalledgardenatmells.co.uk). The Talbot Inn, at the cobblestoned heart of the village, is a perfect posh paint-job matched with glammed-up pub-grub affair, with regular quizzes and music events alongside eight bedrooms with roll top baths, Egyptian cotton sheets and high levels of indulgence. Details B&B doubles from £117 (talbotinn.com)
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Much of this village near Lewes is still owned by the Gage family, leading to a feudal but aesthetic vibe. The village cricket team has been playing on the same pitch since 1758, while the lack of street markings and lights adds to Firle's slightly 1930s arty aspic feel (several of the Bloomsbury set lived here). You won't find many holiday lets in Firle — the estate prefers to rent to people with young families who help to keep village life and the shop going — but the 500-year-old Ram Inn has a handful of very nice bedrooms, all tastefully decorated, and serves top-notch food. Details B&B doubles from £193 (raminn.co.uk)
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The artist Stanley Spencer was born in Cookham in 1891 and rarely left before his death in 1959. The Thames-side village appears in many of his most famous works, which are on show at the museum (£7; stanleyspencer.org.uk), the focal point of this decidedly posh village, which also has restaurants, shops and delis. Bel & the Dragon, opposite the Stanley Spencer Gallery, is a gastropub with ten very comfortable bedrooms, a working kitchen garden and its own commitment to culture; opera and Shakespeare will be performed in its garden over the summer. Details B&B doubles from £125 (belandthedragon.co.uk)
A featured location in the 1995 film Jude and the ITV drama Vera, this village near the River Derwent was built from the stones of a 12th-century abbey. The austere grey stone buildings, tucked into the middle of the Northern Pennines here, are softened by the 124 residents who sustain a village shop and other businesses. Housing pilgrims before turning to hotel guests, the Lord Crewe Arms has 26 rooms divided into Cosy, Canny and Champion categories and furnished with flair, while the hotel adds to Blanchland's buzz with regular concerts, wine tastings and cookery demos. Details B&B doubles from £219 (lordcrewearmsblanchland.co.uk)
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With a handful of whitewashed cottages wedged above a small cove, this tiny village on the Roseland peninsula has plenty of superb optics. It was once a thriving harbour, and a few boats still drop off crabs and lobsters while foot traffic comes from walkers on the South West Coast Path, which travels through the village. The Lugger hotel has been part of the Portloe landscape since the 18th century, when it allowed villagers to absorb smuggled goods, especially French brandy. These days, with 22 rooms and three cottages, it delivers a beautifully curated Cornwall land and seascape. Details Room-only doubles from £134 (bespokehotels.com/thelugger)
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If you like your villages to have almost all the reality edited out — leaving plenty of perfection — head to the Cotswolds idyll of Southrop. Caryn and Jerry Hibbert moved into the 17th-century manor house in 2002 and have since restored both it and the surrounding cottages. The courses it runs will nudge you into improved cooking and wellbeing tweaks, or you can have a treatment at the Meadow Spa before dining on food sourced from the estate and nearby at the Ox Barn. Want something simpler? Southrop's village pub is part of this organically grown, very tasteful vision. Lucky locals. Details B&B doubles from £440 (thyme.co.uk)
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Painted buttercup yellow, the Sun Inn lies at the very heart of Essex's prettiest village. Close to the border with Suffolk in the middle of supremely walkable Constable country, this former coaching inn has welcomed travellers since the 17th century. The high street is also home to Little Merchant Dedham, purveyor of tasteful gifts, cafés, a proper butcher and a grand 15th-century church. Owned by Piers Baker since 2002, the Sun Inn rises above local competition with its food — including local Mersea oysters and Italian-accented dishes — while the seven bedrooms mix antique furniture, modern art and decent prices. Details B&B doubles from £185 (thesuninndedham.com)
Near the course of the Avon at the borders of the Cotswolds, Eckington has flower festivals, community films and walks and a thriving WI alongside its quintessentially pretty 12th-century church and village cross. Eckington Manor, at the western edge of the village, is a 16-room hotel in a 14th-century building with its own 60-acre farm with cattle, sheep and Gloucester Old Spot pigs for the restaurant and cookery school.Details B&B doubles from £149 (eckingtonmanor.co.uk)
Encompassing a harbour, a nature reserve and a village green, Walberswick has rural and coastal kudos. And there's a posh homeware shop on the Green, the award-winning Black Dog deli and a high celebrity count — Emma Freud and Richard Curtis have a home here, as does the film director Paul Greengrass. Imaginative names are not Walberswick's strong point but on the Street is the Anchor, a bunting-strewn pub with ten rooms that will embed you into the village, predictably posh pub grub and beer from Adnams brewed across the Blyth River in neighbouring Southwold. Details B&B doubles from £150 (anchoratwalberswick.com)
For peak village perfection in the Peak District head to Ashford, which lies on the banks of the River Wye. Envy-inducing aspects include the medieval Sheepwash bridge, a church that dates from the 12th century and a thriving cricket club that plays on the village green, as well as a collection of very charming limestone cottages with carefully tended gardens. Along with the posh restaurant with rooms, Riverside House Hotel (B&B doubles from £300; riversidehousehotel.co.uk), the Ashford Arms recently opened with nine funked-up rooms and cheery food aimed at hikers and other hearty, healthy types. Details B&B doubles from £185 (theashfordarms.com)
