The English Tourism Council is determined to prove that there are many good reasons to holiday at home and will give awards to the best hotels, B&Bs and attractions in the Safeway Excellence in England Awards for Tourism 2002 ceremony in London on 23 April. The disastrous consequences of last year's foot and mouth outbreak mean England needs our business more than ever. Here Observer writers review the nine hotels shortlisted in the Best Hotel Under 60 Rooms category (chosen by regional tourist boards for their fine service and accommodation) and ask, how 'excellent' are they?

North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood

Fleetwood's North Euston Hotel is part glorious folly, part historical curiosity, but mostly a reminder that those visionary Victorians did not get everything right.

Commissioned in 1837, designed by leading architect Decimus Burton and opened at enormous expense in 1841, the crescent-shaped edifice was meant to make an enforced stop on the journey from London to Scotland as glamorous as possible. No one thought the new railway system would be able to negotiate the Cumbrian hills, so the most feasible plan would be to catch a train from Euston to Lancashire, take a boat to Ardrossan and complete the journey by train from there.

Unfortunately, in 1850 the railway made it over Shap in 1850, effectively shunting the North Euston into a siding. There is still no urgent reason for anyone to travel to Fleetwood, though ironically, the hotel now comes close to providing one.

It would be unrealistic to expect the stately accommodation of 150 years ago, and some of the original luxury has inevitably been compromised by the need to cram in en suite bathrooms, television sets, trouser presses and the like, but the beds are cosy, the towels pristine, and the standards of comfort and cleanliness excellent.

We went on one of the wettest and windiest weekends of the year, and enjoyed the contrast between the warm welcome within and the weather doing its worst outside. We fell asleep at night to the sound of sand drifts scouring the window casements, and woke up in the morning to the Trumptonesque sight of men with wheelbarrows carting the beach back where it belonged.

You can catch a tram to Blackpool from Fleetwood, if that sort of thing tickles your fancy, or go north and explore Morecambe Bay and the Lakes. The most relaxing option by far is to stay put. The bar is featured in the Good Beer Guide, and its ambience and excellent range of Moorhouse's brews would put many a swankier hotel to shame. The restaurant is a pleasantly old-fashioned eating experience: squads of waiters in black and white uniforms, the whole tin of biscuits to go with the cheeseboard, and a maitre d' who looks positively disappointed if you fail to order anything flambé.

Despite its ostentatious origins, nothing about the North Euston is cutting edge any longer, but that is the essence of its charm. As charm is not exactly what the Fylde coast is famous for, Fleetwood could be on a winner at last.
Paul Wilson

· North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood, Lancashire (01253 876525) £87, including full English breakfast.

The Halkin, London

Location, location, location... this estate agent's mantra makes equal sense with boutique hotels. A gargantuan hotel in a benighted suburb can redeem itself with a good pool or casino, say, depending on your taste. But in the small, sophisticated operation, you'll need to stretch your legs, take a wander outside.

In terms of location, the Halkin, which stands on a quiet street in Belgravia, holds all the cards. With its fancy shops and embassies, Belgravia pitches itself mid-way between glamour and intrigue. In fact, the whole area, from its handsome pubs to designer shops, conspires in conjuring up some sort of dream London, as if dressed up for a visiting American camera crew.

The hotel is in keeping with the surroundings, a collaboration between old-world elegance and hi-tech. It might have a Georgian-style façade, but the staff are kitted out in Giorgio Armani. Upstairs, minimalism reigns. In fact, at first glance, it's not that easy to identify where the corridor walls end and the doors to the rooms begin. It looks good, but once drink is taken, it's not always so easy to find your way back to bed.

The rooms cleverly make the most of their size - plenty of features, but in no way cluttered, the decor is pitched midway between business and pleasure. So, you get your personalised fax and your multiple phone lines - just in case you decide to run for high office at the last minute, perhaps - while the elegant marble bathroom is packed with Bulgari toiletries.

