Well hello you lovely lot, we have just got back from our holiday in Devon and what a lovely time we all had. I say we – I mean the two of us and of course our lovely doggies who came too!

Neither of us had been to Devon before so it was nice to visit somewhere completely new. Another first was the fact that we hadn’t taken the dogs away before so we weren’t really sure how that was going to pan out, but we were definitely looking forward to it! I found a lovely sounding dog friendly bed and breakfast and chose it because the owner just made it sound like our dogs would be as welcome as us.

On arrival we were greeted with a very welcome and delicious cream tea which we enjoyed in the garden of the B and B, start as we mean to go on eh! I discovered that in Devon they put the cream on the scone first before the jam, which is the opposite way round to Cornwall, I’ll have to remember that!

We stayed in a wonderful Bed and Breakfast in a small fishing village called Beer. The B and B was so beautiful – I can honestly say that I loved the way it was decorated and all the accessories around the home, I would say that if I could afford to kit out my home from scratch this is how it would look. Just look at our bedroom!

We were a bit dubious about having the dogs sleeping in the same room as us but actually they were brilliant, they did sleep and no sneaky jumping up on the bed either (ahem well maybe Ellie did a few times…)

We visited quite a few places over the week, we went to Exmouth beach which was perfect for the dogs – there was so much sand for them to run around on, although I think Ellie may have ingested some of it while she was picking the ball up as she was sick later that evening. Thankfully she was better the next morning but it did make me realise we need to be careful.

Lyme Regis was our destination for the following day, after all there is no point in going to the Jurassic coast if you are not going to have a little bit of a fossil hunt. I thought the beach would be shingle and we would have to pick up lots of pebbles and examine them to see if they are fossils, you can see I have no clue at all really! Would you believe that the beach was made of rock. It was so weird, almost like you were walking on the surface of the moon or something – although obviously I have never been to the moon. There were some HUGE fossils actually within the rock surface of the beach, it was quite bizarre! Zoom in on my pics and you will see what I mean.

Unbelievably we didn’t manage to find any fossils, although when we wandered along the prom a little while later they were selling them for as little as 50p – I thought about buying a couple but that really wouldn’t have been quite the same as finding them for ourselves. I would have preferred to find my own authentic fossils. To be honest it’s a little tricky to hunt for fossils when you have two dogs to supervise, particularly one that tries to eat random objects along the way!

On the Friday we went to a model village which I think I remember going to as a child. It was a little rainy so we wanted to do something other than visiting the beach. This was worth a visit and we managed to stay there a while, there were loads of miniature scenes, mostly based on real life places and amazing detail in the buildings and people. I took a couple of little videos, here’s one if you want to have a look I’m not quite sure what’s happening in this photo!We visited some more beaches on the Saturday and obviously spent quite a lot of time walking around Beer. Why is it that when you go on holiday, part of you has a little dream about what it would be like to live there! (Or is that just me?) We had a lovely breakfast each morning cooked by our host and found some fab places to eat dinner in the evenings whilst we were there! In fact the Dolphin Hotel in Beer was so dog friendly with delicious food that we ate there three times. We really were so fortunate with the weather, it was glorious so in the evenings we were able to eat outside, apart from one evening. The dogs really seemed to enjoy their holiday too – I’m sure they loved being able to sleep in the same room as us, also being allowed upstairs for a change! There was a lovely garden at the dog friendly bed and breakfast which was perfect for the dogs because it was completely walled/fenced in.

On the way home we went via Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove in Dorset because we hadn’t been there before either.Devon is such a beautiful county, there are so many picturesque villages and we have decided we would definitely return. We were quite sad to leave in all honesty but think the dogs needed to go home for a rest! It was such a relaxing break and it was nice to have the time to discover new places too and just, you know, get away from it all. I can’t wait to visit Beer again!

What you need to know:

• If you are going to the beach it is advisable to check the tide times but to be honest the beaches are so beautiful and pretty much mostly sandy – unless they are made of rock like Lyme Regis.
• It might be worth checking a venue before you visit to make sure you do not need to pre-book tickets.
• If you are in Devon and have a cream tea, please remember that they like the cream first and then the jam, a fundamental rule, stick to that and you’ll be ok.
• Devon is beautiful – I don’t think much more needs to be said.
• Be prepared, on your way home, to have discussions about moving to Devon, it is such a beautiful county and Beer is known as Devon’s best kept secret. Sshh let’s keep it that way.