Hospitality sweet: meet the Brits who escaped to run hotels abroad

"We feel lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world... "From the Dordogne to the Philippines, Brits tell how they left homes and jobs in the UK to start new lives abroad - as hoteliers

Covert Cabin, Dordogne, France

Off-grid hideaways in the woods don't get much better than these cabins in the Dordogne. They're the sort inspire dreams of downsizing and doing important things with your life - like fishing and baking bread. They have just the right mixture of hobbity idiosyncrasy  and complete practicality. The most difficult decision is whether to swim in the lake or fall asleep on the raft. Diane, 50, and Bob Kirkwood, 53, bought a ruined house on mad impulse during a trip to France and started working on the property as a holiday project.

"I was a chef working crazy hours in Chelmsford," says Diane. "Bob was self-employed doing joinery. We never meant to live here!"

Bob's skills came in useful when they constructed a small off-grid cabin by a lake, meant to be a quiet retreat for fishing and swimming. "I wanted a job, though," says Diane. "We decided to let the cabin so I could run it as a business."

Bob built two others and is currently working on two more. "We feel lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world," says Diane, "and although we'll never get rich here, we have space and time to do our own thing - and that is worth much more to us than money."

Atmosphere Resorts and Spa, Dumaguete, Philippines 

In the south of Negros Oriental province, Atmosphere Resorts and Spa is the long-held dream of Brits Matthew Holder, an architect, and his wife, Gabrielle. Originally from Scarborough and Loughborough, the couple met in the Philippines, where Gabrielle taught Matthew to dive. (By a weird coincidence, Matthew's mum had taught Gabrielle at school in the UK, but that's another story.) After working as dive instructors together they plotted to open a boutique dive resort, to help finance the building. "We lived off cheese and crackers for a year," says Matthew. The result is a laid-back, luxurious 30-room resort with top-notch diving, spa and restaurant. They now have kids and have become part of the local community, running a daily soup kitchen for 85 underprivileged children.

The Weldborough Hotel, Tasmania, Australia

You could hardly get any further from Britain than Tasmania. But that's where Mark Montgomery, who fails from Oxfordshire, and wife, Felicity -from Reading - run The Weldborough Hotel, a pub, B&B and campsite in a tiny village (30 people) near the Blue Tier forest reserve in the north-east of the island.

"We first left the UK in 1974 and spent two years working around Australia in our Kombi. On a break from fruit picking in Victoria, we did a whistle-stop tour of Tasmania and fell in love with the north-east. We were determined to return and did so, many years later in retirement, in 2009, to run - in our view - the most English of all Tasmanian pubs." They now serve beer from every microbrewery and cider maker in the state and there are seven guest bedrooms, plus camping in the lovely grounds.

Casa Sanchez Hotel, Dominican Republic

Behind a nondescript facade in Santo Domingo's old colonial quarter lies this comfortable and quirky boutique hotel. It's the type of place where friends are made and you spend far too much time around the pool or in the Jacuzzi. Rooms have bold color schemes matched with cool, tiled floors, but the real point of the place is the service: ultra helpful and friendly.

This is all thanks to Brit Jonathan Baldrey. "I sold my recruitment company in London in 2008, then sat down and looked at the map," he says. "Santo Domingo looked promising, so I went out. At first I hated it, but then I saw this ruined building in the old colonial quarter. Without any idea if what it might become, I bought it and started doing it up."

That decision paid odd, but only after three years of pain and "several thousand trips to the builders' merchants". The ruin has become a gorgeous 11-room boutique hotel, a real haven for visitors passing through or keen on exploring te area's fascinating heritage.

"It hasn't been an easy project," says Jonathan. "I cried several times, lost count of the disasters, and learned some extremely colorful Spanish. Looking back, I think I must have been mad but, now it's finished, I do get a sense of pride at what I've achieved."

Romiti del Torrente, Tuscany, Italy

In the forested hills above Lucca, this former Augustinian monastery and church has been tastefully converted an into original, historic place to stay by owners Steven Newell and Lindsay Henderson, both glass artists from London. "Having replaced the hum of tube trains and street life in London with goat bells, screech owls, the roar of the river in the valley below us," they say, "we hold our own in the local bar and keep up with the local gossip - politics and football - as well as we can, content that we are no longer the main subject of the local gossip. Visitors become friends, nobody wants to leave and evenings around the shared dining table, under the immense pincushion sky, are never dull. Life is chaotic and it often feels like a subtle blending of Fawlty Towers and Batbette's Feast>"

The bare stone walls, chunky chestnut-wood and stone floors take you back to another age, and outside there's an infinity pool for picturesque lounging and organic breakfasts. The vibe's arty - various creative courses, from ceramics to cookery, are held here. They were on the hunt for a barn to renovate in the area, when Lucca's historic planning department got in touch, asking if they wanted to buy an abandoned hamlet.

The painstaking journey to raise funds began in 2006 and the hotel opened in 2014. "One challenge was keeping all the locals who had an emotional stake in the buildings, known as Romiti, onside and happy," they said. "From Adriana, 94, who was born in one of the houses, to Franco, whose father lived here and swore there was a ghost (no sign yet), and Ferdinando, 86, who kept his goats in the church - they all needed to see we wanted to restore it properly and maintain an attachment with the local community; so there are no walls and there's a bridge they can walk over to visit when they want to. Sadly, a flood carried the bridge away in 2013, leaving an alarming hole in our budget."

Almohalla 51, Andalucia, Spain

This stylish, five-bedroom B&B in the pretty hilltop town of Archidona, 40 minutes' drive from Malaga airport, opened in 2012 in a pair of derelict 19th-century houses. Inside, it's all wooden beams and stone-tiled floors, with sleek, modern bathrooms. There's a lovely pool, landscaped terraces and comfy communal areas with plenty of space for relaxing. David Matthews and Myles Gregson left London and jobs with an airline and in marketing to move here. The couple had no experience of running hotels but took the plunge and sold everything to buy the buildings, then hired local craftsmen to restore them to their former glory.

Finca Malvasia, Canary Islans

Surrounded by a working vineyard, in the rural heart of Lanzarote, Finca Malvasia comprises four cool self-catering apartments around a pool, all blending into the volcanic and design business to travel and look for a potential B&B property soon after the birth of their son Joss (now 10).

"Having worked relentlessly in a boom industry - long hours, high pressure and not feeling fulfilled at all on a personal level - we were ready for a major change," says Tarnya. Initially interested in Biarritz, they were drawn to Lanzarote by the climate (a long season for holidaymakers), the surf and Cesar Manrique's iconic 1960s architecture. This is reflected in the finca, with its white rendered volcanic-stone and exposed-stone interiors.

"It sounds cheesy but, as we bumped down the 1km stretch of dirt track to the property, we both knew this could be the one," says Tarnya.

It couldn't have been more different from London and the couple had their work cut out, but the result is a stylish yet homely hideaway. A personally written guide helps visitors discover the "real" Lanzarote. "It hasn't been plain sailing and, at times, we've questioned our sanity, but we grow our fruit and veg, have two dogs and, when Joss finishes school at 4pm, we have time to dedicate to us as a family."