Food provides the hotel's chief draw, courtesy of its restaurant. Nahm, London's only Michelin-starred Thai restaurant, was opened last July to a host of celebratory reviews, and one or two cat-calls. The huge differences in opinion are explained, in part, by chef David Thompson's extreme approach. He talks of Thai food's 'interplay of textures, flavours and seasonings' which can translate into up to 20 ingredients being used in a single dish.

Stick to the set menu, and you will be talked through the combinations of duck and monkfish and coconut. Too much chilli for my taste, but it did the job as an 'event meal'. The sort of food which, as the different flavours play themselves out, makes you want to lie down - if you find your room.
Robert Yates

· The Halkin, 5 Halkin Street, London (020 7333 1000) from £346, breakfast £19. Various set menus are available at lunch for £18-£25.

Matfen Hall, Newcastle

A weekend at Matfen Hall is an opportunity to make-believe you are Kristin Scott Thomas in Robert Altman's upper-class whodunit Gosford Park. The day job might not provide diamonds or doormen but for one weekend I could pretend the other car was a Bentley.

What's clever is that despite the fact that the hall has been in the aristocratic Blackett family since 1860, it's posh but not pretentious. The bathroom might have been big enough to perform cartwheels in, but I didn't feel I'd be blackballed if I did.

Even though it is an impressive building, there are only 31 rooms which means there's an intimate atmosphere. You can lounge around in your bedroom (ours had huge windows overlooking the 18-hole golf course), peep into the panelled Great Hall or sink into sofas in the drawing room. I could have done with a little less wallpaper and fewer curtain swags - but I guess that's all part of the period-drama look.

There are plans to add a leisure centre, with a pool and spa rooms, plus 24 extra bedrooms. Judging by the work done so far - five years ago Matfen Hall was a care home riddled with dry rot - the additions are unlikely to spoil the atmosphere.

The idea of strolling from room to room wafting a cigarette holder and pretending to own the place was attractive, but we did manage to venture out into the wilds of Northumberland. Straight Roman roads took us inland to Hadrian's Wall (there's a brilliantly windy walk to be done from the Roman fort at Housesteads). Alternatively head up the coast to Craster where there's a magical stroll past the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle and over to the sand dunes beyond. If it's springtime, swing by the new Alnwick gardens on the way.

Back at the hotel, dinner's served at candle-lit tables in the panelled library. A main course - typically monkfish wrapped in parma ham or lamb shanks with mash - costs around £14. Starters - my roasted sea scallops were delicious - were £6.

The wine list included a decent house white. The one discordant note was the ice-dancing music piped through speakers. It would have been more fun to eavesdrop on the other diner's conversations - they might have been plotting an upper-class murder mystery.
Louise France

· Matfen Hall, Matfen, Newcastle upon Tyne (01661 886500) £130 to £225 including full English breakfast (or £225 including dinner).

Grange Hotel, York

The country house hotel comes to the city at the Grange in York. The owner, Jeremy Cassel, aims for a discreet house party atmosphere in this Regency town house a few minutes' walk from the minster and medieval streets.

The Grange's understated elegance is worlds away from the standard chain hotels, whose managers are schooled in such catering business cliches as 'portion control is the key to profitability'.

Guests at the Grange feast on new British cuisine - I recommend the vodka-fuelled roast tomato soup and deep-fried guinea fowl - and choose from a varied French and New World wine list before perambulating to bed with all the dignity they can muster.

My bed was a four-poster, the genuinely old sort, unlike the brand-new, Ikea-style wood and net curtains effort I encountered recently in a holiday cottage. The king-sized Grange bed was as wide as I am tall - not that difficult, at 5ft 7in - and extremely comfortable, with crisp, cotton sheets. The room was well lit and furnished in a relaxed Regency style that included a desk with an array of tourist bumf and a television.

There was a good-size en suite bathroom with a bath deep enough for a really good soak, a powerful over-the-bath shower, lots of fluffy towels on a heated rail and a pair of bathrobes.

