In search of cosy hotels, long walks and historic markets? James Stewart knows all the best places to visit.

Grantchester, Cambridgeshire

"Is there honey still for tea?" the poet Rupert Brooke asked in The Old Vicarage, Grantchester. There is, plus light lunches at the Orchard Tea Garden (theorchard teagarden.co.uk). First, though, discover a dreamlike village where you're not an idle tourist so much as an aesthete pilgrim: ambling beside Byron's Pool (tame bear optional), idling like EM Forster, Virginia Wool or Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on willow-silvered meadows, letting time drift outside the Red Lion. Leave the car. The walk from Cambridge alongside the River Cam is only two miles. Better still, punt.

Stay University Arms, B&B doubles from £191 (universityarms.com)