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Published: September 30th 2022
We've been longing to go abroad and do that beach holiday somewhere in Europe but decide with having a 5-month-old it will be easier to stay closer to home. We want a beach holiday in England and so decide Cornwall to be the best place to visit, as we are pretty sure we'd manage a beach day or two even if it rains the whole time, as Cornwall is known for its mild climate and stunning beaches. It's the start of the school summer holidays and so accommodation prices triple and Cornwall is an expensive place to visit at this time of year. We also have the dilemma of my small Volkswagen Golf trying to fit the five of us with all the baby stuff, so we reserve a 7-seater people carrier. We manage to reserve a small caravan for 10 nights and it's at a town I've only driven through before, so I am happy at the opportunity to explore somewhere new. I've been very fortunate and can say that I have seen pretty much most of Cornwall.
A couple of days before our holiday the car hire call me to say they do not have the vehicle in
that we need. I make it very clear that I had booked well in advance and need to have a 7 seater car due to the fact we were a family of 5 and will need lots of space because we are taking all the baby stuff with us (e.g., travel cot, pushchair etc.) Also, Fiona's mum is going to join us for part of the holiday so there will be 6 of us at times. The car hire come back to us and offer us an eight-seater car which is even bigger than what we requested without extra charge, result.
I bribe everyone into getting up early by offering to stop off halfway to Cornwall at an American diner. We leave just after 7am and so in a good place to stop off at the diner for breakfast. Our experience at the American diner called
Route 303 is not great. The staff seem abrupt and overworked, and the food is definitely way overpriced. Also, the waitress refused to take a group photo of us about to have breakfast because she was too busy, I mean literally it's a 5 second ask to quickly take one photo. You bet
we didn't pay a tip. Next time, I'll suggest we go for
Mcdonald's for breakfast as I'll probably pay half of what I just paid and we'll have breakfast ready to eat in minutes. The breakfast trip at
Route 303 added almost a couple of hours to our journey time, which is already 3 and half hours.
We arrive in Looe a couple of hours before we can check-in, so we decide to stop off in the town since we are driving through to get to our caravan site. I am excited to finally see this beautiful town, as I feel I have been fortunate enough to visit most popular parts of Cornwall and this is another location to tick-off. This seaside town attracts many visitors due to retaining a working fishing port. The estuary is surrounded by restaurants and shops selling fresh sea food. If you are into walking, there is the
South West Coast Path that runs through the town and offers the chance to see stunning countryside, rivers and sea views. The town also has a beautiful sandy beach. We enjoy walking around working out places to park our car, how to get to the beach
and just looking around the shops. We grab some lunch at
Pier One and enjoy sitting outside in the sunshine, whilst watching out for the hungry and noisy seagulls. Afterwards, we find a shop selling buckets and crab lines and decide to go to the quayside to do some crabbing. We unfortunately do not have any success with catching crabs as the area is heavily populated with everyone else trying to catch crabs.
Once we are able to check-in, we get the keys to our caravan to unpack and settle in. The caravan is smaller than I had realized and with Jovie's stuff we find ourselves quite cosy, but the good news is we can swing a cat, if we need to, so I am not going to complain but it is a little disappointing given I had spent quite a bit of money; I guess this is the price you pay for visiting Cornwall in peak season.
Our next day in Looe we spend all day on
East Looe Beach, enjoying the warm sunny weather and just relaxing and feeling like we are on holiday. I break the day up with hiring a double Kayak with my
stepdaughter which is good fun.
The following day the weather was looking a bit hit and miss, so I suggest we visit Polperro, a nearby fishing village. Polperro and Looe are extremely close to each other, and we are even closer as our caravan site is outside of Looe. I've visited Polperro once before and know Fiona will love this quaint little fishing village. Trying to park in the harbour is tricky due to narrow roads, so we park at this fairly large car park just outside of the village where you can either do a 10-minute scenic walk to the harbour front or catch a small tram bus (I think this may only be available during the peak season).
Since we have the pushchair, we take the 10-minute walk, pushing a heavy-eyed Jovie who is not giving in for her nap time. The lovely thing about this walk is you past small random shops selling things such as paintings, pottery, jewellery etc. The great thing about this little fishing port are the little shops open for visitors. This village heavily relies on tourism as much as its working fishing port.