Walk for 15 minutes from the hotel and you can reach almost all York's attractions. Nearest is the beautiful minster. How did those computer-deprived medieval architects manage to create so much space inside without it all falling down? A few minutes further away is The Shambles, a narrow street where the buildings' upper floors on either side reach towards one another as though attempting to kiss.

And so back to the Grange for another great meal, just a few doors from the birthplace of W.H.Auden and the building where Guy Fawkes is reputed to have gone to school. Could Fawkes's explosive ways have begun with the vodka-fuelled soup of his age?
Rick Thomas

· Grange Hotel, 1 Clifton, York. (01904 644744) £128 to £190, including breakfast.

Castle House Hotel, Hereford

In the hotel publicity it says that 'the names of the various suites and rooms are designed to illustrate the history of England and particularly Herefordshire during the past four centuries'. My mother and I were given the David Garrick suite - 'the great English actor... born at the Angel Inn in 1717'. We tried not to let this sort of stuff prejudice our view, but our first impression was of a room that was too mannered and formal, making heavy weather of dark wood furniture and materials that frilled and flounced.

But it also turned out to be warm, cosy and more or less perfectly comfortable. Just as well - endless rain forced us to lounge around our suite rather more than we'd expected.

I was also very taken with the bathroom. I've got a thing about hotel bathrooms which are often floodlit and sauna-like - but this one was cool and airy with natural light and lots of Escada Sport toiletries.

Dinner in the restaurant that evening was a formal affair - not a place to go dressed down. My main course of seared wild bass, risotto of crab and cockles, crab and vanilla fishcake and crab foam didn't seem to be the sum of its many small and painfully presented parts. Mum fared better with a less fussy hot smoked Hereford beef fillet. During dessert we pondered the smartly suited diners and wondered who they might be. 'Rich people,' a waiter offered. (Our bill came to £90.60 for three courses, wine and aperitifs.)

Special mention should be made of the staff who, to a man and woman, were unusually warm, friendly and helpful.

The Castle also has beautiful grounds, which must make it lovely in summer. It is only about 100 yards from Hereford cathedral, and not far from a swanky new development called the Left Bank Village, which came highly recommended. However, I can't really comment on it as when we arrived the River Wye had 'peaked', burst its banks and flooded, making everywhere in Hereford more or less inaccessible.

Ah well. Back in the David Garrick suite the pillows passed the 'watching TV in bed' test.
Ursula Kenny

· Castle House Hotel, Hereford, Herefordshire (01432 356321) £165 to £210, continental breakfast included.

Percy's Country Hotel, Virginstow

There is something about the Percy's experience that fits very neatly. You haven't set foot on a blade of grass for about three years and therefore arrive to this rural idyll without the appropriate footwear. A crisis is averted by the rows of wellington boots in the lobby for the use of namby pamby townies such as yourself.

You come back from your walk around the 130-acre estate, ruddy-cheeked and peckish, to find that two slices of rich fruit cake have magically appeared next to the cafetiere and kettle in your room. They go down perfectly as you reflect on your afternoon - but then your limbs begin to gently ache. You're not very sore, but you could do with a bath. Maybe one with a control panel that turns on jets of water so that it's practically a Jacuzzi. Just like, in fact, the one you find in your bathroom. You empty the sea moss relaxation bath salts into the water and lie back. You could stay here all evening. You really could. But there's dinner to think of. It's a good thing you've seen the menu because it looked so tempting it's the only thing that will get you out of your velvety white bathrobe and over to the restaurant.

It didn't look like it was going to be so straightforward before we set off. Percy's is in the heart of Devon and the helpful directions from the owner included the phrase 'go as far as you can' so often that it began to seem as if this was the Hotel at the End of the World. It certainly is remote and visiting without a car is not recommended, but it's in an excellent location all the same. Roadford Lake is nearby and the Eden Project is less than an hour's drive away.

