Well Farm

If you’re into surfing, or you’d like to give it a try, beetle over to Bude and Widemouth (20 minutes), where you can learn the arts of wave riding, hire equipment, or just watch the action while staying warm and dry... Bude's also a handy point to join the gigantic 630-mile South West Coast path: take it all the way round to Poole in Dorset if you’ve got the time and energy, or try a smaller section between Compass Point and Widemouth. Well set up for cyclists and walkers, the Tarka Trail has 30 miles of wooded valleys, salt marshes and hazel coppices filled with wildlife, and even short chunks between Okehampton and Bideford (both 40 minutes) reward you with a rich variety of views. Equally diverse, not to mention flat, the Camel Trail between Wadebridge and Padstow (50 minutes and an hour) takes bikers, hikers and horse riders along the route of a former railway line through some of Cornwall’s finest countryside. Family attractions are big in these parts: take your pick among the rollercoasters, death slides and raptor displays of The Milky Way, the furry animals and play barns of The Big Sheep, or the flumes, go-karts and meerkats at Crealy Adventure Park (40 minutes, 45 minutes and an hour away). Also an hour away, by no means restricted to small people or thrillseekers, are the indoor rainforest biospheres of the Eden Project.