Holidays: Glorious South Devon

This last half term we needed a break. We really needed a break. Some friends at work recommended Wowcher for great deals on family holidays, so I spent hours browsing, but even that led to my stress levels rising ( not the idea with a holiday!) – all the family friendly options were catered or all-inclusive. And as ever all inclusive holidays just wouldn’t be possible for our family with allergies to consider. Each meal time would be a supremely stressful occasion with us hoping our requests had been taken seriously ( or simply understood if given in a language we are not familiar with) and then examining the food for any anomalies, following by a lengthy period of watching like a hawk for any reactions. It’s hardly the relaxing time you want to have on holiday and I would have returned from any such holiday a frazzled wreck! Besides, as you may have noticed, I do quite like to cook!!

So self-catering it had to be, and in the absence of owning a lovely villa somewhere warm, we were looking at a 3 days getaway in the UK. And that’s how we came to be in South Devon. Doesn’t sound terribly exciting does it? Well it was absolutely beautiful and such a wonderful ‘get away from it all’ holiday, that even after just three nights we returned fully recharged and ready to face life again.

We stayed in the tiny little town of Buckfastleigh just on the southern edge of the stunning windswept Dartmoor. It was seriously tiny and picture-postcard pretty but also with more than you could possibly need. Oddly perhaps. I long for such a well stocked and friendly health food shop as The Seed just a few yards down the road. And what we would give for an outdoor lido, which this tiny place also boasted. There was even a vintage steam train that went directly to Totnes. In fact the steam train was so much fun that Big S, who is no train fan, claimed it was the best part of her holiday.

Totnes was indeed a great town to visit, one place where being a veggie is not unusual! There were plenty of lovely looking veggie places to eat, but sadly many not suitable for us due to an over abundance of nuts and seeds. That’s often our problem, places where you think we’d be able to eat aren’t suitable due to another item on the menu! Anyway we had a filling and tasty cafe style lunch at The Brioche, fitted in some shopping in the ethnic inspired and crystal shops, and got a big haul of interesting tasty ingredients from the massive health food shop.

While we had eaten safely at the Brioche, it wasn’t without its stresses and issues so the rest of the time we ate in our lovely little cottage or took picnics with us on days out. Slightly dull, yes, but also far far less stressful. As I mentioned at the start, self-catering seems to be our only real option, although I’d love advice of other possibilities.

The weather played ball and we also visited the lovely seaside port of Dartmouth, traipsed over the windswept moor and played with the beautiful shiny pebbles at Blackpool Sands. And we only managed to fit in a fraction of the things there are to do. If you haven’t been, I wholeheartedly recommend it – the rolling hills and wild flower-lined country lanes are England at its idyllic best, with beaches and interesting towns. There is so much to do and you’ll definitely feel like you’ve had a break.