The UK has so many great staycations for families | Rick Jackson

If it wasn’t for Covid-19 and the new quarantine rules, I should be on the French Atlantic coast in much warmer climes.

With France being added to the quarantine list, plans for another cycling break went into full steam but Jersey and Northern Island also required a negative Covid-19 test to travel.

My wife should now be enjoying 35 degrees heat in Cyprus.

But as more countries are added to the quarantine list, it didn’t seem the best plan for us to go seeing as I cannot work from home and the kids would potentially miss the start of the new term.

After enjoying our Isle of Wight camping trip last month, we felt brave enough to try again and Cornwall is simply stunning.

We’ve based our trip on the TV drama Doc Martin, which is filmed in and around the coastal town of Port Isaac.

We are staying eight miles inland of the famous town.

Bright sunny skies and perfect temperatures saw us venture in and as soon as we arrived on the outskirts of the town, we knew how popular this place now is.

Every car park was full.

Eventually finding a place to park, we made the long walk down into the heart of the town and the more famous sights.

Walking down to the harbour, you pass the school where Doc Martin’s wife Louisa works.

It’s actually a hotel and restaurant called The Old School.

By the lifeboat, you expect to see busy-body Mrs Tishell appear from the chemist, which is in fact a sweet shop.

Al and Burt could appear from the pub opposite any minute.

Then the walk up the steep path to the doctors surgery itself, with large signs saying ‘private residence’ as people stand outside for photos.

We’ve lost our cruise and other foreign vacations, but this trip proves how much the UK has to offer when it comes to staycations.

I plan on turning into a big bookworm on this holiday

Autobiographies are my books of choice on this camping trip.

Peter Crouch and Tour de France winner, Geraint Thomas, await my attention.

I don’t read that much. When my head hits the pillow I’m out for the count, so this is the ideal opportunity to get into reading. Do I read up about the man who beat all the odds to win the most prestigious and hardest sporting event of them all?

Or the man who needed help from ‘Kev the kitman’ to get a sofa into this apartment via a window?

I love real-life stories and I know the Crouchie book will be a laugh a minute, especially when you consider the brilliant characters he was around. Now just to get the kids to sleep so I can begin.

If only I could cruise around Cornish lanes in a fast car…

I’ve got into trouble several times here in Cornwall with the other half.

Boy, the roads here are fantastic.

Long, sweeping B roads with some lovely long bends – they are made for the enthusiastic driver.

How I long to be in a Porsche 911 or a BMW M3.

Even a Golf R will do, but sadly it’s a Hyundai Santa Fe, filled to the rafters with stuff – oh, and two small children!

The Santa Fe takes everything in its stride and holds so much stuff, it’s only the kitchen sink left behind.

But the petrolhead in me can’t help but use the ‘flappy paddles’ to change down at a bend and give it the beans, as a football rolls off a heap of bags and bounces off my son’s head.