Efford Lake

The walk down to Efford Lake catches you off guard - you're meandering through farmland near Bude and suddenly there's a proper freshwater lake where you weren't expecting one. It's small, sheltered, and the kind of spot where locals clearly come to get away from the tourist bustle of the coast.

You can walk the perimeter in about half an hour if you're not stopping. There's something meditative about it - reeds, the occasional heron, water that's calm even when the Atlantic's throwing itself about a mile north. The footpaths are well-trodden and manageable for families, though it's not dramatic enough to hold younger children's attention for hours.

Walkers doing a proper loop around Bude will appreciate this as a quieter inland detour. History types won't find much - it's straightforward countryside rather than a heritage site. Birdwatchers might linger; casual visitors usually treat it as a 45-minute addition to a park stay rather than a destination in itself.

Stay at Wooda Farm Holiday Park and you're barely two miles away - the best rated option locally, and close enough for an easy afternoon leg-stretch. Atlantic Surf Pods is slightly nearer if you're after something more contemporary, though it's less universally recommended.

Go in the quieter shoulder seasons rather than peak summer. Spring's particularly good when the water life's active. No facilities on-site, so pack a coffee and accept it for what it is - a simple, free walk that takes the edge off a seaside holiday.