A two-week loop from Exeter through Somerset, the Exmoor coast, the length of Cornwall and the South Hams. Where to base yourself, what to drive between, and where to eat along the way.
The South West of England is usually taken in pieces: a week in Cornwall, a long weekend on Exmoor, a few days in Somerset. String them together and you get one of Britain's great drives. This West Country road trip itinerary is a full loop from Exeter, fourteen days that circle the whole peninsula, from cathedral cities and moorland cliffs to the Atlantic beaches of the far west and the soft estuary towns of South Devon.
The route is built around real bases rather than a new bed every night. You settle in for two or three nights at a time, drive an hour or two between each, and use the days to explore on foot. Nothing here is a marathon leg; the longest single drive, Bude down to Penzance, is under two hours.
Done as a circle, the trip has a natural rhythm. Somerset's history eases you in, Exmoor turns up the drama, Cornwall delivers the headline coast, and the South Hams bring you gently home. Because it starts and finishes in Exeter, on the M5 and the London mainline, it works whether you bring your own car or pick one up on arrival. The best window is May to September, with the shoulder months of May, June and September the quietest on Cornwall's narrow roads.
Here is the fourteen-day shape at a glance:
Start with a night in Devon's county town. Exeter Cathedral has the longest unbroken run of Gothic vaulted ceiling in England, and beneath the high street you can walk the medieval Underground Passages that once carried the city's water. In the evening the quayside on the Exe fills up for a drink by the water. Stay at Southernhay House, a Georgian townhouse hotel two minutes from Cathedral Green, and eat at Rendezvous Wine Bar nearby.
Head north into Somerset and England's smallest city. Wells packs its medieval cathedral, the cobbled Vicars' Close and the moated Bishop's Palace into a few walkable streets. Base here for two nights and take the Mendips as day trips: Glastonbury Tor, a steep climb best saved for sunset, and Cheddar Gorge, whose road and caves are best driven early before the summer crowds arrive.
The Swan Hotel, a 600-year-old coaching inn, sits right on the cathedral green. For dinner, Goodfellows has been the town's seafood-led kitchen for two decades; book the tasting menu ahead.
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The A39 west from Somerset is where the drive turns wild. It drops to the coast down Porlock Hill, a 1-in-4 gradient with hairpin bends (a gentler toll road runs alongside if you would rather not), then climbs onto Exmoor. Lynton sits on the cliff above its harbour twin, Lynmouth, the two linked by a water-powered cliff railway that has run since 1890.
Give Exmoor two nights. Walk the Valley of Rocks, a dry coastal valley of tors patrolled by feral goats, and follow the East Lyn from Lynmouth up to Watersmeet, a National Trust tea garden where two rivers join. The Valley of Rocks Hotel puts you 200 metres from the cliff railway.
Cross into Cornwall at Bude, where sandy beaches and a clifftop tidal sea pool make an easy first stop. From here the Atlantic coast road runs south to Tintagel, its ruined castle tied to the Arthurian legend and reached by a dramatic cliff footbridge, and the tucked-away harbour at Boscastle. Book Tintagel's timed tickets before you go, as it sells out in summer.
This is also the doorstep of Cornwall's seafood scene. Within a day trip lie Rick Stein's Padstow and Nathan Outlaw's Port Isaac. Back in Bude, Life's a Beach above Summerleaze beach is a cafe by day and a fish restaurant by night.
The longest single drive, still under two hours, brings you to the far west for three nights. Penzance is the base for Penwith, the granite tip of Cornwall. Cross to St Michael's Mount on its causeway at low tide and come back by boat when the sea returns. Catch an evening play at the Minack Theatre, carved into the cliff above Porthcurno's white sand, and walk out to Land's End. St Ives, Mousehole and the working harbour at Newlyn are all close.
Stay at Artist Residence Cornwall, a Georgian boutique hotel on Chapel Street, and eat at the Tolcarne Inn in Newlyn, where Ben Tunnicliffe cooks the day's Mounts Bay catch.
Turn back east along the softer south coast. Fowey is a steep, pretty town on a wooded estuary, with a passenger ferry across to Polruan and the Eden Project's giant biomes a short drive inland at a reclaimed clay pit. The Georgian tall-ship harbour at Charlestown is nearby, and a gentle walk leads from Fowey to Readymoney Cove. The Old Quay House on Fore Street has estuary views and its own restaurant, Samphire on the Quay.
Cross back into Devon and the South Hams, where Dartmouth stacks pastel houses above the River Dart. Take a river boat up to Greenway, Agatha Christie's holiday home, now National Trust, and walk out to Dartmouth Castle guarding the estuary mouth. A day around Salcombe and the South Hams beaches fills the second day. Use the Dartmouth car ferries rather than the long road round, and pre-book Greenway's car park if you drive. Dart Marina Hotel sits right on the water; Rockfish on the embankment does Brixham fish and chips beside the river.
The loop closes with an easy hour up the coast and the A38, skirting the southern edge of Dartmoor, back to Exeter. With time to spare, turn onto the moor at Ashburton for Haytor and Widecombe-in-the-Moor before you drop the car or catch the train home.
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The full route — stops, maps, and driving times — is on Routebook by Kington.
A two-week loop from Exeter around the whole South West: Somerset's cathedral cities, the Exmoor coast, all of Cornwall from Bude to Land's End, and home through the South Hams.
