Devon and Cornwall in May

Old Mar 10th, 2010, 06:10 AM
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Devon and Cornwall in May

Going to be touring Devon and Cornwall in May. Would welcome any suggestions for places to stay and sites to see. Many thanks.
Carole
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Old Mar 10th, 2010, 06:53 AM
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It would be helpful if you could tell us a bit more about yourself before we can give you good answers. Are you on your own, a couple, a group? Are you driving or relying on public transportation? What kind of a budget do you have for accommodation? Are you walks on the beach, pubs, soak up atmosphere kind of people or history buffs or only high-end restaurant gourmands, etc., etc. We have been to Cornwall and Devon probably five times and still haven't seen all it has to offer. Help us to help you.
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Old Mar 10th, 2010, 08:22 AM
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in addition to what rickmav asks -- how many days will you be in the area? And will you be there over either the first or last weekends? Both are holiday weekends and some areas may be massively crowded.
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Old Mar 10th, 2010, 05:21 PM
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My husband and I will be driving and plan on being in the area about a week. One place we really want to visit is Clovelly in Devon. We like scenery, walking on beach, good restaurants and accommodation. Perhaps we should just focus on the area around Clovelly and not try to spread ourselves too thin. Thanks for the tip about the beginning and end of May being a busy time--we don't like crowds. We had thought about just staying in one place and going out for days to different spots. If so, would Clovelly or the surrounding area be a good base? Thanks for your help.
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Old Mar 10th, 2010, 06:47 PM
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Sorry carolebrock I can't help you with North Devon. We tend to holiday in south Cornwall and Devon. I have driven through the area and it was beautiful, I believe there are some good surfing beaches in the area. If you do a search on this site - top of the page - you may find a trip report or two.

There is a poster, annhig, whom I believe lives in Cornwall. Hopefully, she sees this and may have some advice, although I believe she lives in the south.

What did you hear of the area that made you choose it?
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Old Mar 11th, 2010, 12:47 AM
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Clovelly is a beautiful village, but no place to stay longer than a few hours. There is no beach to walk.

Woolacombe has a fantastic beach - a wide sandy beach, a partly sandy, partly rocky beach and a cliff coast with hiking trails. I would choose Woolacombe as a base and do a daytrip to Clovelly from there.

Read this trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...of-england.cfm
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Old Mar 12th, 2010, 03:50 AM
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Cornwall is wonderful,unspoilt beautiful scenery. North coast great for surfing, beaches and rugged coastline (Watergate Bay, Godrevy etc), South coast for sailing & calmer water (Falmouth, Carne beach). Great food @ Fifteen Cornwall, Beach Hut, all the Steins in Padstow, Nathan Outlaw & many more, lots with sea views! Great coastal walking all around Cornwall. Site seeing: lots of National Trust properties & locations (Kynance Cove), Eden project, St Michaels Mount, St Mawes to name a few. Working harbours Padstow, Mousehole, Newlyn etc. St Ives for art (Tate, Barbara Hepworth & local artists). Open air Minack theatre. See www.visitcornwall.com
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Old Mar 12th, 2010, 06:52 AM
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hi Carol,

Rickmav's call to me through the ether obviously worked! fortunately, though we live in west cornwall, we used to have a house in North Devon, so I hope I'll be able to give you a few tips about that area too.

firstly, have you got a week for each of devon and Cornwall, or, as I suspect, only one week for both?

if it's the latter, my suggestion would be to concentrate on the area that you have already focussed on ie north Devon, and spend the majority of your time up there, rather than driving all the way down to Cornwall for such a short time.

Having said that, if you follow my suggestions, you won't have to miss out on cornwall altogether, in fact you'll get to see one of my favourite bits, but it will be difficult for you to see clovelly and that area AND all the delights listed by KARiddle, all in one week. and you'd be missing out on some gems in the North too.

first of all, Clovelly. DON'T go there to get away from the crowds - it has become such of an attraction that they now charge to enter it. that said, it is lovely and charming, and quaint, and if you want to see it, by all means go for an hour or two. near-by on the coast to the east is the almost equally lovely Buck's Mills where no-one goes, which you might also like to see. Next stop along the coast is Westward Ho!, supposedly the only town named after a book. It's a bit run-down, but once you get over the pebble ridge [scene of the annual pot-walloping contest in which the locals vie with each other to throw the stones back onto the ridge that forms the town's sea-defences] there is a terrific beach, at the end of which must be one of the most wind-swept golf courses in Britain if not the world, and a bird-watchers' paradise.

Carry on again along the same stretch of coast, and you arrive at the picturesque fishing village of Appledore, where the Golden Hind was reputedly built, and where ships are still made and repaired in what used to be the largest covered dry dock in europe. it sits on a beautiful estuary, has a few pubs and restaurants [or did last time we went about 3 years ago] and would be a pretty good spot for you to stop for a few days [or even a week if you fancied self-catering]. Even if you didn't want to stay there, a day trip would be well worth-while.

the village of Instow, across the estuary is another possible place to stay; it has the advantage of a nice beach, the view of Appledore, and a great hotel called the Commodore, plus some rental cottages as well.

the last spot on my journey east is the little white town of Bideford, with its unique bridge [all the spans are of unequall width], and panier market is the starting point for the MS Oldenburgh which will take you to the isolated island of Lundy, for a day trip, or longer stay. sometimes they do round trips of the island too, which are ideal for seeing the puffins and other birdlife, plus seals if you're lucky. we did one about 20 years ago, and it was lovely.

going back to Clovelly, head west for one of my favourite spots in this area - Hartland Point - which is where the north coast turns a 90 degree angle and heads south, down towards Cornwall. the rocks here make fantastic jagged shapes, and are death to passing shipping; some optimist built a harbour here too and the remains can still be seen at the pub, which in itself is pretty ordinary, but ash the post fabulous situation. Hartland Abbey, if open, is worth an afternoon and does [or did] good teas.

Head south, and you'll lend up in cornwall at my favourite Cornish spot - Morwenstow, home of the extraordinary Stephen Hawker - victorian vicar, writer, composer of the cornsih anthem Trelawney, saver of wrecked sailors and burier of dead ones, who created scandal by marrying a woman 20 years older than him when he was young, and when she died, created it again by marrying a woman who was 20 years younger than him! there used to be a great B&B near here on a farm that made sheep's cheese and had a tea-shop in the village.

if you wanted to spend a week in North Devon, and ran out of things to do, you could add to the above Exmoor [Lorna doone country] and north Dartmoor, especially another favourite spot of mine at Belstone, and the great pub there called the Tors.

Phew. travelogue over. perhaps I should ask for sponsorship from the north Devon tourist board.

in May you should encounter very few crowds [apart from possibly at clovelly] and hopefully have a good chance of decent weather.

have a great trip, and don't hesitate to ask me any questions you may think of.

regards, ann
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Old Mar 13th, 2010, 07:07 PM
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Hi Ann,

Many, many thanks for all your great suggestions--it all sounds lovely and I can't wait to get there. Time to get the map out and start making our plans. You certainly should get something in return for all this free advice!!

Carole
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Old Mar 14th, 2010, 09:04 AM
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You certainly should get something in return for all this free advice!!>>

not at all, Carole. i love this part of England and would like others to love it too.
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