We enjoy walks around Polperro, before
the rain comes down and it comes down heavily. We luckily seek refuge at
The Leeward Lounge Cafe for hot drinks to warm up, as we wait for the rain to stop. Afterwards, we stroll around looking in shops before we spend our afternoon back at the caravan.
Our evening takes us out of Cornwall to Devon as we drive to collect Fiona's mum from nearby Plymouth, as this is the closest location her coach will drop her off. The evening is pretty bad with heavy rain and strong winds, which continues all throughout the night. We learn that there was a cyclone out at sea, which explains the strong winds. Being in a caravan is not somewhere you want to be when there is a cyclone, but it was far less scary than my tent experience in
Belgium.
The next day we decide to go out and do some indoor activities given the weather forecast is rain for majority of the day. My best friend, Sally, who I have known since I was 2 years old now lives in Cornwall and so we agree to meet with her as she's not working. We agree to meet near
where Sally lives and do some activities nearby. We first visit
Bodmin's Keep - Cornwall's Army Museum. This keep is over 160 years old and the historic home of the Cornish (people from Cornwall) army. It is also the former headquarters of the Duke of Cornwall which now houses three hundred years of military history. We find it interesting viewing the collection items, some 12,000 items in fact, as well as stories of battles. There are also military props, which we have fun dressing up for photos.
Next, we visit to see the famous
Bodmin Jail. The queue is quite long so perhaps we should have visited the jail first.
Bodmin Jail is quite well known because of its dark history. There were 55 executions that took place here for crimes such as rape, murder and stealing. Most of the executions were viewed by the public and thousands would travel specially to witness the hangings. Eight of these prisoners to be executed were women. Reading the stories of some of the crimes that the prisoners did were very minor for today's society. Some stories were sad, questionable and sexist: It seems that men were imprisoned for homosexuality, but woman
didn't because it was deemed woman wouldn't usually consider same-sex sexual activity; A lady killed her baby because she had no place for it to live or money to be able to provide for it; whilst another lady was thrown into jail for her ability to turn into an animal. I've taken some photos of the stories and added to this blog, if you are curious to read further.
Also, they are currently redeveloping part of the jail into a luxury hotel, so I'd like to come back some day and experience a hotel night stay. Sally told me she did a ghost tour once at the jail with a banquet, which sounded really interesting. Apparently, the tour takes you to some parts of the jail that is not open to the public as you walk around till night-time.
For dinner, we visit this nearby pub called the
Lanivet Inn. The food is delicious and reasonable priced for this traditional country pub, and I would highly recommend a visit.
The following day the weather was looking a bit miserable, so we decide to do another outing. I suggest we head to Charlestown first and then further down
to Mevagissey. When we arrive in Charlestown, we are fortunate to find a parking space in what appears to be a small car park. Charlestown is a popular Cornish location for its harbour. It is the last open 18th century Georgian harbour in the UK and a UNESCO world heritage site.
Charlestown harbour is also famous for being a filming location for the TV series called Poldark and the tall ship called
Phoenix that also appears in the TV series is usually docked here as well. I've never visited Charlestown before and so I am pleased to be seeing another part of Cornwall that I've not been to.
Similar to Polperro, there are shops in Charlestown that appeal to tourists. We enjoy browsing the shops before stopping off at
Wreckers for a Cream Tea. For those not familiar with a Cream Tea, it is a pot of tea served with a scone that comes with clotted cream and jam. This is very typical to have in Cornwall because the Cornish clotted cream originates from here.
Fiona, her son Zak and I pay a visit the
Historic Port of Charlestown. We learn that the tall ship
Phoenix was in
the port yesterday but then set sail on a voyage to sea, and apparently it was super busy. It's a shame to miss seeing the
Phoenix but probably better to be visiting the harbour with it less crowded. Although we couldn't get close to the
Phoenix, we are able to visit the old port where it was once famous for exporting fine clay to all parts of the world. There is another old ship called the
Kajsamoor which we are able to hop onto and look around on. The
Kajsamoor was built back in 1939 in Norway and is a good example of what an early 20th century ship would have looked like.
