PUT THE ‘CLASSICS’ ON HOLD AND TRY SOMEWHERE NEW

THE CLASSIC Broadway, Cotswolds

Even by Cotswolds standards, honeystoned Broadway has a breathtaking beauty that visitors have always been moved to capture, from the Pre-Raphaelites (Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Morris) to today’s selfie-snapping tourists.

THE ALTERNATIVE Ludlow, Shropshire

Good-looking Ludlow charms with its wonky wattle-and-daub buildings, yet its location in sleepy Shropshire – beside the Welsh border and blessedly far-flung from London – saves it from the overtourism that blights the Cotswolds. Still, its strong culinary scene pulls in dedicated gourmets and its square has hosted a farmers’ market since the 12th century, when it was just known as a “market”. Pick up artisan cheeses and venison pies for a picnic within the pleasingly ruined castle. If you are feeling brave, work up an appetite with a wild swim in the River Teme.

Ludlow is also blessed with some terrific (and affordable) places to stay, the fanciest of which is Old Downton Lodge – a rambling, half-timbered farmhouse on a 5,500-acre estate, with antique oak four-posters in the former stable rooms and a smart restaurant in the 13th-century barn, serving adventurous and carefully crafted dishes. Doubles from £185 (01568 771826; olddowntonlodge.com)

THE CLASSIC Padstow, Cornwall

Charming fishing village-turned-gourmet seafood epicentre on Cornwall’s north coast, now largely owned by Rick Stein and other chefs célèbres.

THE ALTERNATIVE Porthleven, Cornwall

Charming fishing village-turned-seafood epicentre on Cornwall’s south coast, not yet commandeered by celebrity chefs – so don’t hang about. The cooking stars of Porthleven are a new generation of locals, setting up boat-toplate businesses on the quay and in Shipyard market, a former metalworks warehouse: there’s Dan Dan the Lobster Man, for example; and the Mussel Shoal can row you out to a floating pontoon for supper. Gourmet and arts festivals appeal to both visitors and residents.

The 19th-century Harbour Inn is an ace pub with rooms where you can expect fresh, coastal-cool rooms (set to get spiffed up several notches this winter with a refurb).

Doubles from £105 B&B (01326 573876; harbourinnporthleven.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC

Skye, Inner Hebrides

Ineffably romantic island whose majesty has seduced painters, writers and sightseers – among them Turner, Woolfe and Queen Victoria.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Mull, Inner Hebrides

What a difference a bridge makes! While everyone is queueing to swim in the Fairy Pools and bag the Old Man of Storr on Skye, neighbouring Mull has fewer visitors (and consequently lower prices), thanks partly to the fact that you have to take a ferry across to it. The extra effort is rewarded: rainbow-coloured Tobermory is as bonny as Portree; beaches are made of fine white sand; walkers love its variety (paths crisscrossing mountains, coast, heather-carpeted hills); wildlife fans come to spot whales, dolphins and white-tailed eagles in abundance.

Glengorm Castle is a baronial pile of turrets, spires and crow-stepped gables, overlooking the Sound of Mull. Within, find 19th-century carved staircases, mahogany-panelled walls and stone fireplaces; while some bedrooms and the self-catering cottages have had a 21st-century refresh (Orla Kiely and blonde wood, nothing too radical). Doubles from £165 B&B; self-catering only from November 12 (01688 302321; glengormcastle.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC Brighton, East Sussex

All-inclusive seaside capital of the south coast, its shingle beach, dance halls and elegant town-house hotels have bustled with holidaymakers since Georgian times, when the Prince of Wales came with his crew to swim in the sea, party and play cards – a heyday that has never wound down.

THE ALTERNATIVE Hastings, East Sussex

Like many of its neighbours, grittier Hastings is going through a revival, thanks to the influx of younger generations doing exciting things with food and art (adjoining St Leonards has been dubbed “Dalston-on-Sea”, but where hasn’t?). In Hastings Contemporary it has a major art museum, whose patron Quentin Blake said: “I am constantly distracted by Hastings in the most enjoyable way.” As well as the gallery’s changing exhibitions and the autumn Hastings Storytelling Festival (October 15-23), those distractions might include rootling for reclamation in the old town, and dancing on the minimalist pier with its open-air stage.

Both towns are blessed with cool, affordable places to stay. Try the eightbedroom Old Rectory – it’s completely wonderful and very Hastings, a mashup of period details, contemporary styling and retro finds.

Doubles from £115 B&B (01424 422410; theoldrectoryhastings.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC Burnham Market, Norfolk

The latest cute-as-a-button bolthole to be dubbed “Chelsea-on-Sea” (which is odd because it’s not actually on the sea), this north Norfolk village is one of this year’s most desirable places to live.

