Escape the office early on a Friday and head straight for the coast. The UK’s newest long-distance road trip, the Southwest 660, wraps 660 miles along the seafront from Bournemouth in Dorset through Devon and Cornwall, finishing at Watchet in Somerset. It is conveniently divided into 50-mile-long sections, several of which can be completed in a long weekend, so throw a bag in the boot and get behind the wheel.
The beach is calling! Leave central London well before rush hour, and it is a three hour drive straight down the M3 to Bournemouth, Dorset’s largest town and the starting point of the Southwest 660. Bournemouth’s Victorian heyday came with the arrival of the railways in 1870, after which this quintessential English seaside resort attracted five million visitors a year. Ambitious hoteliers opened grand hotels along the clifftop, including the recently renovated The Nici (thenici.
com; rooms from £155) where the styling is an eclectic mix of 19th century heritage and the sexiness of Miami Beach. Guest rooms look directly out to sea, with only the hotel’s outdoor pool and the beach between the windows and the water. Once you have checked into the hotel, take a walk along the promenade.
Bournemouth Pier has definitely seen better days, but the Grade II listed Bournemouth Gardens are a fine example of a Victorian pleasure garden. Don’t miss the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum (russellcotes.com), either.
It is a magnificent house with French, Japanese, and Nort.