We are getting married in September and are looking for a Scottish bolt-hole where we can walk, cycle and learn to fly fish. Everything looks very geared for the US market and a bit too chintzy. A bit of luxury would be good but without the fuss. Nick Cosgrove, Poole

Sunday Times travel expert, Jeremy Lazell, responds: Too much chintz can be irksome; take Skibo and Gleneagles for example - they sure know their luxury, but you can barely move for tartan pipers and Texan twangs.

On the south shores of Loch Tay, however, there is a 20-room, utterly informal yet affordably luxurious hotel which ticks your boxes perfectly.

Winner of Good Hotel Guide's 2007 Inn of the Year, with cosy nooks and loch-view crannies, slick yet unfussy service, Highland cattle wandering the 14 acres of loch-side frontage framed by Ben Lawers (3,984ft), Ardeonaig Hotel is the place. Astonishingly good value, the hotel plays down its increasingly good name to deter the corporate crowd, but make no mistake, this has a five-star feel at three-star prices.

Food at Ardeonaig is the serious star-turn (owner/chef Pete Gottgens has cooked for Mandela and Clinton), but you could eat pork scratchings here and go home happy, because the cycling, walking, fishing possibilities are endless. Right on National Cycle Route 7 linking Carlisle to Inverness, the hotel is also halfway along the Rob Roy Way that takes walkers across glen and ben to Pitlochry; bang on the shores of Loch Tay, Ardeonaig has some of the best trout and salmon fishing on the planet.

Doubles from £90pp, full-board; ghillies £75 per couple, including tuition; loch fishing from £35 per day per boat; river fishing from £35pp (tel. 01567 820400, www.ardeonaighotel.co.uk)

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