Devon Travel Forum

We are driving from Gatwick to Cornwall and back September 2008. We will stay in about 5 key locations and make day trips out to see as much as we can. Any advice or suggestions on Cornwall, Dorset and Devon will be appreciated.

As I've learned since moving to the UK, there is a lot to see! I'd check some of the better tourist websites like www.aboutbritain.com or www.nationaltrust.org. Those and many others have tons of information about where to go and what to see. And the pages here on VT also have a wealth of information. The roads are usually a bit slow and not very wide going out to the West Country but the scenery is wonderful!

Good point about the roads. There are motorways/ A-roads, of course, but if you want to explore properly you'll need to be aware that roads can be winding and narrow at times, that towns can be congested at busy times and that rural areas mean tractors (and caravans too, in popular holiday areas).

Why not get a UK road atlas from Amazon or somewhere else online and use it to help you plan? They aren't expensive (around 5/6GBP)and will give you a far better idea of distances/roads/places of interest. Will be extremely useful in the car too: I would have recommended you to buy one when you arrive anyway! The AA one is cheap and very good:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Road-Atlas-Britain-Atlases/dp/074955262X/ref=sr_1_1/202-7401184-1191038?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191135878&sr=1-1

VT member Geoff_Wright lives in Cornwall. Ask him for some suggestions :-)

VT member iandsmith has loads of tips of wonderful Dorset and Devon villages on his pages. He will therefore also be able to recommend roads.

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage that I have long wanted to see myself. The road around Weymouth-Sidmouth is supposedly spectacular with lots of good stops.

To see the Jurassic Coast properly (i.e. the fossil-y bits) you have to walk on the beaches. That's why I suggested Lyme Regis (well, one of the reasons).

You are right, Skalman. I've been to Sidmouth, and that area is truly beautiful. We made a stop, too, at Lyme Regis - fairly touristy but it has that wonderful sea wall as seen in The French Lieutenant's Woman.

It also has some stunning fossils still in situ on the beach (with every chance of findng one of your own....have a dinosaur vertebra from there), and a brilliant walk through the micro-climate of the magical Undercliff (also in FLW).

And yes, it's a bit touristy....but so is pretty much everywhere in the UK, if it attracts tourists (if you see what I mean!).

Dorset is a beautiful county - we do not like Bournemouth very much but the rest of the county is well worth visiting. I have plenty of tips on my Dorchester, Weymouth and Bridport pages. I have a very good accommodation tip on my Corscombe page if you want self catering accommodation.

What kind of things do you like to do? If you need a place our family are from St Agnes and have a nice house for rent.