Brittons Hill Cottage

If you summoned up a mental picture of your ideal country cottage, there's a fair chance it would look something like Brittons Hill Cottage – a charming thatched affair that is so sweet it looks like something a child might draw. All that's missing is the smoke from the chimney. 

But beauty at Brittons Hill is not just skin-deep. Inside the cottage is as cosy as it looks from the outside, with 15th-century beams, a large open fireplace and wooden doors and floors. Yet it's equipped with every contemporary feature you could wish for. Recently renovated throughout, the ground floor is made up of a  spacious sitting room with a fireplace with wood-burner, two sofas and a TV which leads onto a spacious kitchen-diner that serves as a second seating area, with chairs and a larger (50-inch) TV, a dining table and a very well-appointed kitchen with eye-level oven and hob, state-of-the-art worktops and everything you could conceivably need. There's also a large, top-notch conservatory with lovely countryside views, another dining table and a sofa which gives you yet another place to lounge about. Outside, the garden is home to a six-person hot tub for a spot of star-gazing and self-pampering before getting a peaceful night's sleep in one of the cottage's three double bedrooms. One of these is downstairs, in the original 15th-century wing of the cottage, with a beamed ceiling and views of the garden. The other two – one twin, one double – are upstairs, alongside two bathrooms (one with a spacious standalone shower, the other with a giant slipper bath) and have views over the surrounding fields.

Finally the location is perfect, on the edge of the picture-perfect village of Appledore, which also happens to have all the amenities you may need – pub, shop, post office, tearoom – but also close to the sea at Camber Sands. The lovely small town of Tenterden is also nearby, home to indy shops, a brewery and vineyard, as is the historic port of Rye – the ideal place to while away a day shopping for antiques and stopping off at ancient pubs. Tempted? You will be!