The Old Mill Cottage, Fakenham

The Old Mill Cottage sits by the river in the middle of Fakenham, a converted mill building arranged upside down, with the living room and kitchen upstairs to make the most of the water and the bedrooms below. Dogs are welcome, two of them stay comfortably without the place feeling cramped, and the position does most of the work: a large field and a riverside footpath start across the road, which makes the first walk of the day a thirty-second commute, and the town centre with its shops and pubs is an easy stroll.

Cleanliness is what guests raise most often, and they raise it approvingly - spotless, warm throughout, everything provided down to laundry pods and baby kit. The host is responsive and easy to deal with, parking is straightforward, and the north Norfolk coast is within half an hour, so it works as a base rather than just a bed.

The catch, and for some dogs it is a significant one, is that there is no garden at all. A garden view is not the same thing as a garden, and guests with dogs have arrived expecting somewhere enclosed to let the dog out and found there is nowhere - strongly enough that some say they would not have booked had they known. Every toilet trip, including the last one at night, is a walk across the road. For a dog that will happily wait, that is a five-minute inconvenience; for a puppy, an elderly dog, or one that needs the garden at three in the morning, it is a genuine reason to look elsewhere.

The remaining notes are minor - a shower over the bath rather than a separate one, small bedrooms, no mirror in the double. At 4.5/5, this is a very good dog-friendly base for north Norfolk provided you go in knowing the garden situation.