Brean Sands

Rather than following the crowds down to Devon and Cornwall next time you're in England, how about trying something different?

As the name suggests, Brean Sands has plenty of space by the seaside for the kids to run around – seven miles of it in fact – with rock pools to explore and a convenient café.At the end of the beach you’ll find Brean Down, too, a rocky, grass-covered outcrop that juts into the Bristol Channel. Take a stroll up here on sunny days and you’ll get a cracking view across the water, to the Quantock Hills and Exmoor in the distance.

There’s a fort here, too, built in the 1860s to defend Britain against the French invasion – after our military powers got wind of the sophisticated new iron boats that our Gallic neighbours were using. Luckily, it never happened – although the fort was used again in World War II. Why not come and see it for yourself?While you’re strolling about in the sun, keep an eye out for skylarks, linnets, stonechats and jackdaws, too – just a few of the feathery residents that you’ll see silhouetted against the sky.

And if you’re looking to give the kids something to cheer about, then head to nearby Brean Leisure Park, for some go-karting, log-fluming, roller coaster action.That lot down in Devon and Cornwall don’t know what they’re missing.