Tor-topped moorland, ghost stories and wild rivers on one side; surf beaches, estuary towns and art deco hotels on the other. Dartmoor and the South Hams corner of South Devon packs a surprising amount into a small patch of England, and 2026 is a smart time to go: the national park turns 75, with festivals and events planned across the year.
Dartmoor covers 368 square miles of upland rising to around 2,000 feet, often called England's last wilderness — though it's actually been farmed and managed since the Bronze Age. Its defining features are the granite tors, shattered by Ice Age freeze-thaw cycles, and the free-roaming ponies, buzzards and skylarks that share the high ground. The moor's dark side is real: fog can swallow visibility in minutes, and the mires around Princetown and Fox Tor are dangerous enough that only locals cross them. That brooding atmosphere feeds the folklore — the sleeping spirit Old Crockern at Crockern Tor, petrified giant Bowerman near Hound Tor, and the uncanny "wisht" hounds that inspired Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
For softer landings, the hotel scene has levelled up. Hotel Endsleigh, in the Duke of Bedford's old hunting lodge with Humphry Repton gardens and daily cream teas on the lawn, remains the classic. Fowlescombe Farm near Ugborough pairs ten nature-inspired suites with a regenerative farm restaurant serving heritage breeds like Manx loaghtan sheep. Out on the moor itself, options range from guided hikes to sacred sites with Dartmoor's Daughter, natural navigation courses with WildWise, and a wood-fired sauna with a cold plunge in the River Dart at Dartmeet. Chagford — a Saxon-era stannary town with a river-fed heated lido and a secret magazine room in its bookshop — is the launch point for the Dartmoor Artisan Trail, now bookable as a guided day trip to watch tanners, wood turners and other craftspeople at work.
An hour's drive south, the South Hams stretch from Plymouth to Dartmouth, all tidal valleys and rolling hills. Bantham has a sweeping surf beach backed by a vineyard and a 14th-century pub; offshore, Burgh Island's art deco hotel once hosted Agatha Churchill and Winston Christie — well, Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill. Salcombe, best avoided during school holidays, delivers proper seaside nostalgia with Victorian villas, 1869-vintage Cranch's Sweetshop and seafood at the Crab Shed, plus cliff-edge luxury at Gara Rock. Inland, Ashburton and Totnes round things out with antiques shops, community-run arts venues, natural wine at Sandridge Barton, and The Bull Inn — a handy base for the newly opened 100-mile South Hams Way circular trail.
Who's this for? Anyone craving a UK trip that mixes proper walking and wild swimming with genuinely good food and hotels — and a healthy dose of local legend. Go before everyone else realises.