Lonely Planet Guide to Devon, Cornwall, and Southwest England

Jan 20, 2011
Mike Gerrard

Lonely Planet Guid to Devon, Cornwall, SW England - Lonely Planet

This new guidebook covers the English Southwest from Bristol to Land's End, including Bath, the Scilly Isles, and the 2012 Olympic venue town of Weymouth.

Devon and Cornwall, and the rest of Southwest England, are undoubtedly among the most beautiful and popular parts of the country. Here you’ll find outstanding visitor attractions like the Eden Project, the beautiful Jurassic Coast, Thomas Hardy Country, the Cornish beaches, the National Parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor, and lively cities like Bristol and Bath. It’s a lot to pack into a guidebook, and the new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to the area devotes 336 pages to it.

Lonely Planet Guidebook Authors

This guide to Devon, Cornwall and Southwest England is jointly written by Oliver Berry and Belinda Dixon. Oliver Berry lives in Cornwall and is a writer and photographer, while Belinda Dixon moved to the Southwest to do her postgrad and never left, working there as a writer and broadcaster. It can sometimes be hard to write about places you know well, and easier to write about exotic and new places, but both authors show they have lost none of their enthusiasm for the part of the world they choose to live in. It’s like having a couple of knowledgeable friends show you round their neighbourhood.

The Best of the Southwest

At the front of the book is a short but useful 4-page section: Itineraries. These seven suggested itineraries show you how to get the best of your time in the area, depending on your interests, and also show just how much there is to see. The topics covered are:

Southwest Essentials: covering the best of the whole area in three weeks
Architectural Treasures: two weeks to take in a range of places including Agatha Christie’s house at Greenway, Dunster Castle, Kingston Lacy, Arlington Court, and Buckland Abbey.
Wild Views: for landscape lovers, including Portland Bill, Chesil Beach, the Somerset Levels, Bodmin Moor, the Jurassic Coast, and of course Dartmoor.
Hilltop Hikes: ten days covering the best hilltop walks
Classic Castles: yes, the Southwest has more than its share of castles, including Corfe Castle, Castle Drogo (the last castle to be built in England), and Tintagel, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur.
Eat Southwest: four days of foodie bliss
A Literary Landscape: two weeks are recommended to see the places associated with the area’s many and varied writers such as Jane Austen, Henry Williamson, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, John Fowles, TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and Thomas Hardy.

Weymouth and Portland: 2010 Olympic Venues

Weymouth and Portland in Southwest England are where the Sailing and Paralympic Sailing events are being held for the 2012 Olympic Games. Weymouth is about a 3-hour drive southwest of London, a distance of roughly 140 miles. The guide devotes a few pages to Weymouth and the immediate surrounding area, and does mention the Olympics and the new Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. There is also a good town map, and although there aren’t many tourist attractions in Weymouth itself, there’s plenty do nearby, including visiting Thomas Hardy Country, the Abbotsbury Swannery, and the Jurassic Coast. All of these get good coverage in the Lonely Planet guide.

What’s to Like

Lonely Planet guides began life as the budget backpacker’s guidebook of choice. Today they embrace everything, so for instance on page 176 you get the gastronomic highlights of Chagford, including 22 Mill Street (where I’ve been lucky enough to eat and which is astounding) and Gidleigh Park, with its two Michelin stars, while six pages earlier you’re told how to get to Chagford on the bus.

What’s Not to Like

There’s so much to pack in that sometimes major places like the Eden Project don’t get as much space as they deserve. Four paragraphs for the Eden Project? I don’t think so.

Buying this Guide to Devon and Cornwall

The Lonely Planet guidebook to Devon, Cornwall and Southwest England costs $21.99 in the USA and £12.99 in the UK. There’s more information on Southwest England at the Lonely Planet website.