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South-west England

We've carefully hand-compiled a list of over 450 of the best pages we could find, helping you to plan your perfect summer holiday (vacation) or short break in Southwest England. Here you'll find: information about places to stay in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, and Somerset, including places to visit, events and attractions, things to see and do, and much more—all on one handy, uncluttered web page!

It tooks us several weeks to compile this page. We did the hard work so you don't have to. And now you've found us, don't lose us! With most web browsers, you can press CTRL and D to bookmark this page (add it to your favourites) for future reference!

A quick introduction to the South West

This is a very brief overview. For much more detail about specific places, see the huge list of links below!

Craggy coastlines, sweeping beaches, glorious green fields, historic houses, and rolling hills—the South West of England is a perfect place for almost any kind of holiday. What makes it so good? It's largely rural and still relatively unpopulated; there are no really big urban centres and the cities, such as they are, are mostly small and quaint. Because most of the region is on that thin “dog-leg” at the bottom left of England, hardly anywhere is far from the coast. The climate is mild and rain is less common here than in other parts of the UK. There's not a great deal in the way of culture except the sort of provincial culture you can find anywhere in the country. If it's first-class culture you want, with one or two exceptions, you won't find it here.

Photo: On the South West coastal path near Swanage, Dorset

The South West is made up of four English counties: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. (Wiltshire, which touches Somerset and Dorset, is also sometimes included too—not least because it's home to Stonehenge, the most famous monument in England.) The South West is sometimes called the West Country, although that name generally refers to a broad area around Somerset that includes places like Bath and Stonehenge and doesn't usually include Dorset.

Although these four counties have a similar mixture of coast and countryside, each has a different character. Cornwall has the most coastline, for example, and the best selection of gardens. Devon has classic resorts and the “English Riviera” in the south, but it also has wilder, more breathtaking coastal scenery in the north. Dorset is rural and, in places, quite posh. Somerset is perhaps a little quieter than the other three and is handy for exploring places like Bath, Bristol, or South Wales.

If it's history you want, there's plenty to see here. Cornwall's history is steeped in the romance of shipwrecks and smuggling. There's lots of “industrial history” here—old tin mines, for example, and the old quarries like the one that houses the spectacularly successful Eden Project. There's also the cultural history of places like St Ives, an important harbour refuge for artists inspired by marine light. Devon's history is mainly one of farming, fishing, shipping, and quarrying. Dorset probably has the finest selection of English country houses in the region.

What else can you do here? Almost anything you can think of. Cornwall's coastline is peppered with first rate beaches. The north coast, with a steady supply of Atlantic waves, is the UK's surfing capital. The wide rugged moorlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor are great places for walking, kite-flying, picnics, and horse-riding. If walking's your thing, you'll find no better route than the South West Coastal Path, which stretches right round the coast from Minehead in North Devon to Sandbanks in Dorset.

Getting to the South Coast needn't be hard. No motorways run south of Exeter, but there are main roads nevertheless. There are major airports serving the region in Exeter and Bristol. A fast, direct mainline railroad runs from Penzance to London and it's easy to pick up direct trains for the region in major cities like Bristol, Birmingham, Reading, and Manchester.

Further information

Devon

Explore Devon from a Google map (centered on Exeter).

Place-by-place

Appledore, Instow, and Westward Ho!

Ashburton

Axminster

Barnstaple

Bideford

Bigbury on Sea

Braunton

Buckfastleigh

Budleigh Salterton

Clovelly

Crediton

Cullompton

Dartmouth

Dawlish

Exeter

You might like to start by reading our introduction to Exeter.

Exmouth

Honiton

Ilfracombe

Kingsbridge

Lynton and Lynmouth

Newton Abbot

Okehampton

Ottery St Mary

Paignton, Brixham, and the English Riviera

Plymouth

Salcombe

Seaton

Sidmouth

Teignmouth

Tiverton

Torquay

Totnes

Other web-based guides to Devon

Cornwall

The best place to start is the official Visit Cornwall website, run by the Cornwall Tourist Board. Or you could explore Cornwall from a Google map (centered on Truro, but you can move it around and zoom in and out).

Place-by-place

Bodmin

Boscastle

Bude

Camborne

Falmouth

Fowey

Land's End

Launceston

Liskeard

The Lizard and Helston

Looe and Polperro

Lostwithiel

Mevagissey

Newlyn

Newquay

Padstow

Penzance

Perranporth

Redruth

St Agnes

St Austell

St Ives

St Just, St Mawes, and the Roseland Peninsula

Tintagel

Truro

Wadebridge

Dorset

The best place to start might be this Google map (centered on Dorchester, Dorset's county town, but you can move it around and zoom in and out).

County and area guides

Place-by-place

Beaminster

Bere Regis

Bournemouth

You might like to start by reading our introduction to Bournemouth.

Bridport

Cerne Abbas

Dorchester

You might like to start by reading our introduction to Dorchester.

Lyme Regis and West Bay

You might like to start by reading our introduction to Lyme Regis.

Poole

Swanage, Wareham, and the Isle of Purbeck

You might like to start by reading our introduction to Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck.

Weymouth

Somerset

The best place to start might be this Google map (centered on Taunton, Somerset's county town, but you can move it around and zoom in and out).

County and area guides

Place-by-place

Bath

You might like to start by reading our own introductory guide to Bath.

Bridgwater

Bruton

Burnham-on-Sea

Castle Cary

Chard

Cheddar

Crewkerne

Dulverton

Frome

Glastonbury

Ilminster

Minehead

Street

Taunton

Watchet

Wellington

Wells

Yeovil

A handy tip

If you're looking for accommodation, it really helps to spell it correctly. Lots of people come to this page looking for things like acomodation and accomodation. At least no-one searches for accomadashun! 

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