Cornwall and Devon are the England that most visitors from the north never reach — a peninsula of extraordinary beauty, with a coastline of sea cliffs, fishing villages and sandy beaches that stretches for over 700 kilometres.

The Cornish coast is the most dramatic in England — the Lizard Peninsula, the most southerly point in Britain; the Penwith Peninsula, with the ancient stone circles of the Merry Maidens and the fishing village of Mousehole; the north coast, with the surfing beaches of Newquay and the dramatic cliffs of Bedruthan Steps. St Ives, with its Tate gallery and its colony of artists, is the most beautiful town in Cornwall.

Devon has its own rewards: the Dartmoor National Park, a high granite plateau of tors, bogs and ancient stone rows; the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extraordinary geological variety; and the Exe estuary, with its bird life and its oyster beds. Exeter is the finest medieval city in the south-west, with a cathedral that is one of the masterpieces of English Gothic architecture.

The food of the south-west is built on the sea: fresh crab from the Cornish coast, oysters from the Helford river, mussels from the Exe estuary and the cream teas that are the defining pleasure of a Cornish afternoon. Bella Via designs south-west itineraries that combine the coast with the moors and the food culture of the region.

Cornwall and Devon reward those who arrive with time and leave with a deeper understanding of what England looks like when the cities are left behind.