Not every outing has to cost money, there’s plenty on offer when you stay at Twistgates Farm Cottages where you can relax and switch off although you won’t feel cut off as our WiFi broadband is superfast and a host of places and attractions, many within 30 minutes, are an easy car drive.
Bird Watching. No need to step away from your holiday home from home in the Blackdown Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to watch the rich variety of birds that inhabit the gardens and surrounding area. 
We have several bird feeders to keep you entertained and, among others, the nuthatches and greater spotted woodpeckers come to feast and in early summer they bring their young with them, buzzards wheel overhead, pheasants strut across the lawns and swallows skim the fields.
Walking. Leave the car behind and whether you want to boot up or gently amble you will find plenty of suggestions and ideas in the cottages and we can lend you local maps. From the front gate turn left, right or go straight on and you’re off! A short car ride will take you to the forest at Neroche with miles of walks and in the spring bluebells carpet the ground. A little further and you can join the East Devon Way and South West Coast Path.
Picnic. Pack up a good old fashioned picnic – rug, thermos flask and sandwiches, perhaps having stocked up with locally produced food and drinks from the community store at Churchinford. 
Find a quiet corner in our buttercup filled field, a wildlife haven with butterflies, birds and a babbling stream, or walk along the footpath that follows part of the river Otter.
Fossil hunt. The Jurassic Coast is renowned for fossils and Charmouth beach is the place to head for. Mary Anning, the well known fossil collector and palaeontologist lived in nearby Lyme Regis and the town, with its famous Cobb, is the setting for many films.
Explore. The Blackdown Hills are a well kept secret and many people miss them completely as they head southwest, but take a little time to potter around and discover this beautiful and timeless area for yourselves. We’re near the borders of Somerset and Dorset and don’t forget the Somerset Levels where there is a very different landscape to us – the Willow Centre is well worth a visit.
Head to Exeter and join a walking tour of the city to learn of its history and see its medieval buildings, make friends with the donkeys at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, 
visit the RAMM and Somerset museums in Exeter and Taunton respectively, walk up to the Beacon at Culmstock and imagine yourself back in Elizabethan times looking out for the Spanish Armada. Watch flour being ground at Otterton Mill, visit the Thelma Hulbert gallery in Honiton where there are often free activities for children.
If you are a member of the National Trust your card will open doors for you as there are many lovely properties and gardens in the area – Killerton, Barrington Court, Montacute House, A La Ronde, Lytes Cary, Knightshayes Court to name a few.
Self catering holiday cottages offer full weeks, weekend and mid-week short breaks and allow you the freedom to enjoy a holiday the way you like, to relax and unwind and to spend time with your family and friends. To escape the hurly burly of everyday life check out Twistgates Farm Cottages and the romantic Apple Loft apartment, in East Devon, and click on the BOOK Tab or give Suzanne a call today on 01404 861173