When it comes to planning your summer at the seaside, it doesn’t have to be a case of Med or dead. The British beach holiday is back. We’ve always had peerless coastal scenery — cliffs and coves, rock pools and surf schools, miles and miles of footprint-free sand.

But these days the sun shines brighter, we’ve more Blue Flag beaches than ever, and hoteliers and restaurateurs are laying on digs and dinners to match our five-star strands. Here are six top beach destinations for summer 2007.

SALCOMBE, Devon

In 1924, an eccentric Salcombe inventor named Otto Overbeck patented the Rejuvenator, a device that uses electrodes to “practically renew youth”. You can inspect his bizarre gizmo at Overbeck’s Museum — but wandering around Salcombe, you may wonder why he felt the need to bother.

This invigorating little resort is a positive fillip to health. Always a seafaring town, now a jaunty haunt for yachties, it has slim streets tumbling steeply into the harbour, where schooners bob, gulls caw and a pincushion of sun-spangled mastsdefines the mood of the place. It all feels fairly chic and vaguely Mediterranean: the newest addition is the Oyster Shack restaurant (www.oystershack.co.uk), sister of the popular restaurant of the same name in nearby Bigbury-on-Sea.

Salcombe is never snooty, though — the annual regatta week (August 5-11) features crab-catching, sand-castle contests and “mud races” — and, as a beach base, it’s brilliant. Bang in town, you’ve North and South Sands: the former offering tasty seafood at the Winking Prawn; the latter, taster catamaran courses for all the family (01548 843451, www.southsandssailing.co.uk; two hours £47.50). Indeed, you could spend all week in your wetsuit here, with scuba-diving, dinghy sailing and powerboating outfits all in town, and surfing just along the coast in Bigbury (www.discoverysurf.com).

A regular foot ferry dawdles across the estuary to west-facing East Portlemouth, where you’ll find three more suntrap beaches, along with bewitching sunset-view sundowners at the excellent (and eco-aware) Venus Cafe — its strawberries-and-cream ices, made at nearby Langage Farm, are life-changing. And if you like sterner shores, strike south past Overbeck’s Museum (01548 842893, www.nationaltrust. org.uk), with its sensuous subtropical gardens, onto Bolt Head, the starting point for the chunkiest stretch of the Devon Coast Path — six miles of breaker-blasted scenic glory. It’s here that you’ll find the Soar Mill Cove Hotel (01548 561566, www.soarmillcove.co.uk; doubles from £250), luxuriating behind an idyllic crook in the cliffs; or there’s Burton Farmhouse (01548 561210, www.burtonfarmhouse.co.uk), at Galmpton, which does beautiful B&B and cottage stays; doubles from £79.

Or, new for 2007, splice the mainbrace with the smart set by hiring a flashy American houseboat (www.h2oresorts.co.uk) on Salcombe estuary. For more information, visit www.salcombeinformation.co.uk

WELLS-NEXT-THE-SEA, Norfolk

Next-the-Sea? Who are they trying to kid? Like most of the little shellfishing ports on the North Norfolk coast, Wells is now marooned a mile inland, stranded behind salt marshes, shingle spits and mazy creeks. But this only adds to the romance, because a narrow-gauge railway glides you out along the sea wall to the tot-friendly beach, where you can pootle in warm summer shallows guarded by sandbanks and dunes.

There’s usually a smattering of fishing boats hauled up onto the sands, while a cheerful parade of stilted beach huts in dolly-mixture colours exfoliates gently along the shore. On a coast known for epic skies and elastic horizons, Wells beach has a beautifully intimate feel. The town is a tangle of cobbled streets knotted against the wee quay, possibly the most picturesque working port in England. There are rock shops and fish shops — and, along Staithe Street, proper family butchers where you can pick up bacon rashers for your crab hooks.

Wells is the geographical capstone of the 50-mile road that coasts along the rooftop of Norfolk, extending all the way from the majestic bling of Sandringham estate to the pleasure-pier ker-ching of Cromer. Just to the east, the flint-knapped village of Blakeney offers even better crabbing, as well as seal-watching excursions with Beans Boats (01263 740505, www.beansboattrips.co.uk). To the west is Burnham Market, with its boutiquey collection of clothes stores and knick-knack emporiums. And for a nostalgic day trip, skip aboard the steam train from Wells and chuff inland to Walsingham Abbey.

If Wells beach gets busy or you crave wide-eyed wonderment, there are seven sweeping miles of it just to the west, at Holkham. This beach is a vast sea-bird reserve, with room enough for naturalists and naturists, kite-flying and cricket — and for the Queen, who walks her corgis here when at Sandringham, presumably in her kiss-me-quick crown. But what clinches Wells as a top beach destination is the Globe Inn (01328 710206, www.holkham.co.uk), newly overhauled by the people behind the Victoria at Holkham (01328 711008; doubles from £160), a longstanding Sunday Times favourite that specialises in colonial decor and stylish cooking. The Globe is a stripped-down version of the same, on a Georgian square; and even in high season, rooms go for just £110. For copious cottage-stay options, visit www.wells-guide.co.uk

TENBY, Pembrokeshire

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