Travel review of the Scilly Isles staying in the St Mary's Hall hotel, St Mary's

One of the best places in the south of the UK to see puffins or to go birdwatching for rare species in the autumn, they have been officially declared an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since the mid 1970s.

Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson loved the place so much he is buried there, and the streets and communities are so far removed from traditional urban problems that it relishes its sobriquet 'the land that crime forgot'.

Not much for the three-strong police force to worry about, therefore.

Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Isles of Scilly.

An archipelago of around 150 islands almost 30 miles south west of Cornwall at the tip of England's west country, the Isles remain one of the UK's 'secret' travel locations.

Reason for that is fairly obvious - geography. You can only fly to the Scillies from Exeter, Newquay and Land's End, and if you don't like flying the sole alternative is the ferry 'Scillonian' which departs from the Cornish port of Penzance once a day.

You can't take a car over, but you don't need one - there are only nine miles of roads on St Mary's, the most inhabited of the five islands with a population of around 1,800. You can easily walk the entire circumference of the island in one day. It's only a couple of miles wide and not much longer from top to bottom.

The other inhabited islands - Tresco, St Martin's. Bryher and St Agnes - are even smaller, even easier to walk around.

Flowers and sunshine in the Scillies.

Within the confines of the UK, never have I walked so little only to be rewarded with so much amazing natural beauty.

When the sun beats down on the islands, the views are simply stunning. Caribbean-like is not journalistic hyperbole; the colours - the sandy beaches, the water - are straight out of a travel brochure to some of the world's leading sun-drenched paradises.

At dusk, as the sun bids farewell and dips below the Atlantic Ocean, the rocky outcrops of the islands produce an almost ethereal magic - it's as if you are gazing out on a lunar landscape, but one possessing a small handful of the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary And these beaches are, lest we forget, a maximum of an hour's flight from mainland England!

Let us also not forget these beaches will never be packed. Never will they look like Bournemouth or Southsea on the hottest day of the summer.

There are simply too many beaches, and not enough holiday-makers.

This is Good News indeed.

If every single bed was taken at any one time, the total population of the five islands would be around 5,500 absolute tops. That is about the same size as the Hampshire town I live in.

A typical Scilly Isles view.

If you go on holiday seeking some of the, at times, mythical R & R - rest and relaxation - then search no more. You don't have to go searching for the Scillies' main selling points. It is impossible to miss them.

But still there are delights and surprises, even on such small islands.

A main one for me was the food.

My wife, Julie, and I stayed at the St Mary's Hall hotel just a few minutes walk from the shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs of Hugh Town, the largest settlement on the largest island. That is not saying much, though - EVERYWHERE in Hugh Town is only a few minutes walk from anywhere else in the town. This is undoubtedly also Good News, and for one main reason - less time walking, more time eating and drinking!

Offering a friendly welcome and stylish accommodation allied to period charm, the St Mary's Hall menu is simply wonderful.

I am not AA Gill, someone who specialises in restaurant reviews. I am just someone who appreciates great, tasty food.

And here, in an archipelago 30 miles off the Cornish coast, I enjoyed some of the finest meals I have tasted in many a year.

The 'Spirit of Scilly' Gloucester beef burger with parmesan mayo and chilli tomato relish was simply divine, and was quite possibly the best burger I have ever eaten.

A golden sandy beach on the Scilly Isles.

That was followed, 24 hours later, by a curried lamb shank with red lentil and spinach dhal accompanied by an almond naan bread and chutneys. Even now, back in Hampshire and writing this review up, I am salivating so much as I remember the exquisite tastes. If you visit the Scillies, you MUST eat at St Mary's Hall. I'm not joking. In fact, I've never been more serious in all my life. You have to go and, when you do, tell them I sent you.

In between feasting on these gastronomic delights, we hired a Scilly Cart for a day in order to explore St Mary's. They're yellow and they look like golf buggies. They are so easy to use, they're fun, and the top speed is about 15mph.

You can pootle - great word 'pootle', you don't see it often enough in papers and magazines - about the island, stopping on the side of the road and just walking for a few minutes before discovering another lovely sandy beach straight out of a Caribbean travel brochure, or another idyllic vista to a neighbouring island. Trust me, this doesn't get boring.

