Polzeath

Polzeath sits on the north side of the Camel estuary mouth, about six miles north-west of Wadebridge in the parish of St Minver. The beach is wide and flat at low tide, but most of the sand is covered at high tide, and exceptionally high spring tides can even reach the car park at the top of the beach. Two streams, the Polzeath Brook and the Trenant Stream, run across the sand to the sea.

It has been a surfing village for a long time. Shops, cafés, pubs and surf hire line the seafront, and the old Methodist chapel has been the Tubestation, a church on Sundays and a surfers' café the rest of the week, since 2006. The RNLI describes it as a wide, flat beach with some shelter from the wind and good surf, and adds that it is often very crowded.

Walk north and the coast path leads past Pentireglaze, known as Baby Bay, and Slipper Point to Pentire Head, where Laurence Binyon wrote For the Fallen in 1914. Head south and the path follows the estuary to Daymer Bay. Look out for dolphins in the bay; the coast to the north is good for birdwatching, especially during migration. Walk the coast path at low tide and you'll see how far the bay really stretches.