When staying at a Holiday Cottage in Devon you will no doubt be planning to head to the beach at some point and probably considering exploring at least one of Devon’s two national parks. Another destination you should defiantly be considering is the counties capital Exeter.

The ancient city is great for a day out of sightseeing and shopping or enjoying a wonderful meal before a night on the town.

Most of the Cities attractions stem from its long and fascinating history. One of the best ways to explore the city is on a free Red Coat Tour that will take you on a 90 minute journey around the city. There are a number of different tours available, which will show you different parts of the city and highlight different periods of history from the Romans to the 21^st century and everything in-between.

Some of the cities must see attractions include:

Exeter cathedral - the most iconic landmark in the city and one of the best examples of medieval architecture in the country.

Rougemont Castle - found in the heart of Exeter the castle and surrounding grounds are well worth a stroll around.

Exeter Museum - discover even more about Exeter past at the fascinating museum.

Exeter’s Underground Passages - the tunnels date back to medieval times when they were used to house pipes that brought in water from outside of the city walls. Today you can explore these tunnels deep under the city.

Exeter Quay - watch the rowers and canoeists on the River Exe before visiting the visitors centre to learn about 2,000 years of history in just 15 minutes.

Princesshay - the new shopping development just off the high street contains the very best national stores including All Saints, Apple and Molten Brown as well as a number of great eateries.

Exeter City FC - why not catch the pride of Exeter, the Grecians, in action during their next League 1 home game.

There are plenty more great attractions throughout the city and surrounding area making Exeter a great day out on any Devon holiday.

On your next stay at a Scarborough hotel taking a trip around some of Yorkshires finest historic landmarks are a must. Dotted across the Yorkshire countryside you will find grand stately homes that are testament to the areas colourful history.  Many of these magnificent houses have remained in the same family for hundreds of years and have built up an impressive collection of artworks and antiques.

Many of the houses will contain quintessentially English touches from Capability Brown designed gardens to regency mansions and Jacobean Palaces.

Harwood House near Leeds is the magnificent home of the Earl of Harewood and is famous for its architecture and Adam interiors. The house also contains a wonderful collection of Chippendale furniture, fine porcelain and art.

Castle Howard near York is situated on beautiful parkland dotted with temples, lakes, fountains and statues aswell as formal gardens, woodlands and even an ornamental vegetable garden. The 18^th century house is famous as the backdrop for the film and TV adaptations of Brideshead Revisited.

Burton Agnes Hall in East Yorkshire is a wonderful example of Elizabethan architecture. Inside the house has an Impressionist art collection while in the gardens there are beautiful topiaries and an old walled garden.

Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire allows you to follow the lives of one family over 700 years of history and see how some of the biggest events in English history have affected them.

Brodsworth Hall & Gardens in Doncaster was built in the 1860’s and is one of the most unchanged Victorian country houses left in England.

Temple Newsam in Leeds is one of the most admired historic houses in the North of England. The house has an impressive collection of furniture, paintings, silvers, local pottery, ceramics, textiles and wallpapers. The 1500 acre grounds were landscaped by the Capability Brown during the 18^th century

Although Robin Hood and his Merry Men are synonymous with Nottingham, with legend having it that Sherwood Forest was his chosen place of residence and Nottinghamshire being ‘Robin Hood County’, when it comes to making an epic film, various locations are sourced and chosen. The filming for the remake Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott for Universal Pictures found its way to filming on the National Trusts Freshwater, one of the wildest beaches in Pembrokeshire just months after Harry Potter had scenes filmed there and hundreds of people flocked to have a Short Cottage Break Wales just to see some famous stars.

