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The charming Cotswold Gateway Hotel is perfectly positioned at the top of Burford Hill, considered by many as the gateway to the glorious Cotswolds. The refuge is renowned for a warm and friendly welcome from owners Andrew and Julia, efficient service, twenty comfortable bedrooms and a restaurant that serves delicious food. You could go there and explore the enchanting English countryside or just spend a weekend relaxing.

The menu focuses on traditional favourites as well as beautifully presented international fare, created whenever possible, from fresh local produce. Choose from small dishes of Peking duck pancakes, platters of smoked salmon or stilton baked mushrooms, and mains of honey roast ham, Slovakian beef golash, as well as options of salads, steaks, burgers, paninis and pizzas.

The bar, decorated with traditional furniture, striking prints and pretty trinkets, offers a selection of real ales as well as beers, ciders, wines, spirits, tea and coffee.

The Cotswold are blessed with some extraordinarily beautiful pubs and hotels and The Bay Tree has to be at the forefront. As you enter you are immediately aware of the very authentic English antiquity, ranging from the delightful walled garden and tapestry-hung walls to the real fires and flag floors - this is the genuine article. The menu is a parade of traditional favourites, many with a modern twist, but always reliable. High standards prevail throughout.

The Spice Lounge will undo any clichéd notions that you may have about Indian restaurants; in fact it's one of those few places which you may not consider as a mere curry house. Located in the attractive Cotswold town of Burford, it is elegant and stylish and perfectly suitable for a spot of studied and relaxed dining and despite the air of sophistication, a meal there can easily become an informal and friendly affair.

Culinary influences from Bangladesh reign strongly and those familiar with the Bengali diction will recognise its effect right away in the menu listing all the dishes. So you might have starters of shobzie samosa, savoury pastry filled with seasoned vegetables and a main course of maachli podina, a combination of spiced fish with ginger, herbs and mint. All the usual favourites are present there, so you could have your korma, roghan and pathia dishes too and of course the quintessential biriyani without which a meal might be incomplete for some.

Burford Lodge's website describes the town of Burford as "a stunning, honey-coloured Cotswold stone town", and it might well include itself in that description. Sumptuous panelling and Regency-style fabrics abound. Comprehensively stuffed with genuine antique furniture, but not lacking in modern twists where opportunity dictates, the rooms are almost in a time warp, yet well able to deal with the pressures of modern living, and nowhere is this more true than in the dining room, open to residents and non residents, offering a menu that is essentially English with European touches.

Nor is the Lodge, built around 1814, short on the unusual; after all it is not every hotel where you can choose to have your meal cooked at table on volcanic stones, nor dip fruit, profiteroles and mallows in the Belgian chocolate fountain.

A veritable cornucopia of snacks is built round lunch, with light bites of, say smoked haddock fishcake, stuffed jalapeno peppers, or hot hobs, a freshly baked baguette with an attractive choice of fillings. Bigger bites include Thai red chicken curry, or Cumberland sausage with sage and onion gravy. The pie range lists steak, Stilton and mash pie, or various versions of the ploughman's feast.

Yet another of these glorious Cotswold inns, with their easy charm, feeling of timelessness and quality that appears to come naturally. There is good attention to detail and timing within an attractive menu that leaves little room for any disquiet - something for everyone. An equally attractive wine list is comfortably priced with house wine at £9.95.

The Carpenters Arms is a sympathetically restored Cotswold pub, which offers a complete country dining experience; they run a daily changing blackboard menu, which always reflects the seasonality of their produce, much of it local.

They tend to specialize in fish and seafood, plus game when it is available; customers range from young professionals to tourists, and, particularly on a Sunday, they play host to large family gatherings for lunch. There are two log burners, which are always lit throughout the winter, and the decor takes on a comfortable feel that makes you almost think that you're at home.

Another wonderful 15th century Cotswold inn with all the trimmings in the form of oak beams, antiques and stone flag floors; the Lamb Inn is truly a place for all seasons. Situated at the 'gateway to The Cotswolds' it still offers traditional charm with modern food and service standards. Lunch can be taken in the bar, lounges or restaurant; or indeed in the delightful walled garden and courtyard.

Dinner is available in the recently refurbished restaurant, but a bar menu is also available every evening.

It is to places like The Lamb that people return repeatedly to enjoy quality English cooking in relaxed and traditional surroundings. Perhaps that is why it was named as Oxfordshire's Dining Pub of the Year in the 2004 Good Pub Guide.