We’ve just completed our third Cornwall holiday – and I thought it was worth doing a brief round up, if only to show this little blog some love!
Cornwall is a beautiful part of the country, and one we enjoy visiting. It’s quite a trek from London – on a good day it could be four and a half hours, and on a bad… well, let’s not think about that!
We stayed at Coombe Mill. H had a wonderful time making new friends and doing the feed run every morning. Shaun and I also had a fab time, everyone was so friendly and it was a really lovely place to stay. None of us parents knew each others’ names, but we chatted every day! I’d highly recommend Coombe Mill as a family-friendly holiday place. There’s plenty to do there. I’ll write more about that in a while…
We visited Padstow again, any excuse for me to visit the Seasalt shop (oh how I love Seasalt clothes), as well as buying a pasty from the Chough Bakery. I made exactly the same error as last year, getting a veggie pasty whose content leaked everywhere. Next year I will do better! Shaun and H both had Cornish pasties – when in Cornwall….
We parked over in Rock – we found a sidestreet and got free parking which saved a bit. We then took the ferry over to Padstow from there. You buy return tickets then come back at a time which suits you. The ferry runs approximately every 10 minutes and depending on the tide takes certain routes.
After Rock we drove up the coast and discovered Daymer Bay, thanks to a recommendation from Jo and family. It’s a lovely long beach with good sand – H got to paddle and we got to build her a sand lamborghini!
We also revisited Polzeath with The Boy and Me gang. H and the boy both had a brilliant time together, sworn best friends for life (I think!). They’re very close in age, and it was nice to have H have a friend while on holiday who did several things with us. She’s never had that before. I’m grateful we kitted H out in Decathlon before leaving as she had grown out of all her bodyboarding wear!
We revisited Hidden Valley Discovery Park which wasn’t as magical the second time (for me). H loved it again and this year I took a step back and let her find and solve more clues which she loved. We finished all three trails too.
The main difference to last year was the outdoor parts have new clues. Inside is the same, though still as hard. Although we did use our phones a lot to remember things (especially on Moriarty’s Missions). It meant we got through it all way too quickly. It’s still a fun day out, but I think to visit there again there would need to be changes inside the house too.
We drove along the coast a bit to Perranporth which is a huge beach with golden sand. It was nice to travel out a bit further and discover new places. I feel like we’ve somewhere we’d like to stay next year if we can get a good price.
We seemed to luck out with the weather too when we visited the beach, apart from on Wednesday when it poured down. Somehow we ended up lost on Dartmoor and eventually gave up on everything we tried (some caves, Bodmin Jail, as they were full and we were turned away), and headed for the Bodmin & Wenford Railway which was fun. We had a whole compartment to ourselves so pretended we were on our way to Hogwarts!
Our week flew by, and by the time Saturday came we felt like we could spend another week in Cornwall. Next year we want to drive around several parts of it if we can get organised enough! We definitely want to head back to Lizard. We stayed there three years ago as there are lots of places around there we haven’t visited yet.
On our way out of Cornwall we popped back to Tintagel. It’s really close to Coombe Mill, the weather was good, and the views even better. There’s a lot to do there, so we went back to a part we missed last year. I think that only leaves the beach area we haven’t explored yet… I’ll save that for next year!
