A quaint Cornish fishing villages

Enjoying the warmer climes of southwest England, the Cornish peninsula juts out dramatically into the Atlantic Ocean, making the most of its long coastline.

This is the England of world-class surf beaches, quaint fishing villages, colourful cottages, rugged clifftops, brilliant green cow paddocks, Celtic ruins, Cornish pasties, gigantic seagulls (Daphne du Maurier did write The Birds here) and even (gasp) palm trees.

The destinations on most visitors' hit lists are the delightfully arty fishing village of St Ives, the surfing hub of Newquay, eerie Bodmin Moor, the gourmet's paradise of Padstow, twee Tintagel, the seaside resort of Penzance, the gigantic space-age greenhouse of the Eden Project near the town of St Austell and the rugged cliffs of Land's End.

Roughly 30 miles off Land's End lie the Scilly Isles, a subtropical archipelago that is accessible by ferry or helicopter from Penzance.