Insight Guides Great Breaks Devon & Cornwall (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Pocket-sized travel guides making the most of the British Isles through clearly laid-out walks and tours.

Explore the best of Devon and Cornwall with this indispensably practical Insight Great Breaks Guide. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like the Eden Project, Exeter, Tresco Gardens, Dartmoor and Torquay, to discovering hidden gems, including Tintagel, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, help you plan and enhance your Great Break in Devon and Cornwall.

Practical, pocket-sized and packed with inspirational insider information, this is the ideal on-the-move companion to your trip to Devon and Cornwall.

- Over 13 walks and tours: detailed itineraries feature all the best places to visit, including where to eat along the way
- Local highlights: discover what makes the area special, its top sights and unique attractions, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Insider recommendations: where to stay and what to do, from active pursuits to themed trips
- Rainy day recommendations: uncover plenty of options, whatever the weather
- Practical maps: get around with ease and follow the walks and tours using the detailed maps 
- Informative tips: plan your travels with a useful practical section to ensure effortless exploration
- Inventive design makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
- Covers: Exeter and Topsham, East Devon, the English Riviera, The South Hams, Plymouth and the Tamar Valley, Dartmoor, North Devon, Exmoor, the South Coast harbours, Truro, Land's End Peninsula, the North Coast and the Isles of Scilly

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839051401

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

This Great Break has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With ­top-­quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the world’s most exciting destinations.

Walks and Tours

The clearly laid-out walks and tours in this book feature options for walking or using public transport wherever possible. The emphasis is on family fun, wholesome outdoorsey activities, local festivals, and food and drink. There are loads of great holiday ideas: kids’ stuff, best beaches, historic pubs, literary connections, unique shops, and – crucially with our Great British weather – what to do on a rainy day.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments – options are shown in the ‘Eating Out’ box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink.

Directory

Also supporting the walks and tours is a Travel Tips section, with a clearly organised A–Z of practical information. There is a comprehensive round up of sports and activities in the destination, recommendations for themed holidays, plus our pick of the best places to stay.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Devon & Cornwall’s Top 10

Overview: A West Country Welcome

Legend and Reality

Climate

Seagoing Heritage

Economy and Tourism

Warm Hospitality

Food and Drink

Delicious Devon

Devonian drinking

Cornish Cuisine

Cakes and ale

Tour 1: Exeter and Topsham

Around the Cathedral

Modern City

Shops, Art and History

Topsham

Tour 2: East Devon

Otterton Mill

Branscombe and Beer

Honiton

Tour 3: The English Riviera

Powderham Castle

Torbay

Bygones and Kent’s Cavern

Paignton

Tour 4: The South Hams

Buckfastleigh

Dartington

Totnes

Dartmouth

Feature: Literary Devon

Tour 5: Plymouth and the Tamar Valley

The Hoe

Devon Wonders

Tavistock

Launceston

The Tamar Valley

Saltash

St Germans

Two Great Houses

Tour 6: Dartmoor

Bovey Tracey

To Widecombe

Princetown

Stories and legends

Chagford

Okehampton

Gorge and Waterfall

Tour 7: North Devon

Braunton

Ilfracombe

Combe Martin

Barnstaple

Bideford

Charming Clovelly

Hartland Point

Tour 8: Exmoor

Combe Martin

Holdstone Down

Lynton

Selworthy

Exford

Tour 9: The South Coast Harbours and Bodmin Moor

Liskeard

Unexpected pleasures

East and West Looe

Polperro

Polruan and the Ferry

Fowey

Polridmouth Cove and Menabilly

Lostwithiel

Gateway to the Moor

Exploring the town

Lanhydrock

The Moor

Leaving the Moor

The Eden Project

Charlestown

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Mevagissey

Feature: The Eden Project

Tour 10: Truro to the Lizard

Truro

Towards the Roseland Peninsula

St Mawes

Trelissick Garden

Devoran to Penryn

Falmouth

The quays and the centre

The Maritime Museum

Glorious Gardens

Oysters and Seals

Helford and Coverack

Getting to the Point

Kynance Cove

Flambards Village and Helston

Hidden Treasure

Tour 11: Land’s End Peninsula and St Ives to St Agnes

Penzance

Historical background

Touring the town

Cornish painters

St Michael’s Mount

Detour to Trengwainton Garden

Newlyn Art

Mousehole and Lamorna

To Minack

Land’s End

St Just to Zennor

St Ives

‘The Island’

