Discard your worries and let the stress flake off you with every mile you travel west. This is a place to take your time, eat, drink, swim and recharge the batteries. Take off your watch, settle in to West Country time and let Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset's intoxicating mix of beaches, rolling countryside, moorland and cliffs work their magic.

Our definition of the South West of England encompasses four major counties, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset and we stretch ourselves a bit to include the New Forest and Hampshire because they have so much to offer. Take your pick from rural hideaways and village greens, where you may stumble across a quaint little custom and traditional local culture, to the coastal extremities - north coast ruggedness to the south coast’s sheltered coves, where exposure to the elements is the influence of your holiday.

The West Country is synonymous with farming, but there is also Cornwall’s rich mining heritage and china clay production to discover. Choose a coastal self catering cottage in the west, or head inland and ‘up country’ where granite moorland stretches up from Cornwall through to Devonshire’s cream teas, cider in Somerset and on into the limestone and clay vales of Dorset, not forgetting forays into the New Forest and the leafy greens of Hampshire.