Five virtuous pubs
... because drink tastes better if you've earned it
Double Locks, Exeter
Double Locks is a great pub on the edge of a canal, and you can't drive there - you have to walk (it's a couple of miles from the city centre), ride or, better still, rent a canoe from Exeter Quayside. Sit outside with a pint of Gray's Farm Cider, but make sure you sneak a look inside, since it's full of quirky objets trouvés.
Double Locks, Canal Banks, Exeter, Devon (01392 256947)
Clachaig Inn, Argyll
The 23-room inn is in the middle of a stunning bit of the Scottish Highlands. It's really a climbing club, full of walkers and climbers, who use it as a base to explore the sensational glens and lochs on the west coast. There's fantastic live music in the Boots Bar, locally sourced food and a strong selection of cask-conditioned ales and some 160 varieties of malt whisky.
Clachaig Inn, Glencoe, Argyll (01855 811 252; www.clachaig.com)
Fistral Blu, Newquay
Fistral is Britain's best-known surfing beach and Fistral Blu Bar and Restaurant is the perfect place to bask in the Cornish sun looking out to the Atlantic and reward yourself with a cool beer or cocktail. Surfers tend to congregate at the informal Beach Café, where you don't have to change out of your wetsuit, but the best place to observe the chaos is upstairs on the balcony.
Fistral Blu, Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall (01637 879444; www.fistral-blu.co.uk)
Hunstanton Golf Club, Norfolk
Hunstanton is one of the finest links courses in the country and the 2006 winner of Golf World's 'Best 19th Hole in the Country'. It's not hard to see what attracted the magazine's attention: the club has none of the snootiness that you sometimes find on courses of this calibre (visitors can play for as little as £40) and after your round you can relax on either the outside terrace or upstairs balcony with stunning views of the sea and the closing holes. The local beer is the award-winning Elgood's but if you get a hole-in-one at the 191-yard 16th hole (as Robert Taylor did an astonishing three days in succession in 1974) then you might want to crack open their champagne.
· Hunstanton Golf Club, Old Hunstanton, Norfolk (01485 532 811; www.hunstantongolfclub.com)
Dawnay Arms, Yorkshire
The picturesque York-to-Beningbrough cycle ride (nine miles each way) is one of the great routes in the north of England. The eventual destination is the National Trust property Beningbrough Hall & Gardens, but you would be well-advised to stop en route at the Dawnay Arms in the sleepy village of Shipton. The pub, which dates from 1730, has a decent selection of beers and a pleasant beer garden to enjoy them in. Fill up your water bottles with wine and cycle like the French do.
Dawnay Arms, Main Street, Shipton by Beningbrough (01904 470334)
Ten great country pubs
... because sometimes you don't want a bloody mojito
The Harrow, Hampshire
A tiny 18th-century two-bar inn hidden in Hampshire's steep-sided wooded hills, this belongs to a forgotten England, or rather it did. After its legendary landlady Ellen McCutcheon recently died at the age of 74 there were rumours of change. Did the place still boast a pipe-smoking dog and a poacher with a 12-bore shotgun strapped to his bicycle crossbar? It's still not easy to find. It sits, as elusive as the end of the rainbow, at the far point of a pedestrian bridge that crosses the four-lane A3. And it remains a lost bucolic inn that still manages to embarrass a 19th-century cake tin. Only the hum of the highway, which has done a superb job in cutting off the Harrow, gives an inkling of the hurrying world outside.
The Harrow, Steep, Hampshire (01730 262685)
Seven Tuns, Gloucestershire
A classic Cotswold pub buried in the side of a steep hillside, this has the merit of having a large simple bar for the villagers of Chedworth and a couple of separate Spartan rooms for families and foodies (it has an excellent, daily-changing menu). There is a charming landlord and a collection of pretty barmaids but most important there is a snug: a small, half-panelled room with cheerful locals, the daily papers, dog biscuits for Jack Russells and decent wine served by the 'pound's worth' for regulars. It also has a curmudgeon who sits on a high corner stool and shouts 'Door!' at ramblers every time they gatecrash into the room.
