Sanctum on The Green

Sanctum on The Green is a small country hotel and restaurant set back from the cricket common at Cookham Dean, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. Dogs are part of how the place works rather than a concession: there are designated dog-friendly rooms, water bowls are kept on site, and dogs come into the bar and the restaurant with their owners rather than being left upstairs while everyone else eats. Guests travelling with dogs describe staff who treat the arrangement as entirely normal.

A charge applies for a dog. The property's booking listing flags it without stating the amount, and guests have reported a supplement in the region of 15 pounds for a one-night stay with one dog, so budget for something in that range and confirm the current figure when you book. The dog-friendly rooms themselves are the thing to check. Guests consistently describe them as comfortable and spotless but on the small side, and where a sofa bed has been added for a third person the room becomes difficult to move around. If space matters, ask which of the dog rooms is largest and where it sits, because position turns out to matter here: the rooms nearest the restaurant and the garden save walking a dog through the building.

What lifts the place beyond an ordinary pet policy is the setting. There is a walled restaurant garden, an outdoor pool, flowers everywhere in summer, and country walks straight from the door in an area that stays genuinely rural despite the Thames Valley towns nearby. The food, and the Sunday roast in particular, is what most guests write about first. One thing worth knowing about the garden rooms: a public footpath runs up to the decking, so people pass close to the door.

It earns a 4.4/5 paw rating. This suits dog owners who want a proper restaurant and a country-hotel evening with the dog under the table rather than shut in a bedroom, and who can live with a compact room in exchange.