Andrewshayes Orchard Retreat - Fun Days Out

Diggerland is a theme park where children and adults can ride, drive and operate real diggers, dumpers and other full-size construction machinery. The Devon park is in Cullompton, and the whole line-up runs to around 20 rides and drives. You can get to grips with real JCBs and Komatsu excavators, spin on Spindizzy, rise up on the Skyshuttle for the views, or take an off-road trip on the Groundshuttle. There are also dodgems and go-karts.

The parks are aimed at children aged 4 to 14, though visitors of all ages enjoy it, and rides have height restrictions. There are indoor and outdoor play areas, a cafeteria and a Goodie Store for souvenirs. Visitors describe the site as compact, with little walking between rides, which suits grandparents and younger children. One reviewer spent about five hours there in mixed weather.

Tip: Check the ride height chart on the Diggerland website before you go, so you know which rides each child can enjoy.

Forde Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, now a family home, with nearly 900 years of history. Inside, you can see surviving monastic parts such as the cloisters, the monks' dormitory and the old chapter house, alongside State Rooms with ornate plaster ceilings and four-poster beds. The house is also known for its Mortlake tapestries, woven from the famous Raphael cartoons. It featured in the Hollywood film of Far From the Madding Crowd.

The thirty acres of award-winning gardens are the other big draw. Expect the tall Centenary Fountain, tranquil lakes, a bog garden, a rock garden, woodland walks and a Victorian walled kitchen garden. There are picnic lawns, and the Abbot's Table café serves lunches and homemade cakes. The plant nursery and gift shop can be visited without buying a ticket. It suits garden lovers, history fans and anyone after a relaxed day out.

Tip: Dogs are welcome in the gardens on a short lead, and the nursery and gift shop can be visited without an admission ticket.

Lyme Regis Museum overlooks Lyme Bay and the Jurassic Coast, and it is built on the site of the former home and fossil shop of Mary Anning. Three galleries tell the story of the town across 200 million years, using objects, audio and touchscreens, with plenty of interactive and touch exhibits.

The ground floor covers the history of Lyme Regis, including its maritime and social past. Upstairs, the Geology Gallery has celebrated fossils and tells the story of Mary Anning and the birth of palaeontology, while the Writers' Gallery looks at authors and artists connected to the town. The top floor covers the Lyme Regis Railway, Lyme at War and working life through the ages, plus the Rotunda Gallery with changing art exhibitions. Families with children can pick up a Museum Trail at Reception. Fossil fans, history lovers and anyone curious about Mary Anning will get the most from it.

Tip: If you're visiting with children, ask for the Museum Trail at Reception, which comes with the admission ticket.

Paignton Zoo covers 80 acres of animal enclosures and gardens, and most families spend a full day here. You can follow the four zones (Wetlands, Islands, Grasslands and Rainforests), catch the daily talks and feeding sessions, and wander through nature trails in Clennon Gorge wildlife reserve.

Highlights include Sumatran tigers, western lowland gorillas, Bornean orangutans, Rothschild's giraffes and red pandas. It is also the only UK zoo with a northern brown kiwi and a short-beaked echidna. Gibbons live on an island in the main lake. Children get indoor soft play, outdoor play areas and activity trails, and the indoor tropical houses help when the weather turns. There is a restaurant and several food outlets on site.

Tip: Book tickets online ahead of your visit to save money.

Exeter Cathedral has stood at the heart of Devon for nearly a thousand years. Its Norman towers and Decorated Gothic interior are topped by the longest uninterrupted medieval stone vaulted ceiling in the world. Inside you can see the 15th-century Astronomical Clock and an early set of misericords, and guided floor tours and audio guides help bring the building to life.

The Treasures Exhibition is the other big draw. It shows the Exeter Book, the oldest surviving book of English literature, along with the 1050 Foundation Charter and the Exon Domesday. Families can follow the Cathedral Cat Trail, and the Chapter House Café opens onto the Cloister Garden, with a shop next door. It is also a working place of worship, with regular services and concerts.

Tip: Head for the Treasures Exhibition tour or a guided floor tour, both included in standard admission, though floor tours are subject to availability.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is an ancient figure cut into the chalk hillside above the village of Cerne Abbas. At 180ft tall, it is Britain's largest chalk hill figure and perhaps the best known. Theories about who he is and why he was made range from a symbol of spirituality to Hercules, though National Trust research suggests he was probably first made in the late Saxon period.

There is a viewing area in the car park, and a gentle quarter-mile signposted footpath leads from the village. The surrounding chalk grassland is nationally and European important for rare plants and insects, so look out for wildflowers in summer. Above the giant is the Trendle, an Iron Age earthwork. It suits history fans, walkers and nature lovers. How clearly you see him changes with the light and the season.

Tip: The viewing area in the car park gives the best view; the A352 lay-by is free but offers only a limited view. Keep dogs on leads, and expect mud on the steep slope after rain.

Otterton Mill is a working watermill beside the River Otter, near Budleigh Salterton. A mill has stood here since the Domesday Book, and the old workings are free to look round, with a self-guided tour and the water wheel kept turning. Flour is still milled using traditional methods.

Alongside the mill you will find an artisan bakery, a farm shop, an art and craft gallery and a café-restaurant known for its cream teas. There is outdoor seating in the orchard picnic area and on riverside benches, and otters, beavers and plenty of birdlife are regular visitors to the valley. It suits a relaxed day of eating, browsing and pottering, and the courtyard hosts live roots music in summer. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in outside areas.

Tip: Well-behaved dogs on leads can sit outside or downstairs in the café, but only assistance dogs are allowed in the farm shop, gallery and upstairs café.

Powderham Castle is a fortified manor house six miles south of Exeter, on flat ground beside the Exe estuary. The medieval core dates from after 1390, and the house was extended and altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has been home to the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon, for centuries. Strictly speaking it was never a true castle, but the castle-like west front and Charles Fowler's Victorian gatehouse give it the look of one.

Inside, highlights include the black and white marble floor of the Marble Hall, a 14-foot longcase clock from around 1745, a 17th-century Brussels tapestry and the Victorian dining hall. Outside, the park and gardens are Grade II* listed, and the rose garden sits where the old curtain wall and yard once stood. It will suit history lovers, garden fans and anyone who enjoys a walk with an estuary view.

Tip: The main public entrance gates are in the village of Kenton, so head there rather than to the castle's other side.