Sun and sand in Cornwall

Continuing with the 2020 trend of lockdown UK airbnb vacations, I spent 5 days around the August long weekend in the UK county of Cornwall. Cornwall is one of the few popular British tourist spots which I have visited only once and that too for a very short time. So I was quite excited about exploring it well this time. And the whole holiday turned out to be much better than I had imagined.

View of Polruan village

For one, the weather was expected to be cold and rainy the entire 5 days we were supposed to be there, and it turned out to be exactly the opposite! It was sunny and hot each of the days. Secondly, the airbnb we had booked had looked too good to be true. It was a lavish Cornish manor set in its own grounds and we had a whole guest suite to ourselves. I was actually expecting it to be a fake booking but it turned out to be real and fabulous. And both these happenings made the holiday a lot more fun than expected.

We did treks, went to beaches, stopped at quaint Cornish villages, ate at some awesome places with stunning views, watched some spectacular sunsets and generally had a fabulous time. No wonder a lot of my friends were also visiting there the few weeks around when I was there. Cornwall doesn't just have a lot of activities to do, but also very friendly people and is warmer than the rest of the UK. All adding to its charm.

Our itinerary during the trip was as follows:
Day 1 - Drive to Cornwall, stop at Dartmoor national park on the way, do a short trek at Belston near River Taw
Day 2 - Drive to Penzance (visit Kynance and Praa Sands beach) and enjoy sunset at Senner, Lands End
Day 3 - Beach hopping at Tregantle cove, Tregonhawke cove, visit Millbrook village and enjoy sunset near Downderry beach
Day 4 - Trip to Fowey village
Day 5 - Drive back to London, stop at the English Riviera 


Day 1 - Drive to Cornwall, stop at Dartmoor national park and trek at Belstone near River Taw

It is a long drive to Cornwall, and even though Google Map shows about 5 hours, given delays on long weekends, time to get out of London and much needed stops on the way, it generally ends up taking about 8 hours to get there. So we left early in the morning, renting a Virtuo car (by the way, they have a seamless digital rental process which is ahead of all other rentals. I have become a big fan of it!) and were off.

View of Dartmoor Park

I wanted to get out of London as soon as possible, so we got out before the weekend traffic started but then stopped on the way for a McDonalds breakfast in Slough itself 😆. Then we drove all the way West, aiming for the Dartmoor National Park where we were planing to have a late lunch and do an afternoon trek. The weather was sunny and gorgeous all along. We drove through Bristol but missed driving on the famous suspension bridge as it was closed. And after Bristol, as we left the motorways, the drive turned beautiful - we were driving on small roads in the countryside, it was green everywhere and looked bright and lovely. There was a lot of traffic everywhere and we had some delays, but it wasn't as bad as holiday traffic could have been.

Lunch at Tors

We reached the car park in the village of Belstone quite quickly, within 3 hours. It was a cute little village, and we walked in, past a small little tea house to the Tors restaurant. We had a very tasty burger lunch there, sitting outside on the benches and enjoying our view of the moors. There were quite some tourists around which surprised most of us as we hadn't done a proper holiday for a while. And didn't realise that everyone except us had already been out and about for a while.

Views on the trail

We then went on a short 1.5 hour walk around the River Taw. We went down the valley in front of the restaurant to River Taw, and then walked up and down the hill through the woods, all along the river. There were some nice bridges on the way, lot of trees around and it was all green and fresh everywhere. Very quickly, we got lost I think, so we couldn't really do the full walk. And somehow we made it back to our village, using logic to find the right path. Even though we didn't get to see all the sights on the walk, it was nice to stretch our feet in the open. My friends hadn't got out of London after lockdown yet, and this already felt like a good way to start venturing out.

First view of Cornwall

We then drove around the Dartmoor park, towards Devon, onto Cornwall. We drove past a beautiful viewpoint which offered us our first views of Cornwall. And just looking at it, we felt a difference, that we were entering a different place. The houses are painted white and look different from England houses. The roads also got narrower by now and it felt like we had left the city and fast life behind.

We reached our airbnb at Torpoint just before sundown at 730 pm. It was good to reach before dark as our place was out in the woods and would have been tough to find at night. We were staying at the Sconner House in the village of Polbathic near Torpoint. And the house was breath-taking.

It was a huge Cornish manor on a small hill-top, with grounds and fields all around. And we had the guest suite, with a huge living room, huge kitchen and lovely bedrooms looking out into the gardens. It had an interesting history of ownership, passing through major families till the current one who converted it back into a home. It almost felt like we were living the high class life there 😊. As it had been a long day, we just enjoyed exploring the house and called it an early night.


