Beach Guide: South West

The South West peninsula of England has long been the epicentre for tourism in the UK. It has an extremely varied coastline from lomg sandy dune backed beaches, through high rocky cliffs to the tourist holiday towns with traditional promenades, piers and amusements. The South West is also a hotspot for 'forces-of-nature' sports and towns like Newquay thrive on the surf industry.

All this variety makes the area extremely popular and therefore very busy. Out of season things aren't too bad, but don't expect to be able to find a quiet uncrowded beach even in the depths of winter. Saying that though, there are still a few areas that remain less popular and if you are willing to go off the beaten track and explore the miles of coastline it is still possible to find quiet uncrowded coves and occassionally the odd 'secret' spot.

North Devon and Cornwall are renowned for their surf and can produce some world class surf on its day. The surf in this part of the world is fairly consistent, needing a big low in the Atlantic to generate anything of decent size. There are no real secrets anymore and every place that can be surfed has ben surfed. Variations in wind direction and swell direction can however mean that every beach has its day and there is by no means just one or two places that are the best. On a given day any number of places could be going off. As far as windsurfing goes, there are still a few spots yet to be sailed and most windsurfers tend to stick to the same beaches where access is easy and the conditions consistent.

Select a region from the map above, or from the list below.

• Bristol Channel
• North Devon
• Coming Soon
• North Cornwall...Bude to Padstow>
• North Cornwall...Padstow to lands End
• South Cornwall
• South Devon