Best guidebook for English country pubs with B&B and great food.

PragueAddick

Good friends of mine, late middle aged Scandi couple want to spend a few days in May in nice countryside/near coast. I said generally I’d recommend South/South West coast, but Cornwall might be a stretch for a trip of around 5 days in total. Anyway, years ago I recall tracking down great small pubs of this type in places like Bridport and Branscombe, thanks to a guide book. Unfortunately these books involving proper humans visiting places incognito seem to have been all but destroyed by bloody TripAdvisor. Is there still a good source that could help them choose? 

AFKABartram

 @Curb_It loves a coastal pub walk. Any advice?

bobmunro

These look good

https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/coastal-pub-walks-top-10-walks-south-west-coast-path/

https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/coastal-pub-walks-top-10-walks-dorset/

See the 'You might also love...' at the bottom of the page.

IdleHans

Agree Cornwall is a shlep for a short break. I'm always drawn to north Devon/Exmoor, so somewhere like Lynton/Lynmouth makes a great base (I prefer Lynmouth, there's a bit more going on and the views are better). It has decent pubs and cafés and spectacular cliff and river gorge walks from the town itself, and is within easy reach of Woolacombe for a fabulous beach, Mortehoe for a great hilly headland walk, Ilfracombe for a more traditional british seaside town feel and the windswept cliffs of Hartland Point a bit further west.

As far as guides go for places to stay, books are so last century and places change so quickly. Finding a few decent web guides would be my own choice, but there's inevitably a lot of trawling to do.

https://stayinapub.co.uk/location/west-country/devon/pubs-with-rooms-in-devon/

PragueAddick

IdleHans said:

Agree Cornwall is a shlep for a short break. I'm always drawn to north Devon/Exmoor, so somewhere like Lynton/Lynmouth makes a great base (I prefer Lynmouth, there's a bit more going on and the views are better). It has decent pubs and cafés and spectacular cliff and river gorge walks from the town itself, and is within easy reach of Woolacombe for a fabulous beach, Mortehoe for a great hilly headland walk, Ilfracombe for a more traditional british seaside town feel and the windswept cliffs of Hartland Point a bit further west.

As far as guides go for places to stay, books are so last century and places change so quickly. Finding a few decent web guides would be my own choice, but there's inevitably a lot of trawling to do.

https://stayinapub.co.uk/location/west-country/devon/pubs-with-rooms-in-devon/

You say that, but I still use Rough Guides, where they are still available for a location and their hotel, and restaurant reccos are still uncannily good. I always check first with how those reccos stack up on booking.com or TA and they are generally right up there among the best local choices. But for example Rough Guides no longer has a guide for Austria, just a mini-guide for Vienna, which is very good. TripAdvisor is bad news a lot of bum steers (across the board, not just Vienna)

I'm trying to remember what I used back in the 80s, I think it was something like The Good Pub Guide

IdleHans

Likely was the good pub guide as that comes out annually I think. I looked up a few well-reviewed guide books on Amazon but when you see the publishing date was 2019 you know a lot of it, especially post COVID, is going to be miles out of date as far as pubs and accommodation goes. Bradt guides are possibly very good (saw a programme about them recently) and I like the look of this one using the Look Inside feature on Amazon.

https://read.amazon.co.uk/sample/B01I1Z9C8G?f=2&l=en_GB&r=ff4728ae&rid=PQZ7THBHQEZSB0ZBQTCJ&sid=258-5014367-3227310&cid=A2J8NK6HLM580B&ref_=litb_m

PragueAddick

Cheers @IdleHans . I think they need to start with a guide book so they decide where to stop before they start looking at accom or eating places. 

Those N. Devon names are familiar from my childhood. Westward Ho! My parents would book a cool wooden chalet quite high up above the town. I always remember the thrill as we finally came over the hill in the Ford Popular and there below was the bay with the huge sandy beach. But the weather was often shite. Rain wipe-out days…But my friends are Scandi  from the west coast so they know the score😉

ElfsborgAddick

Totnes, Dawlish Warren, Torquay.  Across to Dartmouth from Totnes.
This would make for a very pleasant four day break.