THE ALTERNATIVE Reepham, Norfolk

Further inland, outside the Norfolk Coast AONB, cute villages and market towns abound – without the Chelsea price tag. Try Reepham (pronounced “Reefum”). It’s a sleepy place, with steam trains chuffing out of its toy-town station, vintage shops and an antiques market for top-drawer rummaging. Its beating heart is the Georgian red-brick Dial House, a brilliantly whimsical hotel and restaurant. Rooms are decked out

in playful wallpapers and fabrics, and have antique furniture and eccentric curios curated by owner Hannah Springham, who also runs a shop, Vintage Vegas. Her husband, chef-patron Andrew Jones, cooks – to great acclaim – whatever is in season locally.

Doubles from £120 B&B (01603 879900; thedialhouse.org.uk)

THE CLASSIC Salcombe, Devon

Perhaps the most beautiful seaside town in the universe (and also the most expensive), Salcombe has always been the destination of choice for nautically inclined DFLs (“down from London”), who order lobster and Whispering Angel in the waterside pubs while their children learn to sail in the Kingsbridge estuary.

THE ALTERNATIVE Topsham, Devon

It’s hardly down at heel – some might even call it chichi – but still Topsham, a little eastwards on the Exe, offers a similar seafaring dreaminess that is less crowded and more accessible than Salcombe (both financially and geographically; it has a tiny train station). The town is also set on an estuary, whose calm waters swell gently with the tides – bliss for messing about in small boats, pottering down to Lympstone and the dunes of Dawlish Warren.

The Salutation Inn is a Georgian coaching house with six lovely rooms, owned and run by Tom and Amelia Williams-Hawkes. Chef-patron Tom is a protégé of Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing and Exeter boy Michael Caines (who has two restaurants nearby), so the g ‘An enchanting break from everyday life’: visit the west coast of Wales this autumn

food packs a punch – from breakfast to the artful tasting-menu suppers. Doubles from £130, room only (01392 873060; salutationtopsham.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC

Bruton, Somerset

The gentrified epicentre of Somerset’s arty-bohemian-chic enclave has it all: hand-thrown pottery boutiques, artisan bakeries, Michelin-starred restaurants, chichi hotels and a heavyweight contemporary art destination in Hauser & Wirth.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Frome, Somerset

Goodness, hasn’t the hippie lifestyle got expensive? So away we go, 10 country miles down tree-tunnelled lanes, to Frome. Lovely, lively, new-age Frome, all healing crystals, yoga and folk music, its creamy-stone stores more about vintage clothes and vegan cafés than designer labels and nouvelle cuisine. Bed down in one of the eight stylish rooms above French Bistro Lotte, about as fancy as it gets around here. Doubles from £110 B&B (01373 300646; bistrolottefrome.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC Windermere, Lake District

Windermere is the hub of the Lake District, possibly the most stunning place on earth in autumn, and England’s largest lake, plied by pleasure boats ever since the first paddle steamer launched in 1845, and its shores dotted with luxury hotels.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Haweswater, Lake District

Up and over the high street from Windermere lies Haweswater – beneath which lies a lost underwater village, just visible when the water levels drop during summer. Despite its proximity to both the M6 and the national park’s honeypots, this eastern edge of the Lake District feels wonderfully isolated.

Goodness knows what the Jazz Agestyle Haweswater Hotel would cost if it sat on Windermere; but it doesn’t, which is lucky for us. More importantly, it’s a quiet refuge from the crowds and the pleasure-boat loudspeakers. A place of raw, unfettered beauty. Doubles from £129 B&B (01931 713673; haweswaterhotel.com)

THE CLASSIC Haye-on-Wye, Powys

Wales’s artsy rural town has grown into a literary giant, packed with book shops and galleries, home to artisan food producers and freethinkers.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire

Out in the green reaches of West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge feels totally unique. Comparisons can be drawn with Hay, certainly, for its literary credentials (Ted Hughes was born here, and the scene has been growing ever since); but also Glastonbury, for its New Agers; and Brighton for its inclusivity (it is the self-proclaimed “lesbian hub” of the north). Diverse cultural happenings reflect the natives; this autumn, for example, catch the new Sylvia Plath Literary Festival (the author is buried in nearby Heptonstall),

along with organic growing workshops, foraging walks, folk and psychedelic rock gigs, raves, comedy shows… Anyway, it’s a splendid little place that will cast its own spell.