The filming, which was granted permission by a number of organizations including Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, The National Trust and Pembrokeshire Council, commenced with an impressive battle scene which involved more than 800 people including 450 extras, 250 crew members, marshals and beach cleaners. It also had a raft of boats and 130 horses which were stabled nearby for the duration of the filming. Whilst it is undisputable that much disruption was caused, the general consensus from locals about the crew being there and the filming taking place was unified in recognizing the positive effects this has brought to the area. Not only in the short term with temporary staff being employed and local businesses being utilized but also the long term benefits of raising the area’s profile and attracting visitors to the region for a Wales Holiday Cottage stay, bringing benefits to the local economy and follow on tourist spend.

Nestled in the Derbyshire Peak District, near the honey pot village of Castleton, there lies the Devil’s Arse. Emerging from it is the Peakhole Water, which flows down through the village and into the River Noe. Because of the attraction of the Devil’s Arse and other nearby caves, as well as the appeal of the beautiful village of Castleton, the Peak District cottages available in and near the village are in high demand.

The Devil’s Arse itself gets its name due to the fart-like noises that the cave produces from within. As water splashes inside the cave, the echoes are transformed by the bizarre acoustics of the rock structure to make it sound to those on the outside like the cave has a problem with flatulence.

There are plenty of stories about the cave, and it has an interesting history too. It’s said to be the place where thieves’ cant, a secret language used by thieves to communicate in public without raising the suspicions of guards, was invented during a meeting between Cock Lorel, the leader of rogues and thieves, and the King of the Gypsies. This story probably comes from the fact that the deepest, darkest, dankest depths of the cave were used by bandits for hiding.

The cave was also the last place in Britain where troglodytes, people who lived in caves, existed. Up until 1915 they lived in houses built inside the mouth of the cave and made a living of making rope.

The cave was officially known as the Devil’s Arse right up until 1880, when Queen Victoria paid a visit to a concert. It was renamed “Peak Cavern” in order to stop her from being offended, but recently, people staying at holiday cottages in the Peak District have been able to enjoy the Devil’s Arse under its older, far ruder name.

Burnham-on-Sea is well known for being a seaside resort which families travel to year after year, and there are plenty of good reasons why. It’s mainly because of the wealth of accommodation and activities in the area which make for great family holidays, meaning that kids and adults alike never run out of things to do.

The first and most popular attraction is quite easily the beach. It’s miles long, and great for walks to get you hungry for a lunch or supper of tasty fish and chips. Beach holidays are popular all over the UK, but beach resorts like Burnham-on-Sea epitomise the British seaside experience.

The next attraction still involves the beach, and is geared much more towards children. It is, of course, sand castles. Building up massive, towering castles on the beach can keep kids occupied for hours, leaving parents free to relax in the sun. Once they’ve finally finished building, a donkey ride along the beach will finish up a day full of popular seaside activities.

Seaside resorts inevitably mean amusement arcades along the seafront, and Burnham-on-Sea is no exception in this regard. Try your hand at various games, competing against or co-operating with your family. Just be careful not to spend too long in these places, or you’ll quickly find you’re out of change and the sun is already setting.

Burnham-on-Sea has its own unique attraction too, found nowhere else in Britain. There’s a lighthouse there which stands on nine wooden legs. It’s a very strange sight when you compare it to the traditional stone lighthouses that people are familiar with, and plenty of people visit it every day throughout summer.

When looking for somewhere to stay in Burnham-on-Sea, most people might think of hotels or self-catering apartments, but holiday parks add even more things to do to your trip, and so prove popular with loads of families, who won’t just return to Burnham-on-Sea year after year, but will return to the same park year after year as well.

One of the most famous features on the Isle of Sky, the largest and most northern island in the Hebrides, is the Storr, a huge and rocky hill that looms over the Sound of Raasay. The island, and especially the Storr, has long been an attraction for people enjoying self catering in Scotland.

The Storr itself is a massive outcrop of rock that emerges suddenly from the smooth grassland that surrounds it. It’s a popular attraction for walkers, climbers, and people who enjoy looking at large outcrops of rocks.

