Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town that has been showing off its harbour since Henry VIII turned up with a castle and a bad feeling about Spain, and it has never once considered being modest about the water since. It is an art school, a container port and a fleet of small boats sharing one steep hillside, which works far better than it sounds and produces a place where the person serving your coffee has strong opinions on both tides and typography. Come in August and you will queue behind the entire Midlands for a pasty; come in February and the same street belongs to seagulls and students, both of them going through your bins.