Along the way, you will no doubt see fields of flowers - the islands' main agricultural export. Did you know that vast amounts of daffodils sold in England are grown in the Scillies? You do now. A weather stream hugely influenced by the North Atlantic Current means snow, or even a sharp overnight frost, is very rare - allowing farmers to cultivate flowers well in advance of those on the mainland.

St Mary's Hall hotel, St Mary's.

On the island of Tresco can be found the world famous sub-tropical Abbey Gardens, a Babylon of thousands of exotic plants which survive and prosper in the Scillies' generally temperate climate. They are 17 acres of botanical glory for anyone interested, a myriad of shapes and colours from all corners of the globe. All brought together on a small island with only around 120 permanent residents. Remarkable.

Puffins like the Scillies too. The Atlantic version of the ever popular seabird flock to the islands to breed, generally arriving in mid April and staying until mid July.

Puffins have great PR, don't they? They are cute, slightly funny in a way, and we don't see them too often. In fact, there are only a handful of places in the UK you will ever see them, and only one in the south of England - the Scillies.

You can go puffin watching in the Scilly Isles.

We took a Island Sea Safari trip around the islands, a merry and informative two-hour jaunt onboard an 8m-long Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) to look for seals, puffins and other seabirds such as guillemots, razorbills, oystercatchers and shags.

There were a few puffins, but lots of grey seals. And it was great to see them as nature intended, and not doing tricks for fish in front of hundreds of Disney-fied tourists.

In the company of owners Mark and Susie Groves, we also visited the sites of some of the most famous shipwrecks. And there are many to choose from, as more vessels are buried in a watery grave around the Scillies than anywhere else in the world. Well One ship that didn't sink, but which ran aground after an unscheduled meeting with the Seven Stones rocky outcrop near St Martin's, was the Torrey Canyon. The 1967 disaster, that saw the oil tanker shed its load, was at the time the world's costliest shipping accident and still remains, even now almost half a century later, the UK's worst ever oil spill. Thankfully for the Scillies, the winds took the oil away from their shores.

There are 33 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England, and only 46 in the entire UK. Of all those, the Scillies - still considered part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall, even though they have been administratively separate since 1890 - are the smallest one in terms of landmass (in case you were wondering, the Cotswolds are the largest). It is easy to see why they were designated. Not much has changed from 1975, the year they were awarded AoONB status, to the present day. That is not to say the Scillies are stuck in a timewarp; instead, they have ignored the more commercial aspects of tourism such as theme parks.

Seals are common in the Scilly Isles.

In recent years, the Scillies' visitor numbers have started to rise again. As always with tourism, there will be a variety of reasons why. For example, in these times of terrorist atrocities in some countries popular with the English, perhaps more and more people are looking closer to home? It would make sense.

Whatever the reason for travelling, though, the end result justifies the means here.

Rest, relaxation, wonderful scenery, beautiful beaches, great food. All that AND puffins ... a holiday in the UK, yes, but certainly NOT the sort of holiday you could enjoy anywhere else in the UK.

And let's not forget the smallest football league in the world.

Yes, the Gunners and the Wanderers face each other on the Garrison pitch 17 times a season. They are the only two teams on St Mary's, so no surprises who contests the (two-legged) cup final as well every year ...

Generally on the Scillies, though, surprises are everywhere.

Book with Prestige Holidays in Ringwood for a trip to stay at The St Marys Hall Hotel and receive half price half board and a complimentary bottle of house wine in your room on arrival. Prices for 4 nights in a Godolphin room on dinner, bed and breakfast, including return ferry from Penzance and transfers cost £699 per person, based on 2 sharing in August and September. If you would prefer to fly from Lands End, the cost is £769 per person. Flights from Newquay and Exeter can be arranged at a supplement, and Prestige Holidays will be happy to quote for other dates, durations and multi island stays. Quote “Southern Daily Echo” to receive this special offer.

Visit www.ukprestigeholidays.co.uk for further information on the Scilly Isles.