Somewhere off the northwest coast of Africa, lies the isle of Madeira - a gem that has been popular with British visitors for decades, or even centuries. The place is enchanting. Madeira is a remote isle where nature, culture, and history converge, offering a perfect blend of relaxation and adventure.  Here's why a brief visit to Madeira might be just what your soul needs. Day 1: Arrival and First Impressions As your plane descends toward the island - sometimes rather bumpily

It’s amazing how things can stick in your mind, even if they are all to do with ancient history. I was thinking this recently when I snapped our photo of a Viking long boat on its moorings on a lake in deepest darkest Jutland and it reminded me of my childhood. Just opposite my old West Country school there was a field called Battle Gore, the legend of which used to fill us boys with wonder and awe. A huge battle was once fought right there in our own little village. Wow! And

The 450-year-old Rock Inn - as mentioned in the neighbouring article - stands just a few feet from the young River Tone. Travel a few miles upstream, higher and deeper into the hills, and you will come to Clatworthy Reservoir, which is not only one of the oldest drinking water lakes in the region, but one of the prettiest. Two facts which perhaps go hand-in-hand. The building of a giant reservoir causes a major disruption to the ecology and environment, and it takes many year

It’s not quite a case of “if you go down to the woods today you’ll be in for a big surprise”, but this story has that kind of vibe about it.  Let’s put it this way… There are a great many well-known parts of the much-visited West Country and, conversely, there are even more hidden, out-of-the-way, corners which very few tourists ever get to see.  Given that this is the case, you might imagine that someone wishing to expand a new concept in the world of food and hospitality wo

Having stayed at the wonderful Victoria Hotel in Sidmouth recently, we enjoyed a couple of fantastic local walks. Here’s one to the east of town… Each time I embark on one of these hikes the West Country seems to shrink. Slowly, gradually, an enormous mental jig-saw puzzle is falling into place piece by piece. Distant hills that were once nothing more than an amorphous horizon are now old friends which have been tramped, researched and written about. Great vales and vistas we

There was a reason why Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, Indian moguls and many others down the gold-leafed annals of the great-and-good insisted on having facilities in their palaces dedicated to the pampering of royal flesh and bones. Such human pampering was - and is - relaxing, pleasurable, and it does you good. Fast forward many centuries and we British, in particular, became curiously shy of having our well-wrapped-and-safely-covered limbs manipulated, massaged and gen

There’s a rift occurring in the world of holiday and travel at the moment. For decades most Brits and northern Europeans have had a set notion that a vacation should include plenty of sun, sea and blue skies - which is why we’ve been flocking to the Med for the past 50 years. Now, though, endless heatwaves are making that concept look somewhat over-baked. Who wants to holiday in a place where you are forced to hide from the sun in body-sapping temperatures of over 40 degrees?

Dulverton "Hunting, hunting, hunting," said a local councillor once when I asked him what I could write about Dulverton. Back in Lordy Holcombe's day the answer could have been: "Poaching, poaching, poaching." But you get the underlying message - Dulverton is surrounded by deer, deer, deer.  Exmoor is home to England's last large herd of wild red deer and Dulverton is capital of the hills. As such, deer - and the killing of deer, legal or otherwise - has been the town's centr

Some places have a special corner in the nation’s collective heart. It might be that they will forever be linked to some glorious historic event, or maybe they’re known through sporting fame or they’re just so plain gorgeous and good looking that people love to visit. Penzance is one such place. It is mainly famous for being at the end of the line, but it is a truly wonderful terminus. It is the town famous for being situated where Britain ends and the great wild ocean begins

One of the great things about visiting Madeira at any time of the year is the excellent food. The islanders absolutely love their food, they take it very seriously and have a great pride in it. Which is one of the great bonuses of visiting the island’s Atlantic Festival. It’s not at all difficult to find wonderful food, from the classic basic “prego no bolo do caco” sandwich (a local flatbread filled with served with garlic butter and thin beef steak, as well as salad, ham, c

