Elfordleigh Hotel Golf Country Club

Elfordleigh Hotel Golf Country Club sits in its own wooded grounds at Colebrook, a few miles north-east of Plymouth, where the suburbs give out into the Plym valley. It is a country-house hotel wrapped around a golf course and leisure club, and the appeal for anyone travelling with a dog is the setting: you step out of the door onto an estate rather than onto a main road.

Dogs are accepted under the property's stated policy and a pet charge applies, though the amount is not published on the booking listing and needs confirming when you reserve. There is no published weight or breed limit and no dedicated pet package, so this is a hotel that takes dogs rather than one built around them. Ask at the point of booking which rooms are allocated to guests with dogs, and whether the dog can join you anywhere beyond the bedroom.

Walking is the strong suit. Paths thread around the golf course and the woodland at the estate's edge, though access across the fairways is seasonally restricted and worth checking at reception. Just beyond, the Plym Valley Trail follows an old railway line towards Plymbridge Woods and on towards Dartmoor: long, flat and largely traffic-free, it suits dogs of any age. The southern edge of Dartmoor is a short drive north, and the coast at Plymouth Sound about the same to the south.

The honest caveat is that pet-traveller feedback here is thin. Guests who have brought dogs report the property doing what it says it does, and nothing in the wider guest feedback contradicts that, but there is not yet enough detail to say much about how the day-to-day works with a dog in tow.

Elfordleigh suits dog owners who want grounds to walk in and a quiet base within reach of both Plymouth and Dartmoor, and who are comfortable confirming the pet charge and the room arrangements directly before they travel.