Day 2 - Drive to Penzance (Kynance and Praa Sands beach) and enjoy sunset at Senner, Lands End

We had not planned much for the trip, so we took every day as it came. Since our house was so amazing, we had very lazy starts to our days. We would just come in to the conservatory and sit there for sometime every morning. It was a room in the manor, filled with sofas and surrounded with glass all around, overlooking the gardens around. It used to be sunny and green outside and very hot inside. It felt perfect just to sit and read something there, or just laze around. And we did that every morning, spending a few hours there after breakfast. We also walked in the grounds and the gardens, enjoying the views of rolling hills covered by fields all around. One day when I was walking outside in the grounds, I even found an old abandoned tank nearby! I never got a chance to explore that again though. 

We had tried to book a few activities to do nearby, like kayaking, surfing, cycling etc.. But it turned out that everything was booked out by the time we started making the bookings, as everyone was visiting Cornwall in the summer! Apparently the restaurants were also fully booked out by now, and required early bookings to get a spot. So we spent most of our time visiting places nearby which didn't need a booking, though trying to avoid crowds as much as possible. We would wake up in the morning and decided what we would do during that day and then be off.

Kynance beach

Today was the day we drove the most and farthest. We first went to Kynance Beach which was about 2 hours away. There were green rolling hills all around and we drove lazily through them. On the way, there were lot of small picturesque white villages. We passed a very scenic town called Penruth on the way, which I liked. There was a lot of traffic all day though, on all the big and small roads. And the traffic never let things slow down. 

Kynance beach is supposed to have a turquoise colour to the water there. That day though when we reached the cove, the sun hid behind the clouds and the water didn't sparkle as much as we expected. Also, there were lot of crowds everywhere, kayaking, surfing and swimming, but especially at the cafe. So we just walked down to the beach and sat on the rocks for a bit, with our feet in the water. It felt nice to be there for some time but as we were looking for food, we drove to our next stop which was the Praa Sands beach, about 30 mins drive away.

Praa Sands beach (crowded)

Praa Sands beach was a good spot and we spent a long time there. There were lot of homes in white on the cliff there. The beach wasn't very long and there were lot of people there. The water was not too cold, so we went into the waves for a bit. The tide came in a bit too while we were there. After spending some time on the beach, we went to the Sands Bar and spent some time there.

Praa Sands beach (empty)

The food was tasty there, and it had an outside seating area with a gorgeous view of the beach and the sea beyond. After such a long time, it felt nice and normal to sit in a restaurant again like this. I was eating out after so many months, just the the feeling of being in the open at a place like this was enough to make me like the restaurant. Also by the time we finished our late lunch, the crowds had left and the beach looked a lot better than when we had come in, in the early afternoon.

Sunset at Lands End

Our next and last stop of the day the end of UK, the village of Senner at Lands End. We saw a glorious sunset there and walked on the beach and harbour for a bit. The reflections of the sun in the sand were stunning. By then it had got late and we started our drive back which was about 2 hours. Also the petrol in our car was about the finish and we were starting to get a bit anxious having heard earlier that places in Cornwall generally shut down early. We were already getting ready to being stuck somewhere and having to call for an emergency rescue! We somehow found a petrol pump open till 10 pm near the town of Penzance, and raced there before that time. Thankfully it was open and we were saved from the ordeal.

The drive back at night was also quite delightful as we could see the lights of the villages on the hills on the horizons. The moon was out at night and we could see all the constellations in the sky, given how far we were from city lights. From far, Penzance looked like a pretty harbour town with some impressive buildings on the beach. We also saw Newquay lights far off on the sea. Soon we were home and ready to retire in our comfortable accommodation. It had been a fun day of exploration, made even better because of good weather.


Day 3 - Beach hopping at Tregantle cove, Tregonhawke cove, lunch at Millbrook village and sunset at Downderry beach

This day, we decided to spend in and around our airbnb as it was a weekend and the typical far off Cornwall places would have been very crowded. Again, we had a late start to the day, sitting in the conservatory and enjoying the sunny views outside in morning. The rest of the day, we did beach hopping nearby, in the Whitsand Bay area. It is apparently a hidden gem of Cornwall, with a long coast, lined with cliffs, leading into some excellent beaches.

Holiday homes on the cliffs

The first place we went to was Tregantle cove, which was about 30 mins away from Tolbathic. The cove is named after the Tregantle fort on one of the cliffs. The drive was all along the coast, with steep cliffs all dropping below. I think this is the typical Cornish coast, right? There is a funny parking rule in this area, that you can park all along the road, as long as the tires do not touch the gravel. In fact, we also ran into a policeman who was checking each car's tyres and giving them parking tickets if they even touched a single gravel stone. After parking our car, we checked with him if we were in the clear, before getting out. 

