Star of the show

"Even when the sun doesn't shine", this hotel deserves its Good Hotel Guide Cesar Award, says Walter F Stowy in the Sunday Times. The Star Castle is a "small but exquisite" 16th century castle overlooking St Mary's Harbour. The rooms are "vast and well furnished" with good-quality linens, comfy armchairs and flat-screen TVs, and each has a private sun deck for "when Mother Nature is feeling co-operative". The award-winning restaurant

serves locally caught fare, and the bar is housed in the castle dungeon, where some of the country's most notorious prisoners were once incarcerated. From the ramparts, you can watch the sun set over distant headlands. With a view like this, "you wouldn't want to be anywhere else". Star Castle 01720-422317. Doubles from £144 half-board.