England’s best hotels, cottages and attractions revealed
Who won gold at the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2025
I was honoured to be asked to be a judge for this year’s VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. I’ve written before about how, when I returned to the UK from Australia, I rediscovered a real love for British travel and heritage and have curated this passion into a career.
As such, as well as my travel writing and journalism, I have created lots of content for VisitBritain and VisitEngland and got to deep-dive into the many glorious regions of the UK. And on Wednesday night, I travelled to Brighton to see the winners of this year’s VisitEngland Awards for Excellence crowned.
Special mention goes to the fun crowd from Merseyside, whose table I joined. I travelled to Liverpool a couple of years ago and wrote a story on the vibrant city, so I was delighted my table-mates Eureka! Science + Discovery centre won gold for Accessible and Inclusive Tourism and silver for New Tourism Business and Titanic Hotel Liverpool won bronze for Large Hotel. The Beatles Story also took top spot for International Tourism – the category I judged.
I have to say, if you are a Brit who hasn’t visited Liverpool, or are considering adding it to your itinerary when visiting the UK, I encourage you to do so. It’s such a fun city; small and easy to navigate, with loads to do and fabulous nightlife. Read more about Liverpool, here.
Here’s who took gold this year:
Best hotel
Large: Mallory Court Country House Hotel & Spa, Warwickshire
This lovely country house hotel between Warwick and Leamington Spa, is renowned for its service. mallory.co.uk
Small: Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Dorset
Meanwhile, the gold for small hotels went to pretty Summer Lodge in Evershot, Dorset, summerlodgehotel.co.uk
Best self-catering
Treworgey Cottages, Cornwall
Looking for the ultimate holiday cottage? Cornwall’s incredibly beautiful Treworgey Cottages near Looe took top spot, treworgeycottages.com
Best guest house
Sunnyside Guest House, Merseyside
It’s a B&B, but next-level good, as Southport’s Sunnyside Guest House was a double-gold winner, for Best Guest House and Sustainability, sunnysidesouthport.co.uk
Best camping and holiday park
Polmanter Touring Park, Cornwall
As well as best cottages, Cornwall took top spot for the best camping and holiday park, for Polmanter, St Ives, polmanter.com
Best experience
Cow Cuddling, Dumble Farm, East Yorkshire
I mean, who wouldn’t want to cuddle a cow? This fabulous experience near Beverley, won top spot and no wonder, dumblefarm.com
Best attraction
Large: Black Country Living Museum, West Midlands
It’s one of the most popular attractions in England, so the fabulous immersive Black Country Living Museum was a deserving winner, bclm.com
Small: No. 1. Royal Crescent, Bath
If you ever wanted to know what it was like in Bath in Jane Austen’s day, this great little museum shows you, no1royalcrescent.org.uk
New tourism business
Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum & Whisky Distillery, Northumberland
How good does this look? Discover the new museum and distillery in Wooler, Northumberland, adgefrin.co.uk
Best pub
The Farmers Arms, Devon
This category would have been hotly contested, but gold went to The Farmers Arms, from the Collective at Woolsery. The Collective owns the pub, plus accommodation, corner shop and post office, fish and chip shop, farm and a boutique hotel called Wulfheard Manor is coming soon, woolsery.com
Taste of England
The Cavendish Hotel, Derbyshire
The award for a stand-out dining experience was won by The Cavendish Hotel, on the Chatsworth Estate. Executive chef Adam Harper uses seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients for this exceptional destination, cavendishhotelbaslow.co.uk
For the full list of winners, visit visitbritain.org