Cadwalader's Ice Cream Café, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay (02920 453855). Daily 10am-9.30pm. Of the Welsh ice-cream empire's eight outlets, Criccieth is the oldest, and quaintest, but sells only vanilla. Overlooking the Bay, Cardiff's the newest, at less than six month's old, and sells up to 10 flavours of dairy ice cream (no sorbets) including kiwi, wild strawberry ripple, cappuccino, blueberry, coconut and pineapple and raspberry ripple. Scoops start at 85p, with prices reaching £4.95 for the grandest sundae. It's a café, so there are coffees, pastries and sandwiches, too.

Cadwalader's Ice Cream Café, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay (02920 453855). Daily 10am-9.30pm. Of the Welsh ice-cream empire's eight outlets, Criccieth is the oldest, and quaintest, but sells only vanilla. Overlooking the Bay, Cardiff's the newest, at less than six month's old, and sells up to 10 flavours of dairy ice cream (no sorbets) including kiwi, wild strawberry ripple, cappuccino, blueberry, coconut and pineapple and raspberry ripple. Scoops start at 85p, with prices reaching £4.95 for the grandest sundae. It's a café, so there are coffees, pastries and sandwiches, too.

The Hive Beach Café, Beach Road, Burton Bradstock, Bridport, Dorset (01308 897070). Daily 11am-6pm. A kiosk behind this laid-back café - with salmon fishcakes and fish and chips to go with the tea and buns - sells award-winning ice cream from Lovington's Dairy, made on a Somerset farm. Linger on the National Trust beach licking a cone (75p for a one-scoop kid's portion, £1 for two-scoop standard size) of irresistible lemon meringue, white chocolate, blackberry, honeycomb, wild strawberry or sticky toffee fudge, at a table outside the kiosk, or inside the café if it's raining.

Ives Ice Cream Parlour, 160 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk (01728 452264). Mon-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat, Sun 11am-7pm. Aldeburgh has more than its share of good things to eat, and this shop with a few bar stools for the footsore is another attraction, with a line up including tequila sunrise flavour and great chocolate from ice-cream company Movenpick - from Switzerland, a country that understands ice cream and chocolate. There's also a selection from Bennett's of Worcester weighing in creamily with banana fudge and lemon meringue. A branch on East Street, Southwold (01502 724894) has the same ices and slightly less space.

Marine Ices, 8 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 (020-7482 9000). Daily 10.30am-11pm. Such is the reputation of the Mansi family's Italian ices - lighter, easier on the tongue, than their heavy-cream English counterparts - that the counter beside their Italian restaurant and parlour attracts a queue all day and evening. Anticipation runs high whatever the temperature for sure-fire favourites among the two dozen flavours. There's pistachio, tiramisu, tutti frutti representing less run-of-the-mill ice-cream flavours, and raspberry, mango and melon sorbets to slurp from a cone or a tub from £1.25 a scoop. Sundaes, bombes and coppas are served in the restaurant.

P Nardini & Sons Ltd, The Esplanade, Largs, Strathclyde (01475 674555). Daily 9am-9pm. Feast your eyes on 30 flavours of Scotland's best known ices, no longer in the hands of the Nardinis, but still in the Italian tradition and in a glorious range as diverse as melon (ice cream or sorbet), Ferrero Rocher, chocolate Turkish delight, hazelnut, butterscotch, raspberry ripple, toffee crunch and double dairy cream vanilla. Not satisfied by an 80p cone from the kiosk? Step inside the adjacent café for sundaes slathered in cream, fruit and nuts for £3-£5.

Rocombe Farm Shop, 123 Union Street, Castle Circus, Torquay, Devon (01803 293996). Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 9.30-5.30pm, Sun 2-5.30. The makers of outstanding, organic Devon ice cream have their own shop with a few seats and as many as 20 flavours to choose from served in tubs or organic sugar cones made on the spot. From 95p a scoop, £1.95 for two scoops. Some of the country's most mouth-watering ices include crunchies and cream, chocolate chip, chocolate with Maltesers, bananas and cream, stem ginger and mango sorbet.

Salcombe Dairy Factory Shop, Island Street, Salcombe, Devon (01548 843228). Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, 11am-5pm. Not one for fancy ice-cream parlour frills, this shop sells tubs and cones, and larger quantities to take home, next to the factory where people in white coats and matching wellies make the classy ice cream. Watch them at work through safety glass. Then taste their handiwork - milk and double Devon cream mixed with strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and apricots, high cocoa-content chocolate or, for one of the most popular flavours, crunchy honeycomb toffee. Cones cost from £1 to £3 for several scoops plus clotted cream and chocolate flakes.

Shepherds, 9 High Town, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford (01497 821898). Sun-Thurs 10am-6.30pm. You'd never guess these light, intensely and pure-flavoured ices in varieties as enticing as tayberry, orange and Cointreau, walnut and coffee, ginger, blackcurrant, mango, strawberry and vanilla are made with sheep's milk. The pistachio-painted parlour, a former grocery shop, is a delight. Scoops are £1 each, £1.80 for a double in a waffle cone. Sundaes eaten in the shop - with coffee, tea and cakes - are around £2.50, and the latest treat is slices of ice-cream cake.