Brimstone Hotel

If you love the Lake District but lazily write it off as being somewhere for the duffle-coat and rucksack brigade, with facilities to match, then you should think again. The region has changed quite a bit since the days of Wainwright, and nowhere more so than at the Brimstone Hotel, one of the Lakes' new breed of dazzling boutique hotels, housed in a slate-clad building perfectly in keeping with its surroundings. Situated in one of the Lake District's most beautiful valleys, and with some of the region's best walking on its doorstep, it has everything that people come to the Lake District for, but the approach is as contemporary as it gets, with an emphasis on comfort, good food and creating a welcoming home-from-home.

There are 16 rooms in all, which are large and clad in cool and contemporary colours and oozing with gadgets – ipod docking stations are standard, as are groovy dimmer switches and pushbutton curtains, though ironically only the best rooms also boast a suitably retro open fire. But although the Brimstone may be a metropolitan sort of place, it's firmly anchored in the Lakes and the breathtaking landscape that surrounds it, and they deliberately make it easy to get out and about.

Breakfasts are as hearty as you need for a spot of fell-walking, and urban folk who don't have their own kit can rent waterproof clothing and rucksacks with OS maps. And when you come back, cold and hungry, they can have scones and tea or sizzling steak sandwiches waiting for you in the cosy lounge and reading room. There's also a pool, sauna and steam room which makes this a very relaxing sort of place all round.