Scotland’s Highlands and islands

See and do
For a change from Munro bagging, the new Affric Kintail Way (affrickintailway.com) runs 44 miles from Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness through Glen Affric to the west coast at Morvich, in Kintail. It’s touted as a more rugged hiking/mountain-biking route than the nearby Great Glen Way, though the two could be combined to trek coast-to-coast. Created this spring, North Coast 500 (northcoast500.com) is a 500-mile driving route skirting the north coast from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast that is attempting to become Scotland’s Route 66. Or go flightseeing over the Isle of Skye with Skye Seaplanes (from £129pp, lochlomondseaplanes.com). A new spa with what will be Scotland’s biggest infinity pool opens in autumn at Portvadie resort (doubles from £77 B&B, portavadie.com) on Loch Fyne.

Rainy days
Rock Stop (nwhgeopark.com) is a new cafe and geology exhibition in a former primary school by Loch Glencoul at Unapool in the North West Highlands Geopark. The Isle of Harris Distillery (harrisdistillery.com) should open in September, for whisky and seaweed gin. Until then, there’s a pop-up shop in the old police station in West Tarbert. On the north coast Dunnet Bay Distillery (£6 adult, children free, rockrosegin.co.uk) makes a fine gin, Rock Rose, and has tours until October.

Eating
Anchor in the tiny bay or drive down a single-track lane to Gille Brighde (The Old Schoolhouse, Lower Diabaig, 01445 790245, gille-brighde.com) in Wester Ross, a year-old rustic restaurant on the shore. Squat lobster bisque, local hand-dived scallops with samphire and home-cured bacon are on the menu.

The UK’s most northerly Michelin-starred restaurant, at the Albannach hotel (01571 844407, thealbannach.co.uk) in Lochinver, now has a young sibling in the same town. The Caberfeidh (Main Street, 01571 844321, thecaberfeidh.co.uk) serves tapas-style small plates of local shellfish, fish and game including Caberfeidh crab cakes, wild venison meatballs and creel-caught langoustines.

On Skye, Glenview, an award-winning restaurant with rooms, has reinvented itself as the Skye Pie Cafe (doubles from £85 B&B, skyepiecafe.co.uk) with walkers’ pies to go: venison and juniper, and west coast crab. The old two AA Rosette restaurant’s grub can still be tried at a supperclub, and there’s a new gallery stocking co-founder Kirsty’s textile artworks (she has three Shetland sheep and is spinning her own wool).

Lake District

See and do
There’s a growing network of electric bikes (electricbicyclenetwork.com) for touring fellside villages, and you can recharge yourself and your bike’s battery at one of the pubs and cafes marked on the route map. GoLakes Travel (£10 an hour, golakes.co.uk) rents out open-sided electric Twizy cars: they carry two passengers, one in front of the other and they can even make it over Hardknott pass. The Treetop Nets at Brockhole (£16 adults, children from £11, treetopnets.co.uk) has 1,500 square metres of trampolines, walkways and slides nine metres up.

Rainy days
Recently opened in Keswick is indoor ice-climbing centre King Kong Climbing Centre (group lesson £30pp, kingkongclimbingcentre.co.uk). Or Kendal Wall (kendalwall.co.uk/via-ferrata) has just unleashed Europe’s first indoor via ferrata.

Eating
Newcomer Lake Road Kitchen (Lake Road, Ambleside, 01539 422012, lakeroadkitchen.co.uk) is a must, with a promise that “if it doesn’t grow in this climate it’s not on our menu”. You’ll often see the chef coming in with fresh wild food he’s foraged locally, for dishes such as the garden salad with confit dryad saddle, day old duck egg and pork sauce, or the aged Herdwick lamb with burned lettuce juice, sheep’s yoghurt, young onions, hen-of-the-wood and chickweed. You can’t beat Quince & Medlar (13 Castlegate, Cockermouth, 01900 823579, quinceandmedlar.co.uk) for homemade vegetarian cuisine in a small and cosy setting. Those who enjoy a tipple with their food should try Bistro at the Distillery (Bassenthwaite Lake, 01768 788 852, bistroatthedistillery.com), where you can wash your dinner down with artisan whisky, gin or vodka in a former cattle shed.

And a new “luxury Cumbrian” hotel, a £4.5m reinvention of the Forest Side (theforestside.com) is due to open in Grasmere in September. It says the menu will feature lots of foraged food, and veg from the hotel’s garden.

Cornwall

See and do
Next to the Eden project, HangLoose activity centre (hanglooseadventure.com) has a new ride, The Drop, where daredevils chuck themselves off a 10-metre-high wooden house on to a giant airbag.

Two new horseriding trails for guided groups are on offer from Hallagenna Riding (from £50pp, experienced riders only, hallagenna.co.uk), from its base near St Breward. These include taking riders across remote parts of Bodmin Moor.

Rainy days
In Newquay, a live hour-long interactive experience, with an amazing crew of actors who narrate legends of smugglers with special effects is a hoot at Pirate’s Quest (adult £8.96, child £6.26, 01673 873379, piratesquest.co.uk). The National Maritime Museum Cornwall (adult £12, 5-15 years £8.50, nmmc.co.uk) in Falmouth has a Viking exhibition until 22 February, with many objects never shown in the UK before, and a new Vikings and dragons playzone. There’s a Poldark exhibiton at the Royal Cornwall Museum (royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk) in Truro until 4 September, including author Winston Graham’s original manuscripts ... but possibly no abs.

