Bradt Slow Travel Guide

Part of Bradt's distinctive, award-winning series of 'Slow' travel guides to UK regions, this new, thoroughly updated third edition of Bradt's East Devon and the Jurassic Coast (Slow Travel) remains the most comprehensive - and only standalone - guide available to this area. Written with insider knowledge that can only be gained by living in the area, and combined with colourful, enthusiastic and witty writing, plus contributions from local experts, this guidebook is as much a pleasure to read as an invaluable companion for exploring east Devon and west Dorset. Devon is the fourth most popular county for UK holidaymakers - and for good reason. Over a hundred square miles of East Devon are designated a 'National Landscape' (formerly 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty') and the internationally famous Jurassic Coast stretching into Dorset is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The charming coastal town of Seaton benefits from sensitive development, including the extension (to wildlife-packed Seaton Wetlands) of the Stop Line Way, a long-distance cycling and walking route to Bristol, originally designed to bolster World War II defences. Dorset's Lyme Regis, meanwhile, is Britain's fossil-hunting capital - as featured in the 2020 film Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet. With an emphasis on car-free travel - walking, cycling and local buses - this Bradt guide's detailed descriptions, historical glimpses, folklore and personal anecdotes whet readers' appetite for exploration. Many activities are covered for the first time in this new edition. Coastal walking has never been better following the reopening of the South West Coast Path locally. Paddleboarding tours and lessons now operate off Seaton beach. The monthly 'Seaton eats Boutique' celebration offers street food and al fresco entertainment. Savour the artisan coffee that has become a big deal locally, or taste the produce of the region's fastest-growing agricultural sector: wine. Giggle at the Beer Regatta and barrel-rolling event or other idiosyncratic local festivals such as the Ottery tar barrels and Honiton hot pennies. And when you're done, reward yourself with one of Beer's Devon cream teas while admiring this picturesque fishing village. Wherever you amble, let Bradt's East Devon and the Jurassic Coast (Slow Travel) be your companion. AUTHORS: Hilary Bradt co-founded Bradt Travel Guides in 1974, but now lives in semi-retirement in Seaton, East Devon. After nearly 50 years of writing guidebooks to Africa and South America, she has embraced her chosen home to the extent of insisting that such a large, varied and beautiful county deserved three Slow Travel guides, not just one. A keen walker, she has covered many miles of the South West Coast Path and inland footpaths. Most Saturdays see her taking part in one of Devon's parkruns (5 km, but she's appropriately slow), and - during the summer - a swim in the sea, just a few minutes away, is always a pleasure. She is a productive member of the South West Sculptors' Association and lectures regularly on travel-related topics at libraries and literary festivals, both in Devon and further afield. After many decades living in various other parts of Britain, Janice Booth settled in East Devon ('within sound of the sea') in 2001, and enjoyed exploring her adopted home county on local buses until her death in February 2023. As a wartime toddler she lived briefly in Colyton (East Devon), where her mother took her 'to the seaside' at Seaton via a branch of the old Southern Railway that ran where the Seaton Tramway now rattles to and fro. On family holidays she tasted her first clotted cream in Sidmouth aged eight, rode on the Burgh Island tractor aged ten, and rock-hopped along the shore near Wembury in her early teens. She was fascinated by Devon folklore, co-wrote (with Hilary) Bradt's Slow Guide to East Devon & the Jurassic Coast, and - further afield - was co-author of Bradt's Rwanda. 60 colour photos, 24 maps