Cornwall, England

The southwestern tip of England is where the English like to take their summer holidays, but it is wonderful to visit in the shoulder or off season. We highly recommend Tintagel (for those who enjoy a little exercise, as it can be strenuous). Nearby Tintagel, you will find beautiful Boscastle to the north and scenic Padstoe to the south. St. Ives is lovely and features the Tate Gallery and Land's End may be touristy, but the countryside around it is bleak and interesting. See Mevagissey and Fowey and don't miss a drive over Dartmoor and a visit to Chagford. Castle Drogo is both fascinating and somewhat poignant and Exeter is a lovely cathedral town.

Quick Tips:

Lynton/Lynmouth -- ride up the cliff on the water-powered Victorian trolley. (Because it is there). Tintagel -- take the time to enjoy it, not only as a historic site, but for its beauty. Plymouth is just a big city, but see the Barbican and the aquarium. St. Ives -- walk the town, it's worth it. Visit the Barbara Hepworth Museum as well as the Tate. Don't miss Exeter Cathedral or the High Street. Fowey -- off season, you should be able to park at the harbour. Boscastle -- walk to the harbour mouth. It is probably attractive on a summery day . . . in a storm, it is beautiful too. In summer -- be prepared to walk into town.

Best Way To Get Around:

A car is the easiest way to see Devon and Cornwall, particularly in off or shoulder season when parking in these small towns is fairly simple. The English love to walk this area and there is a lot of literature on routes one can take.

Best Things Nearby:
St. Mellion is day-trip distance for Dartmoor, Exeter, and the English Riviera to the east, to Bude or possibly Exmoor to the north and for Land's End to the west. In that sweep, there are literally dozens of things historical and natural to see. Devon and Cornwall are geographically very beautiful. Be sure to see Tintagel, Boscastle, Padstow, St. Ives, Mevagissey, Dartmoor, Chagford, Exeter, Drogo Castle.

Best Things About the Resort:
Do you golf? Swim? The resort has all the amenities one could desire, including a nice restaurant. Your unit will be a separate stone chalet. It will feature a comfortable living/dining area with patio doors to your barbeque. The fireplace is electric. Upstairs a large bedroom and a bath which features a nice-sized sauna. There is a patio off the bedroom as well in many of the units. You get privacy and comfort surrounded by an excellent golf course, which, in turn, is surrounded by rolling English countryside.

Resort Experience:
There are no negatives here as long as the weather holds up. The units are extremely comfortable . . . you have virtually your own house with your car parked right outside your door. And a handsome house it is, too. This is an extremely professional organization. If you are cooking in, there is a small town, Callington, just north, in which you can find most of your needs. That is the one drawback to the place... apart from the resort's restaurant, there is little immediate to the area.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Very Good
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

In the northern reaches of Dartmoor sits Castle Drogo. It was built between 1911 and 1930 for Julius Drewe. Drewe had turned a grocery shop into a chain and himself into an extraordinarily rich man. The one thing that money couldn't buy him in a class-conscious society was respect, so in an attempt to buy that too, he identified his last name with that of a Norman noble and commissioned Castle Drogo. The story lends a poignancy to your visit to the castle. Who cannot identify with Mr. Drewe? What he got was an extremely fine building and gardens in a particularly pretty place.

The architect, Edwin Lutyens didn't try to emulate a fairy-tale castle . . . and that certainly has been done a few times. The building is certainly large and the initial impression is one of Tudor and Norman influences but I was struck that it looked a bit art-deco.

We enjoyed the visit perhaps because there was a guide and the two of us, and the guide certainly knew his stuff and loved to discuss the place. Perhaps because it was a rainy March day and the atmosphere was fittingly gloomy and we were the only ones about.

We loved the place. We admired the fine oak interiors and Drewe's intention . . . to create a place ostentatious enough to make him admired, and comfortable enough in which to live. Our guide showed us through much of the place . . . impressive private rooms down to the mechanicals, which were 20th-century modern.

Drogo is an enjoyable site because it is whole . . . furnished, elegant, and with a good story behind it.

The cathedral sits in the green lawns of the close surrounded by the city of Exeter, its beautiful Norman towers rising up on each side of its midsection. As we approached, an enoromous school tour prepared to enter. We chose to scuttle across the green for a snack and coffee to wait out the inevitable horseplay. English schoolchildren often appear overly boisterous . . . I suspect they are just trying to keep warm in severe March weather.