Percy's doesn't take all this natural abundance for granted. The estate, which is undergoing organic conversion, produces game and lamb, as well as herbs and vegetables from the kitchen garden. There are very few hotels that would greet your breakfast order of eggs with the words, 'duck, goose or hen?'.

The food is the real star of this set-up; the starter of spiced seafood chowder is a meal in itself, so it's a good thing that the panfried monkfish is so light. I took the fresh flower that decorated my meringue pudding and pressed it between the pages of my notebook. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Dee O'Connell

· Percy's Country Hotel and Restaurant, Virginstow, Devon. (01409 211236). Double rooms from £100 per night including breakfast. Dinner from £37.50. Getting there: First Great Western (08457 000125) operates trains from London Paddington to Exeter St David's from £24 return.

Morston Hall, Holt

The main reason to spend a weekend at Morston Hall is for the food. This small country house hotel is in Holt, north Norfolk, a tiny village - literally just a pub, a couple of houses (one of which has local mussels for sale on a table outside the front door) and the hotel.

But the regulars who frequent Morston Hall are there for one thing only: to sample the culinary delights of its chef and owner, Galton Blackiston. This is not so much a hotel as a posh restaurant with rooms. I use the word posh because dinner at Morston Hall is a formal affair. Don't (as we did) turn up with a bag full of warm clothes for slopping about on country walks. As this paper's 'style editor' I should have been prepared, but found myself staring with horror at two choices of footwear: a pair of trainers and a pair of muddy Birkenstock clogs. My partner, Mark, had only one jacket. A denim one.

A set dinner is included in the room rate, and guests are requested to assemble for an aperitif in one of the two receptions (chintzy but tasteful and cosy, with log fire and comfy, worn-in seats) at 7.30pm. Dinner is served at eight.

Glugging an expertly mixed gin and tonic, we perused the wine list, and opted for the £17 house white. It would be rude not to take the chef's choice, we thought. Meanwhile, everyone else proceeded to order a bottle of something altogether more expensive. If you are a wine snob, you will be in paradise.

Dinner was a masterclass in classic, well-executed cooking. Cheddar soufflé, followed by scallops, a vegetarian option of mushroom risotto, and then a choice of blood orange sorbet or a cheese plate. Afterwards, the chef did a round of the tables, stopping to discuss the finer details of etuvee cabbage with his guests.

The hotel is run by Galton and his wife, Tracy. The rooms are very comfortable. Each is named after Norfolk stately homes, and the interiors are English country house, with fluffy beds, television and tea-making facilities. Bathrooms have a thick carpet (surely tiles are more hygienic), thick-ish towels, bathrobes, and - a hotel first for me - a choice of two toilet papers, hard and soft.

Breakfast, like dinner, is served with military precision. You can order porridge the night before, and it is slow-cooked overnight, or kippers. All very tempting, but cooked breakfast is only served between 8.30 and 9am in the dining room and continental can be brought to the room till 9.30 which makes it all seem more of a dawn raid than a leisurely brunch.
Tamsin Blanchard

· Morston Hall, Morston, Holt, Norfolk (01263 741041) £95 to £110 per person, including dinner and breakfast.

Lainston House, Winchester

Our visit to Lainston is a good few months before the traditional wedding season kicks in, but it's awash with matrimony. There's a big white wedding taking place in one of the wings, couples in the drawing room planning the big day and brides-to-be touring the grounds.

Couples are evidently queueing up to tie the knot here and who could blame them? This handsome William and Mary house set in 63 acres of rolling parkland must make for stunning wedding photos. There's also a Jane Austen connection - she set many of her heroines' pensive strolls in this countryside and there's a memorial to her in nearby Winchester cathedral.

In terms of gargantuan scale, our room was very impressive - it could have comfortably slept 25. There was even room for a splendid writing desk with blotting pad should I want to pen my own version of Pride and Prejudice. However a pair of opera glasses would have come in handy to see the disappointingly small portable television. Behind the bathroom door was an awe-inspiring set-up reminiscent of a Roman spa: the deepest bath tub I've ever seen and two huge showers in their own corridor.