Easily the most popular, dramatic and famous sights of the whole region though, are the strange, upright pinnacles of rocks which jut out of the ground in an area just in front of the Storr known as the Sanctuary. These attract most visitors, and people are happy to spend an entire day of one of their cottage holidays in Scotland wandering around, looking at these large, natural wonders. It’s unsurprising, given how impressive they are in person.

The largest and best known of these is Old Man Storr, a huge pinnacle that stands head and shoulders above the others.

The whole of the Storr has also been turned into a massive art display at one point by NVA, a Scottish natural arts company, in collaboration with various artists and musicians. Photos of the area have won awards, unsurprising given the beauty of the landscape. In the hands of a skilled photographer, the area can be presented in fantastic ways, as many visitors to the island find.

In the first part of our top 10 essentials for any UK Family holiday we talked about picking your accommodation, preparing for both good and bad weather, researching the area you are visiting, taking a camera with you and finally keeping the children busy.

In the article we will talk about the next 5 things we consider essential for your UK family holiday.

6. Plenty of clothes

Unless you are an expert planner then you will never be completely sure about how you will spend your holiday. One of the benefits of having a holiday in the UK is that you do not have to conform to airline budget allowances, so you can theoretically take your whole family’s wardrobe if your transport allows it.

Kids are notorious for getting clothes dirty, so make sure you pack enough outfits and back up outfits to ensure your children don’t end up walking around with dirty clothes.

7. Your Dog

For real animal lovers, one of the hardest parts about going on holiday is leaving your beloved pet behind. The beauty of taking your holiday in the UK is the ability to take your pet with you providing the accommodation allows it. Many holiday parks and campsites offer pet friendly holidays and it will save you some money on cattery and kennel bills.

8. Emergency Pack

If you have active children then you will know the probability of one of them falling over and hurting themselves is quite high. So taking a small first aid kit with you is always a good idea so you can patch them up and send them on their way with relatively little fuss.

9. Suitable footwear

Most UK Holidays will involve some form of walking during your stay. People have a tendency to just pack flip flips and sandals for summer holidays and these are notorious for causing problems with extended periods of walking. If there is any possibility you will be partaking in walking during your stay, make sure you pack some comfortable footwear for both the adults and children.

10. A sense of adventure

When travelling with children it is important to create a fun and exciting atmosphere to make sure that they have a holiday of a lifetime, and a sense of adventure will be a great help. If it’s raining and you have your waterproofs, why not go exploring in some nearby woodland. Caravan Holidays in Devon can provide great adventurous holidays for the whole family.

Just one and a quarter miles away from Land’s End, the westernmost point of England, there is a rocky outcrop that spells danger and death to ships and sailors. It’s called the Longships, and the number of shipwrecks there has made it into an excellent diving location, as there’s plenty to see, but that’s of little comfort to the people on board the boats. The lighthouse has become a popular sight amongst those on cottage holidays in Cornwall.

In 1795 a lighthouse was built on the island, its purpose, as with all lighthouses, to warn ships away from the rocky outcrop. It was an excellent plan, and saved many lives. The only problem with it was that the highest point of the rocks, where the lighthouse was built, was only forty feet above sea level. The lighthouse itself was another forty feet, and because the Atlantic isn’t the calmest of waters, eighty foot waves weren’t such a rare occurrence that this didn’t cause problems. In high seas, the lighthouse wasn’t visible, and its light didn’t shine out to warn ships of the danger nearby. This was hardly ideal.

Because of the dangers of high seas to both this light house and the ships that couldn’t see it, Trinity House ordered another built in 1869. Trinity House are the public, non-departmental body that oversees the building and maintenance of lighthouses, lightvessels and buoys. They also, since their use become standard, ensure that maritime radio and satellite communication systems are operating. They do all of this in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, but not Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man.

This new tower was first lit in 1873, but that didn’t stop the S.S. Bluejacket being wrecked on the rocks right by the light house on a clear night, nearly taking the light house with it. Luckily, the lighthouse remained, and has so up until the present day, though it became unmanned in 1988.

