St Annes Hotel

St Annes Hotel is about as relaxed as a seaside bed and breakfast gets about dogs. It sits on Norfolk Square, a quiet green a couple of minutes from Great Yarmouth's seafront, and dogs are simply part of the household here - they stay in the rooms, they come down to breakfast, and the owners keep three of their own. Guests travelling with dogs consistently describe it as the sort of place where nobody makes a fuss, which regulars say is harder to find than it should be.

The practical side is straightforward. Rooms are simple but come with a kettle, tea and coffee and a small fridge, a full cooked breakfast is included, and there is free parking on the driveway with more free spaces on the square opposite - genuinely useful in a town where parking is a common headache. Breakfast times are flexible, and the owners have a track record of accommodating a late arrival if you call ahead.

What guests with dogs single out most is the welcome. This is an owner-run bed and breakfast, and dogs are treated as ordinary guests from the moment they walk in rather than as something to be negotiated. The seafront, pier and beach are a short walk away for morning exercise, and the racecourse is about half an hour on foot.

The trade-off is real and worth knowing before you book. Because dogs live here and stay here constantly, housekeeping around dog hair and smell is the weak point - a recurring complaint from guests arriving without a dog is that rooms can smell of dog and that hair is not always fully cleared. The enclosed outdoor area the dogs use has also drawn criticism for not being picked up and hosed down often enough, and the owners' own dogs wander freely at breakfast and will beg at the table. Rooms are dated, and this is a budget property priced accordingly.

If you want a spotless, dog-free-smelling room, look elsewhere. If you want somewhere your dog is unquestionably welcome, a few minutes from the sand, with breakfast and parking thrown in, St Annes earns its 4.8/5 paw rating.