Turkey safe stamp
TURKEY has joined the countries that have launched a Safe Tourism Certificate to assure travellers hygiene standards have been ramped up at airports, resorts, hotels, bars and restaurants and on public transport.
Turkey has handled the crisis well and UK flights are starting up. But you must isolate for two weeks when you get back.
THIS is the year when small – and socially distanced – is beautiful. So it is a perfect time to discover one of Britain’s charming seaside villages, with their cute fishermen’s cottages and neat harbours. Here’s our pick…
Roller coaster Port Isaac, North Cornwall
It may not be one of the big-name Cornish destinations but Port Isaac, east of Padstow, found fame in TV’S Doc Martin.
Typically Cornish in the way its bay is squeezed between headlands, it has a sheltered little harbour still used by crab fishermen.
It is served by a steep narrow street that swoops down one side, dawdles at the bottom then hares up the other. A path branches off up towards one headland, past where Martin Clunes has his surgery in the hit ITV show.
There is only a handful of shops in Port Isaac’s tight web of lanes so if you really want to visit, you have to leave your vehicle in the car park at the top, where chef Nathan Outlaw has a pricey seafood restaurant.
STAY WHEN YOU CAN: The Doc Martin surgery, aka Fern Cottage, is a four-person holiday let when it is not being used for filming. It costs from £307pn. See homeaway.co.uk.
Steep peep Clovelly, Devon
Smart private ownership, steep topography and an entrance fee have preserved this village on the North Devon coast in aspic.
Cottages shore up the plunging cobbled main street, where transport is provided by donkeys and sledges and no cars are allowed.
There are tea rooms and a visitor centre, boat trips, museums and guided tours, and the surrounding cliffs are shrouded in woodland rich in pheasants and deer.
Beware, though: all this prettiness makes Clovelly popular with coach parties.
STAY WHEN YOU CAN: There are a couple of inns, a hostel and lots of guest houses. A double with breakfast at the New Inn costs from £120. See clovelly.co.uk.
Fife life Pittenweem, Scotland
Along the Neuk – Scots for “corner” – of Fife, this is an intimate place that’s all about fishing, just like Crail and Anstruther.
Red-roofed cottages cluster together along a harbour wall and brightly-painted boats bob in the bay. There is still a morning fish market too, mostly selling crab and lobster.
A change in the village population – with some 30 artists now resident – has also led to the creation of the Pittenweem Arts Festival every August. There is a modest beach and a gentle aroma of woodsmoke and fish.
STAY WHEN YOU CAN: The House on the Rock has views from every window and sleeps eight. It costs from £800 a week. See fifecottages.co.uk.
Seal shore Blakeney, Norfolk
A former medieval port that was left high and dry by the silting up of its harbour, Blakeney is anchored in time.
Its 14th century Guildhall, with vaulted brick ceiling and grand 15th century church, is an indicator of its previous importance.
Many of the pretty flint cottages are now holiday rentals, with regular visitors coming here for its creeks and saltmarshes, dunes and big skies. Blakeney Point Nature Reserve is a shingle spit with tides giving it a different character twice a day. It is also a paradise for birdwatchers and for England’s largest colony of grey seals.
STAY WHEN YOU CAN: Skylark, a two-bedroom quayside apartment, costs from £295 for three nights. See blakeneycottagecompany.co.uk.
Moody blue Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorks
A sandy beach, a murky history, twisting streets and a location on Yorkshire’s Heritage Coast all come together in Robin Hood’s Bay.
The village’s isolation – and a supposed network of underground passages – made it the perfect hideaway for people smuggling liquor and tobacco from France and the Netherlands.
There is no harbour here and the restricted slipway launching means boats have had to