Beautiful seaside town 14-miles from major city named among Britain's best

A "thriving" little English town has been crowned among the best seaside destinations in the UK - and has one very special royal connection.

The "thoroughly charming" town of Sidmouth in Devon scored a whopping five stars in Which?'s annual seaside survey for its food and drink offerings, scenery and accommodation, where the average price for one night's stay is £160.

More than 3,600 holidaymakers were surveyed about their experience of the British seaside, and were asked to rate the towns they'd been to on their tourist attractions, quality of the beaches, views, food and drink, and value for money. One respondent called Sidmouth "a thoroughly charming, thriving English seaside town".

The stunning hotspot is most famous for its breathtaking red cliffs, which overlook the sand and single beach - part of the UNESCO-listed Jurassic Coast.

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Fossil-hunters flock to Sidmouth to search for the remains of rare reptiles, fish and amphibians from the Triassic age, while in the past, bones and footprints of the enormous 6-metre Mastodonsaurus lavisi have been found.

Sidmouth's most popular attraction is its Jacob's Ladder beach, accessed via the pretty wooden staircase leading down from Connaught Gardens. At low tide, rock pools are exposed across the shoreline, making for a fun trip for families to check out the local sea life.

History lovers will love discovering the backstory of Sidmouth, which has been in human occupation since before the Iron Age. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Sedemuda, meaning 'mouth of the Sid', and some historians believe its origins date back to the Bronze Age thanks to the discovery of ancient burial mounds on the nearby Gittisham Hill and Broad Down.

And the town was a known spot for smugglers, who used the former Old Ship pub - now a Costa Coffee - as a rendezvous point and for slashing contraband wine and brandy in its basement since the 1400s.

It even had a secret underground passageway leading to Church Path so smugglers could flout the law under the very noses of the authorities.

More recently, Sidmouth was a temporary home to Queen Victoria when she visited as a baby with her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Kent. She was nearly the victim of a stray bullet thanks to a local lad taking potshots at birds in the garden outside Woolbrook Cottage, now the Royal Glen Hotel, where the young heir to the throne was playing in the nursery.

The shot narrowly missed her head, but the evidence is still there to this day: a pane of coloured glass in the window marks it out as the one shattered by the bullet.

Outside of history, for adrenaline junkies, Raceworld Karting is ideal for those less sunny days where you can live out your racing driver dreams. Whizz around the indoor circuits in a 200c kart, reaching speeds of 40mph as you compete with friends and family for the fastest lap.

And for smaller adventurers who need to burn off some energy, Crealy Theme Park and Resort offers 75,000 square feet of slides, tunnels, rope swings, climbing nets and aerial walkways in its vast Adventure Zone. Feeling brave? Take on the Shark Bay rollercoaster and the Dolphin Drop with its 20-foot vertical drop.

For those who prefer things a little more sedate, Sidmouth's Norman Lockyer Observatory offers breathtaking stargazing sessions that let you literally sit back and relax.

As night falls, you can set your sights on stars and planets millions of light years away - and even see if you can spot a shooting star zooming into the Earth's atmosphere.