As was mentioned above, the Longships are a very interesting place for diving. This is partly because the number of shipwrecks there, from both before and after the building of the lighthouse, has made it a historically interesting place. It’s also because the rocks themselves are filled with gullies and canyons, and absolutely teem with marine life.

Many places, especially houses or cottages on the nearby Cornish coast, use Longships in their name, recognising the fact that looking out to see the rocks has become something of an attraction for tourists. It’s not uncommon to see Cornish Holiday Cottages like “Longships View” around the coastline.

Cornwall’s reigning supremacy of the legendary Cornish Pasty is set to be challenged as a Pie War will begin over the next few weeks in West Wales. A new company ‘Pasty and Pie Co’ is opening its first store in Tenby on the 1^st March and will then open a flagship store in Cardiff this summer before it rolls out across England, in an attempt to monopolize the world of consumer pasty buying, historically dominated by the Cornish.

The Pembrokeshire pasties, which have all their ingredients locally sourced in Pembrokeshire and include lamb, red current jelly and currants, are claiming to be unique by the company and the stores will sell six different pies and pasties to rival Cornish firms. If you are due stay in a Wales Holiday Cottage, make sure you get to sample the competing Pasty. The company director is really ‘banging the drum’ for Pembrokeshire and the farming community and hopes to open stores in towns and cities across the UK which will compete with the existing Cornish pasty run firms.

For anyone who may not possibly know what a pasty is, let me fill you in. A pasty is a filled pastry case which differs from a pie in that it is filled on a flat circle pastry shape and folded into wrap the filling with the edges crimped to form a seal. Traditional Cornish pasties are filled with beef, swede, potato and onions, they are then baked. Over the years pasties have begun to have an array of different fillings from pork and apple to cheese and onion to name but a few. Anyone that has been to Cornwall should have experienced the taste of a traditional Cornish pasty, anyone on a short break Wales will now not only experience a traditional Pembrokeshire pasty but will be able to compare against the Cornish pasty and judge for themselves.

So you have decided that a family holiday in the UK is for you this year, maybe even a family holiday in Devon. You might be a seasoned veteran in taking time off in your own country, but for many tourists who usually travel abroad; having a holiday in the UK will be a change. In this article we will look at some handy tips to make sure you get the most from your experience.

1. Picking the right accommodation

The first step to having a great holiday in the UK is choosing the right accommodation for you and your family. Some people will prefer staying in a hotel or bed and breakfast for their stay, but perhaps the most cost effective accommodation comes in the form of holiday parks and campsites. Try and strike a balance between what the adults want from a holiday and what the children want. Many find that a family holiday park is an ideal compromise.

2. Suncream /umbrella

Everyone realises that even in the summer the weather in the UK can be a bit unpredictable. So it is best to take solutions for both outcomes; suncream and hats for when the weather is good and umbrellas and waterproofs for rainy weather.

3. Researching the area

Depending on what type of people you are depends on this next tip. Some families like to be spontaneous and see what each day will bring. But if you want to make the most of your time in your holiday destination, then some basic research of what’s in the area will give you an idea of what you can do during your stay.

4. Camera

It seems like an obvious essential to take, but you would kick yourself if you forgot it. With the modern low cost digital cameras with large amounts of memory, there is no excuse for not taking lots of pictures. Why not buy a cheaper camera for your children to make a photo album of their stay with.

5. Something to keep kids busy

It is inevitable that all children will get a bit bored at some point on any holiday. You may have booked a holiday at a holiday park where they have kids clubs but even then, there will be times when the children may not have much to do. Taking a portable DVD player, board game or hand held consoles will be invaluable if you want to get some peace in the slower parts of your holiday.

Due to size constraints we will split this blog into two parts, be sure to check back for the second half of our “Top 10 Essentials for a UK family holiday”