Week in Cornwall - what to do !!!

whippet

I have decided to take a week in Cornwall during the summer, renting a cottage and driving over.

We will have our 18month old daughter with us ... has anyone any 'must do' or 'must sees'?

Also, we will be breaking up the drive from Hollyhead to Cornwall and looking for somewhere to spend a day and night in between ... somewhere with something interesting to do for a day .... any ideas?

Glico Man

One thing you have to do while in Cornwall is go and visit the Eden Project.

Here's a linky

http://www.edenproject.com/

kaki

Hi, back in the day I went to Cornwall 3 times for summer holidays with my family.

I don't know exactly where you're staying exactly, so I don't know how convenient it'd be to your location, but Port Isaac is a really beautiful, tiny, unspoiled fishing village on the northern coast, close enough to Wadebridge/Padstow. If you ever saw "Doc Martin" on UTV with Martin Clunes...well, it was the setting for that show. And the cliff walks around there are absolutely amazing as well, though I dunno how great that's be with a toddler! But if you haven't booked accomodation yet, it would make a great base.

If either of you are into surfing, there's tonnes of beaches everywhere you look. I'd advise against Newquay - it's a bit of a hole, like Blackpool in the tackiness stakes, and very crowded. The nicest places I went surfing there were Polzeath (fairly commercial, lots of surf hire shops etc) Sennan (right down on the tip, a gorgeous isolated beach), Porthowen, Praa Sands, Portreath, Perranporth.

You could do a day excursion to the Scilly Isles as well - by helicopter (which we did) or by boat, both from Penzance (maybe by air as well from Newquay). The islands are unreal - it's like being in a slightly cooler than normal Caribbean, with white sparkly sand, turquoise water, castles, tiny villages, gardens, I guess similiar enough to our Aran Islands. Highly recommended by me at least.

St. Ives is a lovely town as well - if you're into art, there's the Tate museum there to keep you busy, dozens of smaller galleries, craft shops, cobbled streets (parking can be a bit of a nightmare) and a beach of course.

I didn't actually get to the Eden Project ever - it's meant to be very good though.

Anyway hope this was of help, enjoy your holiday!

Lollymcd

+1 for the Eden Project, amazing experience.

An afternoon walking around Padstow, is a must, plus a fish and chip takeaway dinner from Rick Steins down on the harbour.

Watergate Bay is beautiful even when it's packed. Get away from the surfing crowds by walking in either direction along the beach and you will soon find yourself alone.

Both Watergate Bay and Mawgan Porth have beaches which are good for families and have lifeguards on duty.

When we were there in August we went to Newquay for a day something I would not recommend other than if there was some sort of event on. The Boardmasters surf competition was on at Fistral Beach, when I was there, and it was amazing to see some of the pro's in action. Otherwise Newquay was disappointing.

Jamie Oliver’s dinner tasting menu is amazing especially with the matching wine. (http://www.fifteencornwall.co.uk/samplemenus.htm) A bit expensive but worth every penny IMO. Not sure if you’d bring the babe though!

niallb

Cornwall is a long place, so knowing roughly where you're staying would help.
Eden if you can at all. Go early in the week, and don't expect to see everything
at least unless you've got a comfy buggy. You can go back then if you really feel you must.

I'd seriously recommend the "Cornish Birds of Prey" center. It's also got a selection of other creatures which might go down well.
In Wadebridge there's a little place by the river called Tumbletopia or something like that. It's an artificial cave full of gemstones, and you let the kids loose in it while you have a coffee. You can buy an empty bag of various sizes from £2 to £10 or so, and the kids can keep all the stones they can fit in the bag. At 18 months though, you'd probably be rolling around in there yourself too.

Cornwall is full of sideshow attractions. In Boscastle there's a museum of witchcraft, and
in Camelford there's the British Cycling museum which is full of bikes from the last few centuries made out of everything under the sun. There's a collection of toys and things hidden around the room and a cluehunt to keep kids occupied while mum and dad look around, but that really only works with kids if one of them at least can read.

Foods good too, and as people have said, head to Padstow.
The chipshop is great, but it seems that Rick Stein owns most of the town at this stage :-)

Hollyhead to Cornwall is a serious drive, but the roads are good.
Somewhere outside Chester or Bristol might be good for a stop,
but you're probably better off going fairly straight to Cornwall
and sleeping there depending on how baby travels.

Have a great time!

CrinkElite

Hi folks I don't want to hijacking the thread but there seems to be a lot of threads on Cornell and I don't like starting a new one.
My parents are taking a camper van to cornwall tomorrow night and they're a little apprehensive about relying on the van as their sole mode of transport. They've heard that the streets are very narrow Which may cause a problem as the van is very wide.

They do have a moped they could take with them but they would rather not add to their weight if they could get away with just their push bikes.

Anyone got any wisdom to offer.

Thanks for reading.

CrinkElite

CrinkElite wrote: »

Hi folks I don't want to hijacking the thread but there seems to be a lot of threads on Cornell and I don't like starting a new one.
My parents are taking a camper van to cornwall tomorrow night and they're a little apprehensive about relying on the van as their sole mode of transport. They've heard that the streets are very narrow Which may cause a problem as the van is very wide.

They do have a moped they could take with them but they would rather not add to their weight if they could get away with just their push bikes.

Anyone got any wisdom to offer.

Thanks for reading.

Bump.