One of the great things about getting out and about is that you can see how other people do things and perhaps borrow some of their ideas for use at home. It’s an experience I had last weekend when I was invited down to Madeira to witness an event which they call The Atlantic Festival. It takes place each June to celebrate the coming of the summer, and the various events are staged with much style and panache.  So much so, that I spent the three-hour flight back to Bristol Ai

If there is one thing I love doing on my travels, it is visiting local markets - and they don’t come much better than the one that serves the Madeiran capital of Funchal. Why? Because the quality of just about everything in the market is first class. I have seen some of the best fruits and vegetables in the world being sold there - probably because the island has amazingly rich volcanic soils and plenty of sunshine to help things mature to perfection. Same goes for the fresh

On a recent trip to Madeira I learned all about some of the culinary traditions surrounding dried skipjack tuna - known locally as "gaiado," the fish is transformed through a meticulous drying process, becoming a cherished staple that embodies the essence of coastal life and regional flavours. I’d spotted the strange and unappetising dried fish in Funchal’s amazing market on a busy Saturday morning, and later on tried a dish made of the stuff at a lovely ocean-side restauran

When a well known poet, author and explorer comes up with an idea and invites you somewhere special for a jolly good day out, you’d be mad not to go along with the plan. So when West Country-based James Crowden called to say he’d been enjoying the new Hesp Out West series and that he had a perfect excursion in mind, I listened very intently indeed. “There’s a beach cafe that serves top-notch food, there are plenty of options for wonderful walks along this unspoilt corner of t

Imagine a small coastal town where you can have one of the best dinners in the entire region and know for a fact that you could carry on dining extremely well during a week-long stay if you were to visit other venues dotted around the local harbour. I was fortunate enough not to have to imagine such a thing. I knew I had found a genuine foodie-hot-spot as I looked out of a restaurant window while dining out in Porthleven. For those who don’t know it, the old fishing village o

In this weekend's newspapers, my Hesp Out West feature is all about the wondrous food you’ll find in the little harbour town of Porthleven, down there on the Lizard’s north-western shoreline. I first went there to write about the place nearly 25 years ago in an article for an old newspaper series called Hesp’s Harbours, in which I visited over 50 West Country ports. So here’s the article I wrote all those many long years ago… There's a famous photo of the Bickford-Smith Inst

A startling thing happened to me the other day - I was in the middle of a capital city when I was awakened from my early-morning reverie by the one and only cuckoo I’ve heard this year.  We used to hear cuckoos every year in our Exmoor valley, indeed, several of my neighbours have heard the unique and inspiring call this spring, but I haven’t and I miss the old bird. So you can imagine my surprise when, right bang in the middle of Copenhagen, I heard it’s optimistic cry. Ther

Is the burger in our photograph the best in the world? Silly question, I know - superlatives are far from scientific, because who can really tell? And when it comes to burgers, there’s an awful lot of very good competition. But I’m here to tell you that this particular meat patty, along with all its many trimmings, really does stand a chance of claiming the title - partly because of its amazing flavours and multi-layered accompaniments, and partly because of its pedigree.  Yo

This week I have been thinking about potatoes. A lot of people think about potatoes a lot of the time - chips and crisps, after all, are two of the nation’s favourite things. For me, this love of the humble spud was highlighted by the vast amount of feedback this column received after we featured oven-chips cooked over charcoal in a rotisserie basket - I stand by the claim that cheap frozen supermarket oven-chips prepared in this way are as good as you can get. But when you g

The majority of tourists heading west in pursuit of seaside adventures tend to aim for Devon, Cornwall or Dorset. Somerset’s Bristol Channel coast often gets overlooked. However, there is a corner of the county’s littoral which, in terms of scenic beauty alone, could compete with any shoreline in the world.  The wild and untamed sweep of Porlock Bay, punctuated only by the tiny picturesque harbour at Porlock Weir, is surely one of the most exquisite jewels in all of England’s