The George & Dragon, Belper

The George & Dragon is a pub with rooms on Bridge Street in Belper, at the southern end of the Derwent Valley and a short drive from the eastern edge of the Peak District. It is the kind of owner-run town pub where a dog walking in behind you is unremarkable, and the welcome goes past mere tolerance: dog guests are met with a basket in the room holding a blanket, a bowl and treats, which is a level of preparation more common in country hotels than in a high-street inn.

Rooms sit above the bar in a genuinely old building that has been refurbished carefully - warm, comfortable beds, better appointed and larger than the frontage suggests, with tea, coffee and biscuits in. There is no charge for bringing a dog, though the pub asks that you say so when you book rather than arriving with one unannounced. There is a car park at the rear, which spares you unloading a dog onto a busy pavement.

Downstairs is a working pub rather than a hotel bar, and dogs are welcome in it. That is the main reason people travelling with a dog choose this sort of stay: an evening meal and a drink without leaving the dog alone upstairs. The pub reads as friendly to both halves of the party rather than merely permissive.

Two practicalities. The building fronts a main road and the traffic is audible at night; earplugs are supplied in the rooms, which tells you the pub knows. And breakfast is not served, so plan on a cafe in town - Belper's centre is a few minutes' walk away.

Walking is easy from the door. The River Derwent and its riverside gardens are minutes away, the Derwent Valley Heritage Way runs through the town, and the Cromford Canal towpath a little further north gives a flat, lead-friendly few miles. Best suited to couples and solo travellers with one dog who want a pub they can eat in with the dog at their feet, and a base for the Derwent Valley rather than a destination hotel.