A seaside town with a lido that ranks among the world’s most beautiful could be the perfect day trip for spring. In addition to its sandy beach and pretty ocean pool, the town also has a canal that you can follow out to sea, and a charming centre full of independent shops, and historic attractions.

Bude in Cornwall is home to Bude Sea Pool, a semi-natural tidal pool that is refreshed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean twice a day. Open year-round and free to enter, you’ll often see wild swimmers taking a dip in all weathers. It made the list of Conde Nast Traveller’s prettiest ocean pools in the world, alongside stunning locations in Australia and South Africa.

The vast pool can be found on Summerleaze Beach, just a few minutes’ walk from town, and here the soft sand dunes lead to a beautiful long stretch of golden sand. Visit early in the morning and you’ll often see surfers heading off to catch a wave.

To the north is Crooklets Beach, a family-friendly beach where low tide exposes a number of rock pools to explore. With a pirate ship playground and a cosy beach café, it’s a great place for year-round coastal walks.

Bude has a charmingly old-fashioned town centre full of Victorian buildings turned into independent shops. There are lots of places to buy souvenirs or a bucket and spade, ice cream shops, and bakeries selling traditional Cornish pasties.

On the edge of town you can stroll along the Bude Canal, a Georgian-era waterway that used to transport lime-rich sea sand from the coast to inland farms. Nowadays, the path is a popular area for walkers, as it leads from the centre of town to the sea. There’s also the option to hire a rowing boat, or a giant swan pedalo, and explore on the water. 

However, it was a very unlikely tourist attraction that saw Bude hit the headlines a few years back. A group of internet pranksters started giving an attraction called Bude Tunnel five-star reviews on TripAdvisor, soon making it one of the most highly-rated visitor attractions in the town. 

And what was Bude Tunnel – a historic site for smugglers and pirates perhaps? Or a secret network under the town? No, it was a pedestrian tunnel in a Sainsbury’s car park, designed to protect shoppers from the rain. While it’s an impressively long glass tunnel with nice views of a car park and some flats, it’s not exactly what tourists might expect. Still, to this day people still visit to film their tunnel walk for social media.

A more traditional tourist venue is The Castle Bude, which looks out over Summerleaze Beach. It has a charming local museum focused on the history of Bude from prehistoric times to its transformation into a Victorian seaside town and to the present day. You can finish off with a cream tea in the cafés outdoor terrace overlooking the sea and debate whether to put the cream or jam first. 

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