Seven Tuns, Chedworth, Gloucestershire (01285 720242)
Nobody Inn, Devon
This is Hollywood's idea of an English tavern in the days when it shot its films in Technicolor. Its dark low interior includes antique settles, oak tables and carriage lamps. There are blunderbusses, shotguns and crossed swords hanging on the walls as well as a fine picture of Winston Churchill. Furthermore this free house, hidden among the rolling hills and patchwork fields a few miles west of Exeter, boasts an extraordinary wine cellar (a list of 800) with at least 20 different wines by the glass chalked up on the board. It is actually the 'No Body' Inn - the name change was made in 1952 after the locals inadvertently held a burial service around an empty coffin left in the bar.
Nobody Inn, Doddiscombsleigh, Devon (01647 252394; www.nobodyinn.co.uk)
Queen's Head, Cambridge
The speciality of the traditional 18th-century Queen's Head is brown soup. The wonderful Cambridgeshire pub was serving the nutritious liquid that is referred to by the smarter end of society as Brown Windsor Soup long before the colour was colonised by bad interior decorators. It comes with a chart that allows customers to judge its quality according to shade. The hand-drawn guide in its see-through A4 file covers the spectrum from dark brown ('hits the spot') to light brown ('might be called a taupe') to greenish ('usually contains peas'). It is generally worthy of five Fanny Cradock stars.
Queen's Head, Newton, Cambridge (01223 870436)
Rose Cottage Inn, Sussex
As its name suggests, this is a hanging-tile stone cottage surrounded by roses that sits discreetly in the pretty village of Alciston, a Sunday constitutional from the south coast. Inside are three small front rooms with a clutter of tables and Windsor chairs. A tiny bar is squashed into the middle room yet the whole feels more like a bohemian afternoon tearoom than a tavern. There are trays of free-range eggs on offer, home-made honey for sale and hand-written notices for bicycle repair kits at 90p.
Rose Cottage Inn, Alciston, Sussex (01323 870377)
Red Lion, Kent
The finest place in Kent to down a pint is at 'Doris's' on Romney Marsh. It stands alone at a crossroads in the boggy bit of the Garden of England. Its actual name is the Red Lion and it dates back to the early 16th century. Inside the tiny low-beamed room there is a single scruffy brown bar that looks as if it was painted before the Battle of Britain. Around the walls are a couple of tired World War Two posters including one of a Spitfire and another of a land girl in dungarees. Furthermore, the original gaslight fittings are still there - they were probably installed at the same time as, judging by the colour of the bottle, the pickled eggs.
Red Lion, Snargate, Kent (01797 344648)
Hunter's Lodge Inn, Somerset
At the top of the Mendip Hills on an unmarked crossroads is a pebbledash building with Marmite-brown windows and a low porch running along its length that is reminiscent of a redneck bar in an American road movie. Inside the simple, dimly lit saloon bar is a row of seven steel barrels racked up against the wall behind the bar. Food is 'bread and cheese' - a slice of thick white bread with an inch-thick slab of local Cheddar and a home-made pickled onion. The perfect ploughman's lunch in the perfect West Country pub.
Hunter's Lodge Inn, Eastwater, Somerset (01749 672275)
Red Lion Inn, Leicestershire
The welcoming Red Lion is in 'hunting-within-the-law' country in the Vale of Belvoir. It has a central bar and an adjoining lounge with a pair of armchairs and a sofa with a tartan throw. Rather eccentrically there is a large collection of colanders on its walls. The food is exceptional and that includes its ploughman's that comes with a fine home-made pork pie. If Melton Mowbray is the only area allowed to claim rights to the pie then the Red Lion should also be given legal status under the EU 'protected-name scheme' as the best place in England to consume your pie with a pint.
Red Lion Inn, Stathern, Leicestershire (01949 860868)
The Inn at Whitewell, Lancashire
A former Victorian deer-keeper's lodge deep in the rolling wooded hills of the Bowland Forest to the south of the Yorkshire Dales, this has the shabby grandeur of a frayed Jermyn Street shirt. The usual suffocating good taste of the gastropub has been rejected. The bar with its heavy red curtains sells three cask ales and majors on Norfolk kippers. It has a magnificent wine list, a daily chalkboard menu of locally produced food and all the broadsheet newspapers available, plus the current edition of The Beano
The Inn at Whitewell, Whitewell, Lancashire (01200 448222; www.innatwhitewell.com)
The Barley Mow, Derbyshire
Antacid to the gastropub - this simple hostelry is as plain as a Baptist chapel with less nourishment than the Lord's supper. The listed 17th-century Jacobean building in the pretty hill village of Kirk Ireton has not changed in centuries. Racked behind the tiny bar opening are four cask beers which are all guest brews that change according to which independent brewer happens to be motoring through the Dales that day. The only crisps are ready salted and the choice from the oral menu is a brown roll filled with cheese or a brown roll filled with cheese and pickle.