Tregantle cove (from above)

From the parking, we walked all the way down a steep descent to the beach. It was quite a long one, with loads of people there. We sat on the sand in the sun for a bit, and then I went into the water and swam for an hour or so. The water was not deep till very far. It was also very calm with very less waves. The water was cool but not too cold. The perfect place for a long swim. Surprisingly, after 11 years in the UK, this was the first time I had ever swum in the sea within the UK, and that too with it being an island! Clearly, Cornwall was a more warm place than the rest of the country.

There were lot of paddle surfers and some jet skis in the water. I also saw some stalked jellyfish while swimming. The beach has a division in between where the rocks jut out outside. And when the tide comes in, the other beach becomes inaccessible. While we were still there, a car came and was announcing to people to shift into one of the beaches if they wanted to leave or be ready to be stuck on the other, till the tide went back. It felt quite dangerous honestly.

Tregonhawke cove (from above)

After that, we started looking for a place to have lunch and drove to Tregonhawke cove which again had a beach. There were a lot of holiday homes on the top of the mountain here. We walked 30 mins, all the way down the steep cliff but the cafe was closed by then. It was a beautiful location though and had a big beach too which had all but vanished in the tide by the time we went there.

Sunset at Downderry beach

After icecream and a short break at the cafe, we got back up and drove to the nearby town of Millbrook, hoping to find something to eat. It was a small village but had a co-op and an open pub to serve us a very late and well deserved lunch. We had lunch at the Devon and Cornwall pub (finally!), bought some much needed groceries and then drove on to find a good sunset.

I searched for a village on the coast and we started driving towards Downderry. Once there, it turned out they had a beautiful beachside restaurant - Inn on the Shore - and we plonked ourselves there for a few hours which we watched the sun go down over the beach. It had gotten cold outside, so we couldn't sit out but it was still wonderful to enjoy the sun going down, from the warm inside.

Sunset drive

And then we drove back with the full moon out in the sky. On the way, we saw some divine reflections of the moon on the sea as we drove by. It somehow always felt appealing driving in Cornwall, with all its small green hills, dotted with small villages, cows and other farm animals. I think Cornwall is the only warm and idyllic place you can find in the UK. The closest a place here comes to the Spanish or Italian coast.


Day 4 - Trip to Fowey village

Lunch at Fowey Hall Hotel

We had a very lazy day today and took a trip to a nearby village of Fowey which was supposed to be a picturesque Cornish village. It was a 45 mins drive away, and we reached there around lunchtime. We first went into the Fowey Hall hotel, which is built on a hill, with a 180 degree view of the Fowey river in the valley and a fabulous view across the river of Polruan village. It was a sunny and gorgeous day and we had a long lazy lunch, while enjoying the sun and the view.

Walking in the village

Then we walked down to the village, through the main street and spent some time on the waterfront. There were lot of coloured yachts in front and it felt like a bustling village centre. It was full of people walking around without a mask, which felt a bit unsafe. 

To avoid the crowds, we then started walking along the mountain towards the edge of the land, towards the St Catherine's castle. We first stopped at a small beach on the way and then walked in the woods to come to the edge of the land. There wasn't any real castle here, just remains of an old watch tower. But there were lot of impressive views from here, all around of the bay and the two villages. And I loved every minute of the time we spent there.

Panorama of the bay

We were back home early that day and were as usual looking for a place to eat, given most popular places were booked out for dinner as we were booking last minute. So we went out in the evening to our neighbourhood pub, The Halfway House which was the only one open and with available bookings. It was not great at all and the food was also just about okay. But we didn't mind as we got to eat!


Day 5 - Drive back to London, stop at the English Riviera towns

Beach at Torquay

And soon it was time for us to bid goodbye to our vacation. While driving back, we passed by the village of St Germans which was very near our accommodation, and it was a charming little village filled with stone houses and looking very ancient. It is sad we missed exploring it. Then we crossed the Tamar river, on the Plymouth bridge, crossing back into England. After that, most of the drive was through Devon. It wasn't a great day today as the weather was rainy and dark.

Waterfront at Torquay

While driving back, we decided to visit one of the 'English Riviera towns', from Torquay, Brixham, Babbacombe and Paignton. We picked on Torquay and walked around an hour on the waterfront there. We could see the whole bay and a couple of towns all around it. There was a small beach there, but it was not as impressive. 

The place looked just about ok, but not the Riviera I was expecting. When it was sunny, it felt a lot better though. I could also see a lot of old people and yachts all along the bay, so the place was clearly popular. After this stop, we headed back to London. On the way we stopped for lunch at La Champagna, near Buckland St Mary which we liked. There wasn't a lot of traffic today and getting into London was very easy.

And just like that, the trip was over. I loved our time in Cornwall, it turning out way better than I expected. The sun was hot, the waters were warm and I loved the beaches in the coves. And there was a chillness in the air which is very rare in UK. I can see myself going to Cornwall again for sure.

Maps

From London to Lands End

Around Polbathic