The Old Crown Coaching Inn

The Old Crown Coaching Inn stands on the market place in Faringdon, the small Oxfordshire town between Oxford and Swindon that most people drive past on the A420 without stopping. It is a traditional inn rather than a hotel, and that shapes what a stay with a dog looks like: you come and go through the bar and the public rooms, so what matters most is whether the people behind the bar are pleased to see a dog or merely resigned to one. Here the reports are firmly the former.

Dog owners report staff who made a fuss of the dog rather than steering it past, in a building with the sort of easy atmosphere that usually means the team has been there a while. The rooms draw praise on their own account - spotless, comfortable, and with the beds singled out as better than the price suggests. The inn's own rule is that dogs are welcome in specified areas and must be supervised throughout, so it is worth asking at booking which rooms and which parts of the bar and dining areas are open to dogs, and planning meals around the answer.

Faringdon itself is a workable base. The market place puts the shops and the inn's own bar within a few steps, and the countryside of the Vale of White Horse and the upper Thames is close enough for a proper walk before breakfast. Oxford and the Cotswolds are both easy day trips.

Best suited to a solo traveller or a couple with one calm dog that is comfortable walking through a busy bar and settling in a room in a working inn. Less suited to a reactive or vocal dog, to a multi-dog household, or to anyone who would rather have a self-contained space with a private door to the outside.