Eating
In St Ives, Hidden Kitchen (The Masonic Lodge, St Andrews Street , 07792 639 755, hiddenkitchenstives.co.uk) is a pop-up supper club, open Wednesday-Saturday with a weekly-changing menu – arancini, crab Breton gratin, baked cod and orange, and cardamom crème brûlée are past inclusions. Private dining is available too. Thyme and Tide in Saint Agnes (07453 313660, facebook.com/ThymeTide) has superb seafood and pop-up feast nights with lobster barbecues, seafood grills or nasi goreng. In Falmouth, Angus & Mitchell Rasher (4 Killigrew Street, 07916 309659, facebook.com/angusandmitchell) is a beacon of bacon. The chefs run a bacon sarnie stall, and have a residency at Mono (4 Killigrew Street, 01326 316774 allhailmono.com) a music venue, bar and kitchen. Je Tam (jetam.co.uk), which has stockists across Cornwall, is run by Tam and her mum Monika, who have made eating clean a gluttonous pleasure; their dairy, gluten and sugar-free goodies taste better – that’s right, better – than their naughty alternatives. Vanilla and berry cheesecake is a must-try.

Yorkshire Dales

See and do
A cycle ride beside the Settle‑Carlisle railway may sound like strenuous work, but the Off the Rails cycling centre (£40pp inc train fare, offtherailsbikehire.wordpress.com) puts people on the train at Settle, then meets them at Ribblehead with hybrid or mountain bikes and maps. From here you can ride back to Settle downhill through limestone valleys and via pubs, on back lanes or off-road. Food courses abound. Learn to make your own sausages on butchery courses run by Malhamdale farmer Chris Wildman (yorkshirechorizo.com), cheese in Ribblesdale (ribblesdalecheese.wordpress.com), or chocolate at the Little Chocolate Shop in Leyburn (littlechocolateshop.co.uk).

Rainy days
A classic bit of fun in wet weather is to take a trip on a heritage train such as the Embsay to Bolton Abbey Steam Railway (adult from £9, child £5, embsayboltonabbeyrailway.org.uk). Passengers can enjoy the ride as the train weaves through tunnels and along viaducts. The ales up this way are better than most, so a good option is a brewery tour – Theakston and Black Sheep are the obvious names, but a more unusual choice is the smaller Richmond Brewery Company (richmondbrewing.co.uk) in the grade II-listed former railway station on the edge of the Dales. During and after rain the best thing to do in these parts is head outside to view waterfalls – when the whitewater churns even more dramatically than usual. Try Janet’s Foss in Malham, Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale or little-visited Catrigg Force near Stainforth.

Eating
The Bivouac (Druid’s Temple, Masham, 01765 535033, swintonbivouac.co.uk) started as a glamping site and now has a great shabby-chic cafe with exposed beams and stone walls. Acoustic sets from local folk acts sometimes run in the evenings. For real ale and homemade food in a proper pub it’s got to be The Narrow Boat (36-38 Victoria Street ) near Skipton’s canal basin.

Snowdonia

See and do
The Llŷn peninsula coast path (edgeofwaleswalk.co.uk) has new sections this year, and is now 95 miles long, from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. Mountain biking centre Antur ’Stiniog (anturstiniog.com), is opening the UK’s first velorail (a rail car propelled by pedalling passengers) next year, and has free summer activities including gorge scrambling and kayaking. Pant Du (pantdu.co.uk) vineyard near Penygroes produces wine, cider and fruit juice, runs tours (Sundays at 11am) and tastings, and has a cafe.

Rainy days
Zip World Caverns (£60pp, zipworld.co.uk), which opened in Ffestiniog in May, is the world’s biggest underground zipline, while Bounce Below (£20pp, bouncebelow.net) on the same spot has underground trampolines. Or as it’s wet anyway, go surfing, and the new Surf Snowdonia (from £19, surfsnowdonia.co.uk) attraction in the Conwy valley has guaranteed (manmade) waves. The Snowdonia Ale Trail (snowdonia-safari.com/safaris/) tours the new-generation of microbreweries.

Eating
Newcomer Bodnant Welsh Food Centre (Furnace Farm, Tal-y-cafn, 01492 651100, bodnant-welshfood.co.uk) has cookery courses and food outlets – try the deli’s Welsh Black pie, or Conwy mussels in the restaurant.

Devon

See and do
Watermouth Castle (£13.50pp, watermouthcastle.com) a north Devon theme park, has old-fashioned rides and an underground show of fountains set to lights. On the south coast’s beautiful East Portlemouth beach, artist Bruce Munro has a light installation from mid-September.

Rainy days
In Plymouth, there’s the outdoor Barbican theatre (barbicantheatre.co.uk), plus a major new gallery, Ocean Studios (oceanstudios.org.uk) whose first exhibition, A Taste of Things to Come, features work by Grayson Perry. Paper Bird Island in Salcombe (from £4.99, paperbirdisland.com) has arts activities for kids in a workshop decorated like a tropical island cabin.

Eating
The GastroBus (see Facebook page), just behind Bantham beach in Kingsbridge on the south coast, does amazing BLTs, giant homemade cheese straws, pasties and good coffee, while in Salcombe you can buy live or cooked lobster at Yeowards Boatyards (14 Island Street, yeowardboatyards.com).

Lucy Gillmore, Phoebe Smith, Melodie Manners, Rachel Dixon and Gemma Bowes