Planning a Trip

Getting There -- From London's Paddington Station, trains depart for Exeter frequently. At Exeter, you transfer to a train headed for the end destination of Barnstaple. Travel time from Exeter to Barnstaple is 1 1/4 hours. For rail information, call tel. 0845/7484950 or visit www.nationalrail.co.uk. From Barnstaple, passengers transfer to Clovelly by bus.

From Barnstaple, about one bus per hour, operated by either the Red Bus Company or the Filers Bus Company, goes to Bideford. The trip takes 40 minutes. At Bideford, connecting buses (with no more than a 10-min. wait btw. arrival and departure) continue on for the 30-minute drive to Clovelly. Two Land Rovers make continuous round-trips to the Red Lion Inn from the top of the hill. The Clovelly Visitor Centre maintains up-to-the-minute transportation information about getting to Clovelly, depending on your location.

If driving from London, head west on the M4, cutting south at the junction with the M5. At the junction near Bridgewater, continue west along the A39 toward Lynton. The A39 runs all the way to the signposted turnoff for Clovelly.

Visitor Information -- Go to the Clovelly Visitor Centre (tel. 01237/431781; www2.clovelly.co.uk/index.php), where you'll pay £5.50 for adults and £3.50 for kids 7 to 16, or £15 for a family ticket, for the cost of parking, use of facilities, entrance to the village, and admission to an audiovisual theater, offering a multiprojector show tracing the story of Clovelly from 2000 B.C. Also included in the price is a tour of a fisherman's cottage and admission to the Kingsley Exhibition . It's open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5:30pm April to June and October, daily 9am to 4:30pm November to March, and 10am to 4pm July to September. If you're booked into one of the inns in the village, you don't have to pay the entrance fee.