The Somerset coast, the Quantocks and Exmoor

Head off to the coast for superb beaches at Burnham-on-Sea, great coastal walks, and spectacular wild countryside in the Quantocks and the moorlands of Exmoor. The nearest sand is forty minutes from Hunter's Moon; the highest cliffs in England are an hour and a half.

Burnham-on-Sea, Berrow and Brean (21 to 25 miles)

Burnham-on-Sea is a traditional seaside resort with one of Europe's longest sandy beaches, seven miles of it running north through Berrow to Brean, and a famously short pier. It has donkey rides, fish and chips, a lighthouse on legs on the beach and huge skies over the Bristol Channel, where the tidal range is the second highest in the world. Brean Down, at the northern end, is a National Trust headland with a Victorian fort at the tip and a bracing walk along its spine. The beaches are dog-friendly outside the summer restrictions on the central section of Burnham. burnham-on-sea.com

Weston-super-Mare (30 miles)

The big resort of the Somerset coast, with a Grand Pier full of rides, a promenade, a sandy bay, the Helicopter Museum and a summer air show. Good for a classic bucket-and-spade day.

The Quantock Hills (35 miles)

England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a twelve-mile ridge of heather, oak woods and deep combes between Taunton and the sea, where Coleridge and Wordsworth walked and wrote. Park at Crowcombe Park Gate or Lydeard Hill for ridge walks with views to Wales and Exmoor, visit Coleridge's cottage at Nether Stowey, or ride the West Somerset Railway, a steam line along the foot of the hills from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead.

Exmoor National Park (45 to 55 miles)

Exmoor is wild moorland, wooded valleys, red deer and Exmoor ponies, and a coast of towering cliffs. Dunkery Beacon, Somerset's highest point at 1,705 feet, is an easy climb from Dunkery Gate with views to Dartmoor and Wales. Dunkery Beacon is the centrepiece of the Exmoor National Park.

• Dunster: a perfect medieval village with a National Trust castle, a yarn market and a working watermill.
• Porlock and Porlock Weir: a thatched village, a tiny harbour and the notorious 1-in-4 hill.
• Selworthy: the postcard-ready village of cream-washed thatched cottages below Selworthy Beacon.
• Lynton and Lynmouth: twin villages joined by a water-powered cliff railway, with the Valley of Rocks beyond.
• Tarr Steps: a prehistoric clapper bridge across the River Barle, with a riverside walk.
• The South West Coast Path: the first stretch of England's longest footpath starts at Minehead and climbs over the highest sea cliffs in the country.
• Exmoor Dark Sky Reserve: Europe's first, and one of the best places in England to see the Milky Way; see stargazing.

Beaches further afield

For a proper beach day in summer, the Dorset coast is an hour and a quarter away: Lyme Regis for fossils and the Cobb, Charmouth, West Bay and Chesil Beach on the Jurassic Coast. The north Devon surf beaches at Croyde and Woolacombe are about two hours.