The Homeliest Bed & Breakfasts in Liverpool, UK

If you don’t mind a 19km (12mi) drive into Liverpool city centre, Birches Brow makes a charming rural base. Local businesspeople Yvonne and Sue have transformed a period farmhouse into a boutique B&B with nine elegant rooms, each with its own charms, from a big balcony (Elm) to a freestanding bath with custom-made champagne flute holder (Oak). You get free cookies in the room on arrival and breakfast is a treat, with a selection of goodies delivered to your door in a pretty wicker basket.

The all-suites accommodation at this modern docklands address offers an alternative to the more traditional style of B&B, but shares many of the same qualities. There’s no full-scale restaurant, so breakfast is the only meal served, and the apartments have a cosy, residential feel. Each comes with its own kitchen area if you feel like cooking, but with Albert Dock and the Baltic Triangle close at hand, you might prefer to eat out every night.

There are just 10 bedrooms at this Grade II-listed property, converted from one of the Georgian Quarter’s many handsome town houses. Each has its own individual look, but all combine period and modern influences (here, swagged curtains and an ornate bow-fronted chest of drawers; there, bold contemporary wallpaper and a digital TV). Breakfast brings a choice of continental or cooked, and you’re only 10 minutes away from the many restaurants and bars clustered in and around Hope Street.

North of the city centre, in the residential suburb of Waterloo, this 17-bedroom Victorian villa began as a simple B&B before revamping itself. Now, in addition to spruced-up rooms, it also offers a licensed bar. Don’t leave without visiting nearby Crosby Beach, a long, dune-backed stretch of sand that’s home to Antony Gormley’s Another Place installation, made up of 100 cast-iron figures staring out to sea.

Merseyside’s Northern rail line extends all the way up to Southport, a genteel seaside resort famed for its golf courses, flower show, long pier and broad streets, and said to have been the inspiration behind the grand boulevards of Paris (yes, really). Here, in a detached Victorian villa, friendly owners Josie and Ian offer eight comfortable rooms and a great choice of breakfast dishes including kippers, bacon sandwiches and a full fry-up, plus veggie, vegan and free-from alternatives.