The Tate

Carbis Bay and Paradise Park

Hayle to Godrevy Lighthouse

Mines and Engines

Redruth

Portreath

St Agnes

Tour 12: The North Coast Resorts and the Atlantic Highway

Perranporth

Newquay

Family entertainment

Change of Pace

The Vale of Lanherne

Coastal Diversions

Padstow

Wadebridge

Rock and Rumps

From Trelights to Port Isaac

Delabole

Tintagel

Shrine and Valley

Bude

The Vicar of Morwenstow

Tour 13: The Isles of Scilly

Myth and Reality

St Mary’s

Isles of Scilly Museum

Tresco

Bryher

St Agnes and St Martin’s

Active Pursuits

Walking

Cycling

Fishing

Golf

Horse Riding

Water Sports

Surfing

Themed Holidays

Volunteering

Conservation

Painting

Foraging and Cooking

Yoga and Spa Holidays

Adventure Sports

Useful websites

Practical Information

Getting There

By road

By coach

By train

By air

Exeter and Newquay have airports

To the Isles of Scilly

Getting Around

By car

Car rental

By train

By bus

By bike

By taxi

Green Transport

Facts for the Visitor

Disabled travellers

Emergencies

Opening hours

Tourist information

Accommodation

B&B, Camping and ­Caravanning with the National Trust

Hotels

Babbacombe

Bigbury on Sea

Combe Martin

Dartmouth

Plymouth

Ilfracombe

Bolventor

Fowey

Newquay

Penzance

St Austell

St Ives

Tintagel

Isles of Scilly

Useful websites

Devon & Cornwall’s Top 10

Many miles of wonderful coastal scenery, spectacular beaches, wild moorlands and great gardens make this the place to be outdoors. Indoors, you can see the painting and architecture the landscape has inspired.

Dartmoor ranges from moorland to steep wooded valleys and secluded villages. For more information, click here.

iStock

Lynmouth Cliff Railway. Designed by a student of Brunel, it links Lynmouth with Lynton. For more information, click here.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Dartmouth. This is where the Britannia Royal Naval College trains officers. For more information, click here.

iStock

Tate St Ives. A sister of the London galleries, which has long been a magnet for artists. For more information, click here.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Surfing. Fistral Bay near Newquay – the best surf beaches in Britain are along Cornwall’s north coast. For more information, click here.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Tintagel. Feel the power of myths at King Arthur’s legendary Cornish castle. For more information, click here.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Torquay. Queen of the English Riviera, Torquay is an elegant resort where Edwardian and modern architecture blends. For more information, click here.

Fotolia

Eden Project. Cornwall’s most popular attraction. For more information, click here.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Tresco Gardens. Vibrant gardens flourish year-round in the mild climate of the Scilly Isles. For more information, click here.

Neil Fawcett/fotoLibra

Exeter. Devon’s county capital, Exeter has a majestic 14th-centurycathedrals. For more information, click here.

iStock

Overview: A West Country Welcome

Warm, sometimes wet, always wonderful, this peninsula of high cliffs and moors, cream teas and thatched cottages has some of the most spectacular scenery in Britain.

Devon and Cornwall are beloved British holiday destinations. Beautiful, dramatic seascapes of high cliffs, delightful coves and broad, sandy beaches sweep along the extensive coastlines north and south. Fishing villages sit snug in coves, and river estuaries sigh with the ebb and flow of the gathering Atlantic tide. Small wonder artists have been drawn here.

If Cornwall inspires painters, Devon, the county that Country Life magazine once declared the best in Britain in which to live, attracts writers. ‘Deepest Devon’ is an environmentally aware, agricultural land of thatched cottages and cream teas, run through with dancing river valleys and blind, winding lanes.

A typical Cornish rural scene.

Getty Images

Devon and Cornwall

Legend and Reality

Covering 1,376 sq miles (3,563 sq km), Cornwall is a little over half the size of Devon. But this is the land of King Arthur, big on legend and fantasy, with pixies, smugglers, pirates, wreckers and saints, underpinned by haunting relics of mysterious and ancient cultures. On misty moorland and along its rocky coast, prehistoric stone circles and burial chambers, cliff castles and hill forts punctuate the landscape, along with gaunt ruins from disused mines. Tin has been found and traded here since Phoenician times.

A clifftop wild-flower carpet.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Climate

Mild and sunny, warmed by the prevailing southwesterly wind – which also brings rain – the region is hospitable all year round. Flowers flourish everywhere; hedgerows are nature’s gardens, while Devon violets and Cornish daffodils are among the first seasonal blooms in the shops each year. Spring comes early to the far west, and autumn lingers until late into the year.

When moisture-laden Atlantic winds hit the coast and swirl up to the exposed moors, they let go their load. Dartmoor, at 2,037ft (600m) the highest part of southern England, and Exmoor not far behind, each receives up to 90ins (230cm) of rain a year. Rivers can swell and burst their banks with disastrous results.

But this is also the location of the ‘English Riviera’, in South Devon. The balmy, sheltered, palm-tree-lined resorts of Torbay hold the record for the warmest and sunniest days in Britain, with average September temperatures of 17.5°C (63.5°F).

The north coast is more inhospitable, and it shares with Cornwall a reputation for being a ships’ graveyard. But that means good surfing too – some of Britain’s best surf beaches are to be found here.

Bronze statue honouring Cornish fishermen lost at sea, on the waterfront in Newlyn, Cornwall.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Seagoing heritage

The South Devon coast has a variety of safe anchorages, creeks and estuaries that in their day attracted traders and ship-builders. Crusaders and Mayflower pilgrims set off from these southern shores. Devon was