6 Reasons To Linger in Devon

And what to wear while doing so - in the land of combes and tors.

Alex Polizzi’s Hotel Endsleigh

Alex Polizzi has built a career on telling hoteliers where they’re getting it wrong, so you’d expect her own establishment to get it right – and Hotel Endsleigh doesn’t disappoint. Built in 1812 in Milton Abbot, near Tavistock, as a “cottage orne” for the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, it’s a chintz-free Regency folly set in 108 acres of Humphry Repton-designed landscaped gardens. If you can tear yourself away from the log fires (and the Bloody Marys) you can walk down to the River Tamar (and take a fly-fishing course), or use it as a base to explore the 368 square miles of Dartmoor, from the tors to the Prison Museum and dinner at the two-Michelin-star, Tudor style manor of Gidleigh Park. What to wear: Country checks at Endsleigh; storm system separates for the Dartmoor Tors..

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Go wild on Lundy Island

It’s been dubbed the British Galapagos, and while it’s lacking in giant turtles, the legions of seals, puffins, basking sharks, razorbills and manx shearwaters you’ll spot from this three-mile-long granite outcrop in the Bristol Channel, off Hartland Point, will make you feel that Darwinian frisson. When you see the lengths a gannet goes to in acquiring its lunch – hitting the water at 60mph to snatch a fish – you’ll never complain about the Pret a Manger queue again. The MS Oldenburg sails to Lundy from Bideford and Ilfracombe. What to wear: Sturdy footwear (for cliff-scrambling) and powerful binoculars (for gannet-spotting).

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Make A Splash On The English Riviera

When you first encounter Paignton, Torquay and Brixham – the three seaside owns boldly branded the ER – you may not instantly equate them with more celebrated Rivieras; after all, Torquay inspired Fawlty Towers rather than Picasso’s bathers. But look closer, and there’s exotica amid the cabbage palms, from Paignton’s art deco Picture House cinema to Brixham’s Shoalstone Pool seawater lido, and The Elephant, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Torquay where chef Simon Hulstone serves up Salcombe scallop and Exmoor venison. What to wear: Soft tailoring (for alfresco dining) and slides (for impromptu dips).

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Hobble down the cobbles in Clovelly

Star of a million postcards, and backdrop to countless selfies, Clovelly couldn’t say “olde worlde Devon fishing village” any more stridently if it had a cobbled main street descending 400 feet to a pier, a bunch of wattle-and-daub dwellings with names like Temple Bar and Crazy Kate’s Cottage, and a resident drove of donkeys that used to deliver the cottagers’ chattels but now offer rides to kiddies and less portly adults. All of which it happens to have. It even has its own squire – the Hon. John Rous, who presides from nearby Clovelly Court – which means it’s still a working village, rather than a second-home-heavy, twee’d-out theme park. What to wear: No brogues on those cobbles. And definitely no heels.

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Splice the mainbrace at Salcombe

Britain’s answer to Saint Tropez? Not quite, but the pastel-coloured cottages, steep lanes and sandy coves of this postcard-perfect boating town attract yachties aplenty in summer, when the yellow sands, green hills and azure estuary combine to create a languidly louche Mediterranean vibe. Try The Winking Prawn next to North Sands beach for the fruits de mer; we advise working up to the “prawn beer.” What to wear: A navy blazer and boat shoes should render you superyacht-ready.

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Have a Capital Time in Exeter

Devon’s laid-back capital is made for strolling, with its impressive Norman cathedral, a flourishing university, a network of Georgian streets, a smattering of Roman ruins, and a renovated quayside. The one thing it still lacks is a foodie scene, but salvation awaits a few miles south-east along the River Exe at Michael Caines’ Lympstone Manor Hotel, where the Great British Menu chef presents his Michelin-starred, locally-sourced haute comfort food, such as Darts Farm beef fillet with horseradish confit. What to wear: A soft linen/silk mix blazer will take you from city to country house table d’hote with ease.

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