Hebden Townhouse is the town’s most stylish – in a laid-back, homely way – place to stay, its rooms painted in the muted greens of the Yorkshire countryside and filled with interesting antiques and art. Doubles from £125 B&B (01422 845272; hebdentownhouse.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC Lavenham, Suffolk

A medieval Suffolk wool town with higgledy-piggledy streets of timbered Tudor buildings, among them three luxury hotels and an award-winning restaurant, all so well-preserved it is like a film set – and indeed played backdrop to Harry Potter, Witchfinder General, and Lovejoy.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Dedham, Essex

A philosopher’s stone’s throw over the border, the much-maligned county of Essex has medieval enclaves of its own, which tend to fly under the traveller’s radar. Dedham is utterly delightful, sitting on the Essex bank of the River Stour, the heart of Constable country (he lived here, and the village and Dedham Vale – the county’s only AONB – feature in his paintings).

The Sun Inn is a reimagined coaching inn painted sunshine yellow, with a bar at the end of its garden, a seasonal menu serving refined pub classics, and seven lovely rooms upstairs. Take a boat down the Stour or hop on one of the hotel’s bikes to explore Dedham Vale’s bucolic lowlands.

Doubles from £175 (01206 323351; thesuninndedham.com)

THE CLASSIC Edinburgh, Midlothian

Brooding good looks in its turreted gothic town houses, steep cobbled streets, its hilltop castle rising up out of the rock itself… Two million tourists a year can’t be wrong.

THE ALTERNATIVE Glasgow, Lanarkshire

Glasgow has Gothic grandeur too, but it is darker and edgier, more Batman than Byron. And its cobbled streets of independent galleries, bars and shops buzz with a gutsier energy, thanks to the new population of young creatives drawn to its vibrant arts scenes and nightlife, and much lower cost of living.

Cathedral House is the best independent boutique hotel in the city, relaunched four years ago with a modern Italian restaurant downstairs and, upstairs, eight on-trend rooms painted all your favourite Farrow & Ball shades, some with views of the cathedral. Doubles from £120 (0141 552 3519; cathedralhouseglasgow.com)

THE CLASSIC Portmeirion, Gwynedd

Portmeirion is an architect’s fantasy: an Italianate village, built in the 1920s and painted all the flavours of a gelateria – a vision from the Cinque Terre transplanted on to a wooded slope of the Glaslyn estuary in north-west Wales. Nobody actually lives there, so staying in its hotels, once day-trippers have gone home, is like spending the night in a museum.

THE ALTERNATIVE Aberaeron, Ceredigion

The town of Aberaeron also makes an enchanting escape from everyday life – a clutch of colourful buildings around a quaint harbour – only this one’s Welsh through and through. The electric-blue building on the quayside is the Harbourmaster hotel; 13 rooms echo the coastal location in the panelling, hulllike roll-top bathtubs, the blue-andwhite palette, with headboards and cushions hand-made from traditional Welsh blankets. No room at the inn? Try brand new restaurants-with-rooms Y Seler, its dark, sexy interiors the yin to the Harbourmaster’s yang. Harbourmaster doubles from £140 B&B (01545 570755; harbour-master.com); Y Seler doubles from £139 B&B (01545 574666; yseler.

co.uk)

THE CLASSIC Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Ancient spa town and Yorkshire’s poshest hangout, thanks to its hot mineral springs and legendary tearoom Bettys, which cause long queues along Harrogate’s elegant Victorian streets.

THE ALTERNATIVE Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Jump the queues for afternoon tea by going to Ilkley instead. It has its

own branch of Bettys, and it too is a i Where eagles dare: forget Skye – spa town, a lovely one on the edge of see the wildlife on Mull instead the Yorkshire Dales, beside Ilkley Moor where, well wrapped up and warm-hatted, one might walk or ride ponies.

In an 1860 landmark building in the centre of town, the Crescent Inn has 14 contemporary classic rooms, a bistro and a pub with a roaring fire.

Doubles from £123 B&B (01943 811250; thecrescentinn.co.uk)

THE CLASSIC

Bray, Berkshire

Lazing beside the River Thames, little Bray is a big-hitting culinary hotspot clocking up seven Michelin stars and several top-dollar hotels, its riverbank houses known as “millionaires’ row”.

THE ALTERNATIVE

Maidenhead, Berkshire

A mile upriver lies Maidenhead. “The town of showy hotels,” declared Jerome K Jerome in Three Men in a Boat in 1889, “… too snobby to be pleasant”.

Three years later, a riverside mansion was built plum on the Thames in Maidenhead as a social club for Windsor Castle’s Grenadier Guards; it then became an art collector’s house-cum-museum; and six years ago it was transformed into the River Arts Club hotel. It still feels like a house to kick back in: board games in the library, honesty bar, and a launch to putter guests to its Michelinstarred neighbours. Rooms are a trip, with colour everywhere; French Rococo mirrors hang beside mid-century modern chairs. Given the neighbourhood – still snobby, perhaps, but pleasant – it is excellent value, too. Doubles from £150 B&B (01628 631888; riverartsclub.com)

Laura Fowler