Exmoor is the ideal place for explorers and wanderers with its sweeping valleys, heather-covered misty moorland, cliffs, caves, waterfalls and sparkling lakes. It has the highest precipitation levels in England, making it verdant and bursting with animal and plant life.

Exmoor National Park, England, UK by Thierry Gregorius

Bird watchers will be in their element with scores of species to look out for including raptors, buzzards, peregrines, and kingfishers. The area is also home to England’s largest herds of wild red deer and the unique race of Exmoor ponies. There are plenty of areas that are ideal for freshwater or seawater fishing, and some beautiful locations perfect for fly fishing. Among the most common fish to catch are wild brown trout, rainbow and grayling stocked trout and salmon.

The most common activity is, of course , tramping and trudging through the wilderness. Exmoor has more than six hundred miles of rights of way with coastal paths, open rugged moorland, valleys and river paths to choose from. Don’t be surprised to spend a whole day of exploring without meeting another soul. There are 55 kilometres of coastline trails to follow, including along the highest sea cliffs in England at Culbone Hill.

Some of the best horse-riding bridleways in the country are in Exmoor. There are more than four hundred miles of meticulously maintained trails. Cyclists and mountain bikers are also well served by the minimal traffic, array of trails, and spectacular countryside. There are also some challenging golf courses with dazzling views, such as the Minehead course which goes through both farm and beach land.

Explorers of all sorts should bring along plenty of water and a picnic. The area is also dotted with charming old pubs and is well known for the quality of food produced locally. Beef and lamb has a lovely unique flavour due to the animals grazing on the particular wild herbs and grasses in the upland areas. The dairy products are also distinctive, with lovely creamy ice creams, cheeses, and cream teas. Pheasant, rabbit, venison, fish, and seafood are all fresh and local as well. Beer enthusiasts will want to try some of the Exmoor ales such as Stag, Beast, Gold, or Fox, or the Exmas during Christmas season, and farmhouse ciders.

The Exmoor coastline near the Valley of the Rocks, UK by Exmoorwalker

Lovers of the great outdoors will be swept away by the skies over Exmoor on clear nights. It was the first European area designated as an International Dark Sky Reserve thanks to its unique combination of frequently clear skies and the absence of light pollution. The panorama of stars never fails to impress.

Exmoor has been occupied since the Mesolithic era. Its ancient history can be seen the sites such as the Neolithic hinge in Parracombe, the Iron Age fort known as Cow Castle, the Norman Castle in Parracombe, and the impressive Tarr Steps- huge stone slabs formed into a clapper bridge dating back to 1000 BC. Exmoor was established as a Royal Hunting Ground in the 13th century and was eventually made a National Park in 1954.

There are plenty of lovely villages and hamlets to explore, such as Dunster which has over 120 listed buildings and the Norman era Dunster Castle, or charming Porlock Weir with its five-mile long cliff walk. There are markets and independent shops aplenty. Families can keep busy with trips on the steam-powered trains, zoos, amusement parks, beaches, and pony spotting.

Exmoor is certainly one of the rarest, most beautiful and wild of regions to visit and there is an abundance of places to explore and enjoy for couples or families, which is why so many people holiday in this area year after year.

Author: Karen Orson has worked in the tourism and accommodation industry since she was a little girl. Playing on the Devon sands soon became frolicking in San Francisco, which gave rise to safaris across the Serengetti and then quickly returned to those English beaches again! Having travelled widely, Karen now works for Highcliffe House; a luxury guest house in North Devon.

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You don’t have to be horse-crazy to appreciate the drowsy charm of this elegant provincial town, but it helps.

Just north of Paris is an attractive, apparently sleepy little town with lots of short people and lots of tall trees that obscure a semi-secretive business of startling proportions. Set on the banks of the Nonette River, Chantilly is the core of France’s thoroughbred training and breeding. It’s where more than 3000 racehorses owned by the world’s mega-rich are nurtured and educated in palatial five-star stables, mostly screened from the prying eyes of competitors.

Le Château de Chantilly, France by Guillaume Cattiaux

In summer, when Chantilly’s flower-filled window-boxes are in full colour, the Paris social set descends on one of the most beautiful racecourses in the world, in the grounds of the Chateau de Chantilly, for the running in June of the celebrated Prix de Diane and the Jockey Club Stakes.

The jockeys are significantly shorter than the average height of Chantilly’s population of 11,500, most of whom are horse-crazy and the evidence of that is everywhere.

Horses can be seen at the myriad stables, on practice tracks and parading around the streets.

They turn up in countless works of art, in a horse museum, on the covers of hotel menus, emblazoned all over restaurant crockery and in the minds and lives of 1700 citizens who are employed, one way or another, in their service.

But there’s more to Chantilly than the horses; it’s also a town of chateaux, parks, forests and lakes. Chantilly forest was once the hunting ground of France’s elite, but is now open to everyone and is crisscrossed with bridleways and cycle paths.

On race days, the weathered faces of elderly women, framed by neatly-kept flowerboxes, face each other across narrow streets to exchange gossip and racing tips, while the town’s many alfresco cafes can be so busy, their tables encroach on to adjacent parking lots.

Le Chateau de Chantilly, France by Nawal_

But Chantilly’s pride is its majestic Renaissance Chateau de Chantilly, set on 7900ha on the edge of town. It is actually two chateaux: the Petit Chateau, dating back to the early 1500s, and the fairytale castle known as Grand Chateau, rebuilt in the 1870s after being destroyed during the French Revolution. Like many other French castles, the Chateau de Chantilly is picturesque and was used for residential purposes, not defensive ones.

Louis XV used the Grand Chateau as a plush weekender to entertain Madame de Pompadour before the original’s demise. Rebuilt from scratch as an exact replica by the Duc d’Aumale, it now belongs to the Institut de France. In a section called the Musee Conde, there’s a fabulous art collection of some 800 old masters and more than 5000 drawings and engravings from the 14th to 19th centuries.

More than 30,000 volumes of rare books and a fine collection of Chantilly porcelain bearing 18th-century Chinese-style designs also feature in this superb museum, which is open to the public. In thechateau’s stone-vaulted kitchens, once the realm of legendary 17th-century chef Vorace Vatel, La Capitainerie is now a superb restaurant with an open-hearth fireplace big enough to barbecue a bull – it’s a beautiful setting for lunch every day except Tuesday.

The fashionable racetrack, Courses de Chantilly, is set within the chateau’s grounds and underneath it is a maze of subterranean tunnels built by erstwhile royal residents as escape routes in case of a siege, something that probably plays on the jockeys’ minds as they pound around its surface each summer.

The chateau’s massive stable complex, built in the 1820s and 300m long, once housed 240 horses and 300 hunting dogs. Today, it is the headquarters of the Musee Vivant du Cheval, the Living Horse Museum.

With 31 rooms, 4000sq m of floor space and 800m of track, this huge equine shrine attracts 200,000 visitors a year. The exhibits include old saddles, carriages, harnesses, veterinary instruments and even carousel horses.

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