Exeter Cathedral doesn't soar . . . it's got shoulders, its got presence. It appears taller than Winchester, much shorter than Salisbury. The interior is perfect English Gothic, the building claiming to be the longest uninterrupted vault in the world. It is, apparently 300 feet long and extremely striking.

The building is essentially 13th and 14th century, and there are many things to see but you are expected to notice, in particular, the 15th-century cathedral clock (the sun and the moon revolved around the earth in those days) and the minstrels' gallery. There are signs throughout pointing out the cathedral's many features and once the school children have left it makes a fine tour.

As you leave, look around the Cathedral Close . . . there are some beautiful buildings in the area and if you want to just pop down the street past St. Martins' Church, you will find yourself in the High Street.

An extremely large model railway set up in the middle of a long narrow divided room so that one can walk around it. Also all kinds of memorabilia for train buffs of all ages. If you like model trains (and many do) this is a pleasant little diversion that takes as much time as you'd like to spend.

Tintagel is the legendary birthplace of King Arthur . . . and as castles go, forget it. There are some ruins and the vague outlines of the place where the Earls of Cornwall exercised their power, but you don't come here to admire crenellated walls and impenetrable towers. The castle site occupies part of the mainland and Tintagel island and if you are able to conjure a vague idea of what it might have looked like long ago, it must have been unassailable, occupying the high cliffs that it does.

Frankly, Tintagel is a natural as much as an historical attraction. The visitor is asked to scale steep stone stairways to fully appreciate the site. My observation was, at the time, that I was glad that I hadn't put this off into my dotage. Far below, the relentless Atlantic waves beat down on Merlin's Cave.

Tintagel doesn't get much of a mention in many tourist guides, but I enjoyed the beauty of the site and possibly the romanticism associated with it. To get to the castle site, one drives into Tintagle town and parks. Then there is a fair walk to the site itself. Remember, you will be scaling some steep staircases. You might come here and avoid the stairs, but then what would be the point as so much of the site would be unavailable to you.

Tintagel town is nice enough although everything seems to bear the name of Arthur or Guinivere or Lancelot or Merlin ad infinitum.

The coastal drive around the southwestern tip of England is interesting and at times, a bit challenging. The landscape is bleak, spotted with hamlets, stone walls and the occasional decaying tin mine.

Land's End itself has a bit of the carnival about it with a number of exhibits and restaurants. I found them surprisingly easy to ignore because the reason to visit is the view of cliffs, the roar of ocean and the desolation of the Land's End lighthouse perched on its rock out to sea.

Again, the reason for coming to such a place in March is for the solitude, the lack of bus tours, the relaxed atmosphere and the ability to enjoy a snack in the window of the restaurant-pub while one stares out to sea. Even the chap at the gate of the pay-parking lot waved us through at no charge after a little banter about our place of origin and the weather.

In reflection, you go to Land's End because it's there . . . the last stop before Nova Scotia. It's not a destination, but if you're hiking or driving the coast, do drop in.

Pendennis Castle occupies a point from which one has splendid views out to sea . . . on one side of the fortification there is the old town of Falmouth with its waterfront and on the other, the resort town with its hotels.

The fortification is one of Henry VIII's coastal fortresses which protected the entire length of the south coast of England. The main gate is a bit of a walk from the carpark. Upon entering, one should ascertain a time to visit (by guided tour) the Half Moon Battery. Having done that, one can explore the rest of the fortification before or after the Half Moon tour. The tour will begin at the discovery center, which is probably a good place for the visitor to go at the time of arrival, anyway.

Half Moon Battery is a World War II installation with massive artillery and an extensive ammunition store and fire-control house. In the depths of the ammunition store, the visitor will experience a sound and light show of the battery in action during an aircraft raid.

On your own, you can visit the One-Gun battery with its "disappearing gun", the war shelter and the East Bastion. The focal point of the tour will be the Keep, Henry VIII's original fortification where one can axperience the sights and sounds of a Tudor gun action.

Okay, I am a fortifications aficionado . . . my wife is very patient with me. This was a good one because the demonstrations ranged from late medieval to modern. Will everyone enjoy this as much as I did? Do you like fortifications?