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Lucky are the 200 inhabitants of this tiny village in England's smallest county. Not only were their thatched cottages and half-timbered houses preserved when Rutland Water was created by flooding the surrounding areas in 1976, but they have Hambleton Hall as a very pleasing, if somewhat pricey, village amenity. Housed in a Victorian mansion where Noël Coward was a regular visitor, it has been owned by Tim and Stefa Hart since 1979. There are 17 suites and bedrooms alongside a Michelin-starred restaurant and grounds with a spectacular view onto the surrounding nature reserve that nurtures ospreys. Details B&B doubles from £425 (hambletonhall.com)
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Nowhere does quiet villages quite like the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire has some particularly choice ones from which to choose. Ascott-under-Wychwood has the requisite slightly ridiculous name and also heaves slightly less than Kingham or Burford. It has all the honey-stone buildings you want, there's a community-run village shop and a train station so you don't have to fire up the Range Rover to reach it. Best of all, now part of Sam and Georgie Pearman's three-strong Lionhearth group, the Swan clearly knows how to make a 16th-century pub sing and its 11 rooms shine.Details B&B doubles from £144 (lionhearth.co.uk/the-swan)
The whitewashed houses of Plockton line up against Loch Carron on Scotland's west coast. Quiet and contemplative, the gardens stretch to the water's edge and a sprinkling of palm trees gives credence to Gulf Stream claims. People return year after year to the Plockton Hotel. Once a private home, it has 11 bedrooms, all simply decorated. Each May it runs a gin and whisky festival, while summer regattas mean plenty of yachties drop in for meals Details B&B doubles from £170 (plocktonhotel.co.uk)
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Straddling the River Tay with its wrought iron bridge, Ballintaggart is one of Perth and Kinross's stealth-wealth villages and when brothers Chris and Andrew Rowley turned a backpacker hostel back into the Grandtully Hotel, it got the focal point it deserved. Now its eight bedrooms, decorated with mid-century calm and rich colours, as well as a restaurant and the Tully bar cater for locals and visitors alike. The brothers also run a cookery school and have converted a collection of cottages while the Tay has rafting and canyoning from just outside the hotel. Details B&B doubles from £215 (ballintaggart.com)
On the northern coast of Aberdeenshire, this village faces Pennan Bay, where dolphins often come to frolic while seals bask on the rocks to the east. Pennan village is just a single — and highly beautiful — line of whitewashed houses facing the bay all built in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1983, the release of the film Local Hero brought Pennan's beauty and its red telephone box to an international audience. Staying at the Pennan Inn puts you at the centre of things. There are just three rooms but they look out at the same elemental landscape and there's a nice restaurant. Details B&B doubles from £121 (thepennaninn.co.uk)
This pastel-coloured homage to Portofino is unlike anywhere else in the UK. Portmeirion may be a thoroughly 20th-century concoction but it's also totally enchanting. Started in 1925 by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis, it's a melange of eccentric buildings in Pokemon colours, exuberant gardens and pale blue benches. More than 200,000 people pay to visit each year but you can also stay overnight, as many of the buildings are holiday lets and there are also two hotels. The Hotel Portmeirion has the best position with heart-melting sunsets by the edge of the Dwyryd Estuary. Williams-Ellis adapted a Victorian building to create 14 bedrooms, while Terence Conran updated the dining room in 2005. Details B&B doubles from £214 (portmeirion.wales)
Just inside Wales on the River Wye, Tintern inspired Wordsworth with the ruins of its 11th-century Cistercian Abbey and now has film nights and fêtes. Spread out amid this natural landscape is its 1,000-strong village, which spreads into the hills and includes shops, cafés and the Parva vineyard (parvafarm.com). This month, the 20-room Royal George will be taking guests again and offering them significantly more comfort than Wordsworth would have found, including two restaurants and a café.Details B&B doubles from £165 (theroyalgeorge.com)
Often described as Cheshire-by-Sea, come summer Abersoch becomes Wales's trendiest village, with regattas, golf and a surfy sense of cool. An easy stroll up the hill, the very foodie — but relaxed and friendly — Porth Tocyn hotel is now in the fourth generation of family ownership. In summer, it reaps the rewards of its outdoor swimming pool while the terrace means that the restaurant spills outdoors with views onto the bucolic Llyn peninsula. There are 17 rooms, a shepherd's hut and a cottage with a double and single room. Details B&B doubles from £195 (porthtocynhotel.co.uk)
On the banks of Strangford Lough is this village of just 200 people. An hour from Belfast, it has a series of pastel-coloured fishermen's cottages leading to the quayside with its tiny ferry that regularly heads off to Portaferry. Opposite the village green, a two-minute walk away, the Cuan takes its role as a community hub seriously by regularly hosting local bands and also serving acclaimed dishes featuring fish from the Lough. Details B&B doubles from £139 (thecuan.com)
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Which other villages should have made our shortlist? Let us know in the comments below