Hunters Moon Hotel, Sidmouth

Hunters Moon Hotel is a three-star country-house hotel on Sid Road in Sidmouth, a period building set in its own gardens that back directly onto The Byes, the riverside park running through the town. It is one of the more thoroughly dog-aware hotels on the East Devon coast, and it earns a 4.7 out of 5 paw rating.

Dogs cost 14 pounds per dog per night. They are welcome in the garden on a lead and may stay in your bedroom while you eat. They are not allowed in the formal dining room, but the hotel sets up a table in the bar so you can have breakfast with your dog rather than being confined to the room. Some bedrooms are kept dog free for allergy sufferers, and taking a dog into one of those carries a 100 pound cleaning charge, so make sure the booking is flagged.

What guests with dogs mention most is that the hotel has clearly thought this through. Arrivals with a pet are often given a ground-floor room with direct access outside, which saves walking a wet dog back through reception, and parties with two dogs are accommodated without fuss. Repeat stays with the same dogs turn up in the reviews, which is about as good a signal as a hotel gets. There is car charging on site too.

The setting does a lot of the work. The Byes is over the garden wall, so the first walk of the day needs no car and no roadside stretch, and Sidmouth town and the seafront are a level walk away. Branscombe and Beer, both dog-friendly beaches year round, are a short drive east.

The breakfast arrangement is the one soft spot. The bar has only a couple of tables, and dog owners have waited a while for one on a busy morning. Opinion on the cooked breakfast itself is split, with most reviews rating it highly and a few finding it modest. Parts of the building are showing their age, particularly some bathrooms and the main corridors.

Best suited to a couple with one or two well-behaved dogs who want a quiet, traditional hotel with a park over the wall and staff who treat a dog as a normal part of the booking.