Apartment 13, Willow Cove, Hope Cove

Apartment 13 at Willow Cove looks out over the sea at Hope Cove, a small South Hams village where dogs are such an ordinary sight that nobody looks up. It is a sea-view apartment with a balcony, and the balcony turns out to be the thing dogs like best about it - a spot at head height over the lane, with a steady traffic of walkers and other dogs to supervise while you get on with the morning.

Two well-behaved dogs are welcome and there is no charge for them, which is rare enough on this stretch of the South Devon coast to be worth saying plainly. Parking is free and there is an electric-car charger on site, so a longer stay does not turn into a daily hunt for a space in a village that has very little of it. Guests have been met with a welcome bag of local treats on arrival, and the apartment is finished to a standard that makes a wet-dog week feel less fraught than it might.

Hope Cove is the reason to come. There are two sandy coves within a few minutes' walk, the South West Coast Path runs through the village towards Bolt Tail in one direction and Thurlestone in the other, and there are a couple of places to eat that take dogs, The Cove among them. It is small - a shop-and-a-pub sort of place rather than a town - so plan on driving out for a proper supermarket.

That drive is the one real caveat. The lanes in and out of Hope Cove are narrow and high-hedged, and they need patience in a large car or in August. Some South Devon beaches carry seasonal dog restrictions, so check the current rules for the coves before you count on an off-lead morning on the sand.

Willow Cove suits a couple or a small family with one or two settled dogs who want the sea in front of them and the coast path from the door, and who do not mind that everything beyond the village is a narrow-lane drive away. It earns a 4.5/5 paw rating.