Unfortunately the formality of the dining-room and the Cedar bar rather stifles the atmosphere. Men are asked to wear jackets to dinner but you can't help thinking they have stopped just short of specifying an Alan Partridge-style blazer and golf club badge. The sea bass, though not what we ordered (a mix-up dealt with very graciously by the maitre d') was tasty but not groundbreaking.

There is also a fully equipped gym. I didn't use it, but it provided a useful midway marker to negotiate the warren of corridors that wound back to the reception room. We did use the tennis court but it wasn't in good repair at the end of a blustery winter.

I came across the hotel in some press cuttings recently. The couple who lost their winning £3 million lottery ticket stayed there while giving newspaper interviews. There's something very fitting about the fact that they chose Lainston - it's a brush with luxury that doesn't go far enough. It has a scenic setting, lovely staff and some very good points but it just falls short of excellence and hasn't quite found the winning ticket.
Lucy Siegle

· Lainston House, Winchester, Hampshire (01962 863588). £150 to £225. Continental breakfast £13, English breakfast £15.

Langdale Chase Hotel, Windemere

Built in 1890 for a Manchester businessman, Langdale Chase must have been one hell of a private house. Originally intended as 'a small retreat' it took five years to complete, was the first house in the area to have electricity, and occupies a stunning site on the very edge of Windermere. Its six-acre terraced gardens, landscaped by Thomas Mawson (who often worked with Gertrude Jekyll and designed the Hill gardens for Lord Leverhulme in Hampstead), drop down to the waterside which has a jetty and boathouse.

There are 28 bedrooms - some in an annexe across the courtyard. We had room 1 on the first floor, which was huge, with beautiful views over the lake and a stained-glass window in the bathroom, and which had a turret corner with sofa, chairs, table and a television. This was great for a lazy breakfast with the papers surveying the alarming weather pattern out of the huge casement windows.

The breakfasts can be stacked in favour of a day's walking (porridge of cereal, gorgeous scrambled eggs, bacon, local sausages, masses of croissants and coffee).

We loved it because the bathroom was huge and warm with good white towels, and the bed was super king-sized (although the pillows were rather lumpy). It also had the most brilliant antique cast-iron radiators with brass tops, made by Wilsons of Manchester and presumably part of the original installations.

The only space where the hotel does suffer a crisis of identity is the dining-room, which is probably inevitable given the requirements of feeding a large number of people. This has very curious frilly panelling, cane furniture and rather intrusive piped music (film themes was one). That having been said, the food is to be highly recommended. Dinner is a set £30 (including Vat) for three courses and the menu is interesting with an emphasis on local produce - pheasant, lamb, venison - and some terrific fish.

We had halibut on a bed of crispy vegetables with a pea sauce topped with cabbage cooked as crispy Chinese seaweed. Sauces are interesting, presentation wonderful and the chef, Wendy Lindars, has also selected a stunning cheeseboard of English cheeses. Lunch is £14.95 for three courses, or they will make up a packed lunch for you.

Best of all, Langdale Chase allows dogs (although not in the public rooms, which is perfectly fair) and, for us, that was one of the points of walking all day. Fin, our unruly Border/Lakeland cross, had never visited the land that is half her heritage, but swam happily in freezing Grasmere and charged up fells. The helpful and charming staff gamely welcomed her grubby return and she slept blissfully next to the antique radiator in our room.

The hotel's atmosphere is very relaxed. Everyone is helpful and chatty, with recommendations of walks, visits, places. One lovely waitress, Dot, 83, considers herself far too young to retire and walks the fells to keep fit. It's not hard to see why this was Cumbria's hotel of the year last year.
Caroline Boucher

· Langdale Chase Hotel, Windermere, Lake District, Cumbria (01539 432201) £170-£300, including breakfast.