The Bush Hotel

The Bush Hotel sits on The Borough, which is to say it sits on Farnham's main shopping street rather than on a ring road or an out-of-town plot. That matters more than it sounds. A hotel in the middle of a market town behaves differently from one on the edge of it: you arrive, you park once, and everything else is walkable. For anyone visiting Farnham for the town itself, the shops, the Georgian frontages, a day of doing very little in particular, the location does a lot of the work.

It is described as a coaching inn dating back to the 17th century, and the period character is the draw. Older buildings come with the usual trade-offs. Rooms in properties of this age are rarely uniform; ceiling heights, layouts and outlooks tend to vary from one to the next. If a particular kind of room matters to you, quieter, larger, away from the street, it is worth asking at the point of booking rather than hoping.

The price band is £££, which puts it above a chain hotel and below the country-house bracket. Read it as a proper hotel with a restaurant attached, not a room-and-a-kettle proposition. The kitchen is British, and it is a hotel restaurant on a high street, so it is likely to serve residents and non-residents alike. Menus at places like this change with the seasons, and the facts here do not extend to dishes or prices, so check the current offering directly before you travel if you are coming specifically to eat.

Who is it for? People staying in Farnham who want to be in Farnham, principally. Wedding guests and family visitors who need somewhere central. Business travellers who would rather walk to a meeting than drive to one. It also works for the sort of overnight stay where the point is a decent dinner, a comfortable room and no driving afterwards, a birthday, an anniversary, a break in a longer journey.

A few practicalities. Town-centre hotels of this age and position often have limited or off-site parking, so confirm arrangements when you book. Accessibility in older buildings can be uneven; ask if it is a factor.

Farnham has no shortage of places to eat and drink, but it has fewer places to stay in the middle of it. The Bush occupies that position, and the address is most of the argument for it.