A chilly Easter

Easter has, of course, fallen rather early this year, and those who headed down to Devon and Cornwall for a long Easter weekend were greeted with some rather chilly and showery weather (although, as my brother often reminds me, there is no such thing as bad weather - just the wrong clothes!).

On Easter Monday we decided to brave the showers and head for the North Cornwall coast.

First stop was the Bedruthan Steps Hotel (pictured here) for a delicious coffee and homemade biccies. The Bedruthan Steps is a long-established, family-run hotel at Mawgan Porth near Newquay, in a spectacular location overlooking the golden sands of Mawgan Porth beach. The hotel is famed as a child-friendly hotel for the well-to-do, and has been extensively and considerately refurbished in recent years to create a fabulous luxury family hotel - >>> click here for more information

After coffee we headed into Newquay. To be fair, Newquay is in need of a bit of regeneration - the town centre is a bit basic, and the bars and pubs are really geared towards the "youth" market. But the beaches (especially the surf-heaven of Fistral Beach) are spectacular - especially on a wild and windy day like today.

For a civilised end to the day, we headed to Padstow for a pot of tea, and papers, at the very welcoming and comfortable Metropole Hotel - >>> click here for more information

>>>> Visit our website at http://www.simplydevonandcornwall.com/

A taste of Morocco.... in Plymouth!

The Souk is a Moroccan meze bar and restaurant, overlooking Sutton Harbour in Plymouth. Step inside and you'll be greeted by the sounds, sights and smells of a tastebud-tantalising Moroccan restaurant. A great lunch, including a drink, for about seven quid!

For more information on The Souk, and other great restaurants in Devon and Cornwall, click here to visit our Restaurants page

A "Grand" weekend

We had a great night away with the family at the Grand Hotel in Torquay.

The Grand is a well-managed, traditional, large hotel, right on the seafront in Torquay on the "English Riviera".

Nice lounge areas, a decent leisure centre and good food. If you book a dinner-inclusive package, you can choose from anything on the a la carte menu, which makes it particularly good value. Breakfast is a very comprehensive buffet (although they seem to have trouble producing toast, which consistently arrived only half-done!).

The rooms vary a lot, in terms of decor, location, views etc - so it's worth making sure exactly what type of room you are booking.

In summary, a very decent, good value, quality seaside hotel, ideal for a family getaway any time of year.

>>> Click here for more info

Metropole Hotel, Padstow

The Metropole Hotel in Padstow is situated high above the harbour, with great views across the Camel Estuary, but still within easy walking distance of Padstow's multitude of shops, great restaurants and atmospheric pubs. >>> More info

Rail plans for Tavistock

There are some very interesting plans afoot to bring the railway back to Tavistock. The Kilbride Group is proposing to reinstate the old railway line from Bere Alston to Tavistock, which would potentially provide an hourly rail service from Tavistock into Plymouth, with a journey time of about half an hour.

For those who regularly commute from Tavistock into Plymouth, this would provide a much-needed alternative to the congested road trip into the city. And of course it would also give Tavistock a welcome tourism boost.

And perhaps most importantly in the context of the climate-change debate, it would have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of cars trips between the Tavistock area and Plymouth. Let's hope that local and national government recognise that this is a real opportunity to divert a small slice of the income generated from road tax and fuel duty into sustainable public transport.

For more information visit http://www.kilbridegroup.com/tavistock/

Cotehele Spring Food Fair

The annual Spring Food Fair, promoted by the Taste of the West organisation, takes place at Cotehele House on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th March 2008, 10am-4pm. It's free to get in, and you can enjoy the very best of Cornish food and drink to taste and to buy. Actually, this is a lovely time of year to visit Cotehele anyway, because of the spectacular displays of daffodils throughout the grounds and gardens.

In search of the best Sunday Lunch

On our website http://www.simplydevonandcornwall.com/ we've launched a new feature promoting the best Sunday Lunches in Devon and Cornwall. You know the kind of thing - prime roast beef, delicious vegetables, proper gravy, and all the trimmings.

We've listed a few suggestions of places to enjoy a great Sunday Lunch in Devon and Cornwall, but more importantly we're inviting you to suggest places which you've tried and which offer delicious and good-value Sunday Lunch. Click here to visit our Sunday Lunch feature and to submit your recommendations!