The weather has improved greatly, and the sun is out now as you can feel the air warming up. After browsing a few more shops we take the car and drive down to Mevagissey. I am so happy to be visiting Mevagissey again, it is one of my favourite places in Cornwall. Fiona's mum visits Mevagissey regularly but it is Fiona's first time and I know she'll love it. This lively picturesque fishing village is beautiful and just has a great buzz to it. The working
harbour is a perfect place for crabbing and once I find a shop selling bacon, we find a nice spot and get our crab lines and bucket out. I spend time with Zak whilst the others browse the many shops this fishing village has to offer. We do extremely well with catching crabs, and I am also able to catch shrimps and small fish fry with a fishing net. Zak seems to be very interested and focused as we are doing well.
Later we stop off at a pub so Fiona's mum can spend some time visiting the owners of a B&B where she usually stays before getting fish and chips for dinner. Our time is short in Mevagissey given we arrived in the afternoon, but I've been many times before and imagine I'll be coming back again. There is a lot to do here in Mevagissey and I would highly recommend a visit or stay in this beautiful and lively fishing village.
The next couple of days we are blessed with beautiful sunny weather and so we spend time at
East Looe Beach again. It's nice to do some exploring but lovely to spend time on a
beautiful sandy beach with good weather and chill out. Jovie might be a bit too young to remember her first holiday, but she certainly isn't too young to not enjoy it, as she discovers a love for ice creams on the beach. We also have to take Fiona's mum back to Plymouth to get her coach back home, so staying in the area works perfectly.
Our last couple of days left and the weather today is a bit overcast, so we visit
The Monkey Sanctuary, which is nearby to Looe. The sanctuary was first opened in 1964 and is home to around 40 monkeys that have been rescued from abuse and neglect. We walk around the grounds of the sanctuary looking at the different species of monkeys, often seeing members of staff who care for the monkeys and find they are very informative with details of the monkey's past, the rehabilitation process and what their personalities traits are like. We learn the UK law allows the legal keeping of primates as pets, despite the lack of understanding with care standards, which leads to primates being kept in inadequate conditions. It is wonderful this sanctuary exists to be able to
care and provide rehabilitation for the monkeys, it is just awful to think what they may have gone through before getting rescued.
We enjoy a coffee and cake in the grounds of the sanctuary which overlook the sea and offers stunning views. We then walk through the wildlife gardens which eventually leads up to a children's play park where our visit comes to an end.
When we head back to Looe and visit
Talland Bay which has a small beach and is near to where we are staying. The roads leading down to this beach are extremely narrow and awkward to take an 8-seater car down, but I manage to find somewhere to park up and we visit the beach. Unfortunately, we arrive as the tide is coming in and this cute café called
Talland Bay Beach Café has just closed. We have plans all day tomorrow so agree if we ever come back that we would ensure to visit this place again at an early time in the day.
Our time in Looe falls on the same week of the
Looe Carnival and so we go back into town to watch the parade and donate some
money for the charities.
Our last fall day in Cornwall and I have booked us tickets to visit
Flambards a family friendly theme park. The last time I visited
Flambards I was a small boy. The park is almost down in the south of Cornwall and is over an hour and half away from where we are staying. I know the kids will love the theme park rides and Fiona might not be into rides, but they have this huge Victorian village and World War section museum that she will like and find interesting.
We visit the Victorian village, which gives you a step back in time experience of what life was like during the Victorian Britain era; with more than 50 realistic shops including a confectioners, toy shop, ironmongers, tobacconist etc., as well as a pub and home visit. Everything includes artefacts from the Victorian age. We unfortunately don't visit the World War section as the kids are getting fidgety.
In terms of the theme park rides, I must admit I am not a big fan of some of the rides that go high up or ones with sudden drops; however, because the kids love these
rides and want me to join in, I push myself. It was a too bad experience.
We spend our evening back in Looe where Sally comes to join us, and we have fish and chips from apparently the number 1 rated chippy called
Catch. I must admit the fish and chips are absolutely yummy.
It has been nice spending 10 nights in Cornwall and having enough time to really feel like we've been on holiday. We may not have gone abroad but we did definitely got some good beach weather at times and managed to find time to relax and have fun.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
On the Road
Glad to see you out exploring the world. Keep the blogs coming.