The Headland Hotel & Spa

Few British hotels command their setting like The Headland. The great red-brick Victorian pile stands alone on a promontory with the Atlantic on three sides and the surf of Fistral Beach breaking directly below—a position so cinematic that the 1990 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches was shot here. Family-owned for decades, it has evolved from faded seaside grande dame into one of Cornwall's most capable coastal resorts.

A rolling programme of investment has added the Aqua Club, a wellness complex of indoor and outdoor pools, hydrotherapy, saunas and a cliff-top hot tub with a panorama of breaking swell that few spas in Britain can rival. Rooms range from contemporary sea-view doubles in the main house to a village of self-catering cottages in the grounds that suit families settling in for a week.

Dining is led by the Samphire restaurant's Cornish-produce menus, with more casual options covering surf-hungry appetites. Newquay's beaches, the coast path and the town's surf schools are the natural itinerary, and staff are well drilled in both bucket-and-spade and board logistics. The Headland is not a hushed adults' retreat—it is a big, breezy, welcoming seaside resort with a spa worth the trip on its own.