The Barley Mow, Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire (01335 370306)
Five temporary bars
... because there's no time to waste
Summer Alfresco Bar and Food, London Like a summery version of those ice rinks that are popping up everywhere, the Natural History Museum has set up a 60-cover bar and restaurant in the shadow of Alfred Waterhouse's terracotta façade. The food is tasty and relaxed, but the best time to go is after 6pm when it is open for cocktails and tapas-style nibbles. Open until 31 August.
Summer Alfresco Bar and Food, Natural History Museum, London SW7 (020 7942 3938; www.nhm.ac.uk)
Somerset Cider Bus, Dorset
There are bigger festivals and stronger line-ups, but End of the Road in Dorset (14-16 September) is by some distance the most convivial of summer entertainments. It's also the second home of the Somerset Cider Bus, from Burrow Hill Cider Farm, which will be familiar to anyone who has been to Glastonbury. Instead of mud and mayhem, you could be sipping hot spiced cider in a beautiful Victorian pleasure garden while listening to the likes of Lambchop, Micah P Hinson and Yo La Tengo. Even the toilets aren't that bad.
Somerset Cider Bus, End of the Road Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset (0871 2302605; www.endoftheroadfestival.com)
npower Third Test, London
Seeing as half of any cricket crowd is there for a piss-up, the third and final Test against India (from 9 August) looks like being one of the parties of the summer. Due to new police regulations, all alcohol has to be bought on site, but the good news is that there's a champagne bar at each end of the ground and beer prices have been frozen for the third consecutive year. You will know you've overdone it when you start removing your clothing and climbing over the advertising hoardings.
npower Third Test, Brit Oval, Kennington, London SE11 (08705 338833; http://ecb.co.uk)
Great Speight's Beer Delivery, London
Speight's, New Zealand's biggest beer brand, announced in April that they wanted to send a pub to London to quench the thirst of the expats who write to them complaining of the poor English beer. After suppressing our first reaction ('no one's making them stay here'), we decided to get behind the venture. Around 1,600 Kiwis applied to crew on the ship, four were selected, and they leave Dunedin on 25 July. They are due to arrive in London in early October, just around the start of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Handy that.
Speight's Beer Delivery, various locations, London (www.greatbeerdelivery.co.nz)
Inn the Park, London
One of the great additions to the London summer in recent years, Oliver Peyton's Inn the Park offers a stylish setting (courtesy of Michael Hopkins and Tom Dixon) and sublime views across the lake. The restaurant is open all-year round, of course, but, especially for summer, it has introduced deluxe picnic hampers (starting from £15 per person). The food is home-spun and freshly cooked, you can choose a bottle of champagne or wine, and they've thought of everything else (luxurious Scottish-wool rug, cutlery, glasses) that you could desire. Take a friend, find a quiet spot and see how easily an afternoon can float by.
Inn the Park, St James' Park, London SW1 (020 7451 9999; www.innthepark.co.uk)
Have we missed out your favourite place to enjoy a drink? Read more and tell us where your summer hotspots are at observer.co.uk/foodblog
With thanks to: Tobias Blazquez Garcia, bar manager Pintxo People, Brighton; Craig Harper, bar consultant, Scotland; Giles Looker, bar consultant, Soulshakers; Michael Butt, bar consultant, Soulshakers; Pete Johnson, Moog bar, Nottingham; Liam Davey, head bartender, the Player, Soho; Kevin Armstrong, group head bartender, Matchbar Group; Angus Winchester, bar consultant, Alconomics; Gearoid Devaney, sommelier, Tom Aikens Restaurant, London; Jason McAuliffe, the Dorchester, London; Vichnou Dubourg, the Ebury, Pimlico; Lee Bulmer, Palm Beach Casino, London; Tom Sandham, deputy editor, Class Magazine; Andrea Briccarello, sommelier, Bentleys, London; Nick House, owner, Mahiki, London; Polly Vernon, OFM Cocktail Girl; Adam Balon, founder Innocent Drinks; Guy Woodward, editor, Decanter Magazine; Pete Kendall, bar consultant, Diageo Asia; Paul McFadyn, IPBartenders; Les Trois Garcons directors.
