The Lodge, Felsted

The Lodge is a studio apartment above a garage, set in the garden of a period cottage in a quiet corner of Felsted, out in the Essex countryside north of Chelmsford. It is an owner-run place where the setting does most of the work: fields on every side, a large and well-kept garden the apartment looks over, and nights quiet enough that guests write about owls rather than traffic. Being a separate building in a private garden also means no shared corridors and no other guests to negotiate with a dog on the stairs.

Dogs are welcome and the walking starts at the gate. The owners point arrivals at the footpaths and field edges nearby and are generous with suggestions, and what guests with dogs mention most is simply stepping out of the door into open country rather than driving somewhere to walk. Dogs are free to explore the garden while you are there, which several parties have made the centre of their stay.

There is one point where guest accounts diverge, and it matters if your dog cannot be trusted loose. The garden and grounds are large and some parties have treated them as secure; others found the patio immediately outside open on one side and would have preferred the metal fencing carried the whole way round before letting a dog off the lead. Assume it is not fully enclosed, and keep a lead on for the last walk of the day.

Inside it is a single room finished to a high standard - a large, very comfortable bed, a wall-mounted fire that earns its keep on cold evenings, a proper kitchen for self-catering and a good shower, with ample off-road parking and strong wifi. Two small things guests would change: the television is angled for the bed rather than the sofa or the kitchen stools, and the microwave could do with instructions.

Best for a couple with one or two dogs who want quiet, countryside walking and their own front door rather than hotel corridors.