Hope Cottage, Hartland

Hope Cottage sits on East Ball Hill just outside Hartland village, and it is the kind of large north Devon holiday house that is built around groups arriving with dogs rather than merely tolerating them. The whole property is yours, so there are no shared corridors and nobody to negotiate with, and the garden is enclosed - the detail guests with dogs mention first and most often.

The welcome goes further than an open door. Guests travelling with dogs report finding a crate, towels, throws for the sofas and dog shampoo already laid out on arrival, which is rare in a self-catering let and saves hauling half the utility room down from home. Inside there is plenty of room to spread out: four bedrooms, three bathrooms plus a ground-floor wet room, a big kitchen-diner, two lounges with a wood fire in the larger one, and a snug that guests repeatedly describe using as a quiet room for the dogs after a long walk. A utility room with a washer and dryer handles muddy coats and towels.

Hartland itself is a working village rather than a resort, with a pub, a shop and a cafe within an easy walk, so you can leave the car and take the dog with you. The lanes and footpaths around the property make for good everyday walking, and the coast path around the Hartland peninsula is close enough to build a holiday around.

The one recurring gripe is parking: the spaces are tight and getting in and out takes a bit of practice, which is worth knowing if you are arriving in two large cars. Wi-Fi has also been described as intermittent. Neither affects the dogs. With a 4.7/5 paw rating, Hope Cottage suits groups and families who want a proper base for coastal walking, with room for everyone to spread out and somewhere warm for the dogs to sleep it off.