Carbis Bay Hotel & Spa, St Ives

When part of your hotel stay includes access to a private Blue Flag beach, you know you have arrived somewhere special. The Carbis Bay, just around the coast from pretty St Ives and made famous by author Rosamunde Pilcher in her novel The Shell Seekers, has sat proudly overlooking the bay since 1894 when the railways brought tourism to the south west. These days, it retains all of the grandeur imbued by architect Sylvanus Trevail with a layer of 21st luxury smoothed on top. Expect the most succulent of steaks in the formal dining room, enjoy soaking up the sun like a lizard in the conservatory overlooking the beach while waiting staff deliver nibbles and bar drinks or take the plunge on the terrace pool. Oh, and you'll never tire of drawing back your sea view room curtains each morning and inhaling in wonder at the vast blueness in front of you. A new spa is further reason to book, featuring ocean-spa pool, Ruinart champagne bar, candelit treatment rooms and an outdoor sauna pod. They will even do treatments for you on the private beach! For more independence but all the features of the hotel to enjoy, bag a self-catering beach house.