Room service: The summer house, Penzance, Cornwall

The Summer House has received much well-deserved acclaim (a Silver Award from the English Tourism Council and the Chic & Stylish 2002 award from Which? Hotels) since it opened four years ago. The owners, husband-and-wife team Ciro and Linda Zaino, bill it as a restaurant with rooms, which is probably the right emphasis since the food here is a treat (Ciro formerly worked with Anton Mosimann). Not that one should downplay the accommodation in this pretty, Grade II-listed Regency house. The elegant furnishings are offset by strong, Mediterranean wall colours and by imaginative paint effects that might inspire you to dig out that Jocasta Innes home-decoration book and try again.

Location, location, location

The Summer House, Cornwall Terrace, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 4HL (01736 363 744;summerhouse@dial.pipex.com).

The hotel is a pebble's throw from the Promenade and a short walk to Penzance's famous Jubilee Pool at the far end. St Michael's Mount, the Tate St Ives and the Minack Theatre (the Zainos will prepare a picnic for a night out there) are all within easy reach.

Getting there: Trains from Plymouth to Penzance link with services from London Paddington, Birmingham New Street and Bristol Temple Meads (call National Rail Enquiries 08457 48 49 50 or see www.rail.co.uk). Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryanair.com) has daily flights from Stansted to Newquay. The airport is 37 miles (about an hour's drive) from Penzance.

Are you lying comfortably?

The beds in the hotel's five smallish bedrooms are piled with soft cushions and are dreamily comfortable.

Freebies: the little bathrooms are stocked with Aubery herbal soaps, shampoos and shower gels. There are glossy magazines in the bedrooms and there's a good stock of local information downstairs in the sitting room.

Keeping in touch: technology is almost non-existent: rooms have hairdryers and old TV sets, but that's it. Bring your mobile phone if you need to communicate with the outside world. There are no phones (or modem points) in the bedrooms: this is a place for relaxing.

The bottom line

Rooms are £65-£85 a night, with full English breakfast. Single occupancy is charged at £60 a night. Three-course dinners are £22.50 (Monday night is residents only, otherwise open to the public).

I'm not paying that: try the Penzance Arts Club, Chapel Street (01736 363 761, £35 per person for a double room per night for non-members). It hasn't got bags of character, is less plush, and some of the rooms have showers but no toilet, so you might have to queue up in the corridor.