Creative Commons licensePhoto by flickr user Steve.Maw

Despite being extensively invaded by the Romans, and more recently Londoners snapping up second homes, West Sussex has thankfully retained plenty of its character. The South Downs are a wooded ripple across the middle of the county, offering good walking and views to the coast, where creeks and harbours hide waterside villages and the odd ice cream van. Classic events like horseracing and the Festival of Speed at Goodwood or the polo at Cowdray Park are tempered by simpler pleasures such as walking in woods carpeted with bluebells or having a beer in a fine country pub. In this varied landscape, places to hang your hat are also a mixed bunch. Left over from days when folk went shrimping in Bognor for their annual escape, there is a sea of no-nonsense coastal guesthouses that do a brisk trade for the bucket-and-spade brigade. At the other end of the scale, five-star country piles abound, where former Lords and Ladies peer from their canvas haunts at corporate types having a pow-wow or girlfriends relaxing into the fluffy robes of a spa package. And, except for Brighton, which deserves a list all to itself, the green, pleasant countryside is where our top ten hotels were discovered; interestingly none are by the sea. The order by which the hotels are listed bears no reflection on our preference.

Written by Marcus Waring