England
Ilfracombe
A harbour guarded by Damien Hirst's pregnant giant, tunnels through the cliffs to hidden beaches.
Damien Hirst's Verity — a 20-metre pregnant bronze — guards the harbour entrance, and behind her, Victorian tunnels cut through the cliff to hidden bathing beaches. Ilfracombe in Devon is a Victorian seaside resort that refuses to fade, reinventing itself with contemporary art and a harbour that still smells of diesel and salt.
The Tunnels Beaches, hand-carved through the slate cliffs in the 1820s, lead to a tidal swimming pool and two sheltered coves inaccessible at high tide. Verity, Hirst's anatomical statue installed in 2012, stands on the harbour pier — one side classical, one side dissected. The harbour still works: crabbers, charter boats, and the MS Oldenburg, which sails to Lundy Island from the quay. The Capstone Parade, a Victorian promenade looping the headland, offers views from Morte Point to Exmoor. Ilfracombe's revival has attracted independent restaurants — Thomas Carr at The Olive Room holds Michelin recognition — while the older layer of chip shops, arcades, and seaside pubs endures alongside. The chapel of St Nicholas, a 14th-century lighthouse on Lantern Hill above the harbour, still guides vessels in.
Family
The tunnels to hidden beaches, the harbour's working boats, and the rockpools beneath the Capstone give families a seaside day with genuine discovery — no manufactured attractions needed.
Friends
The combination of Hirst's Verity, the tunnels, and the Lundy boat gives a weekend structure. Add Ilfracombe's pubs and the harbour's seafood, and the town earns its place on the coast.
- Damien Hirst's Verity — a 66-foot bronze pregnant woman holding a sword — stands on the harbour wall, dividing the town and the tourists.
- The tunnels through the cliff to the bathing pools were hand-cut by Welsh miners in the 1820s — the tide fills them twice daily.
- The harbour catches mackerel runs in summer, and the seafood restaurants on the quay cook what lands that morning.
- The coastal walk to Lee Bay passes through dense woodland that drops to hidden coves accessible only at low tide.
Seafood platters at Thomas Carr @ The Olive Room, a Michelin-recognised harbour restaurant.
Hockings ice cream — a local producer since the 1930s, sold from the harbour kiosk.
Rottnest Island
Australia
Quokkas — the world's happiest-looking marsupials — pose for selfies on a car-free island off Perth.
Bariloche
Argentina
Chocolate-scented streets beside volcanic lakes so clear you count pebbles at ten metres depth.
Isla Magdalena
Chile
Magellanic penguins in their tens of thousands, nesting so close you walk through their colony.
Yumthang Valley
India
A high Himalayan basin carpeted in purple rhododendrons and split by a steaming sulphur river.
The New Forest
England
Wild ponies drift through ancient woodland where Norman kings once hunted deer.
Ingleton Waterfalls Trail
England
A ravine threading past waterfalls hidden so deep the sunlight turns green.
Cheddar Gorge
England
Vertical limestone walls hiding Britain's oldest skeleton and caves that drip with stalactites.
Ennerdale Water
England
The only Lake District lake with no road to it — silence earnt by walking.