Considering Cornwall End of June - where to base
 

Farelocked flights SFO-LHR on UA for 40K miles plus tax with the thought of a possible 8 day holiday in Cornwall. There are a few extra days for London in/out. (Booked flights to/from Lisbon in the same time frame as another option but I will leave that for another thread) Have a few guide books and have perused some of the trip reports here. Would like suggestions of 1 or two bases from which to explore the area. Would consider a nice hotel, B&B, cottage, AirBnB with price less than 350 Pounds a night. Would prefer to be close to a town and near the ocean. Will have a car. Understand that we may decide not to go but the fares were excellent and we need a holiday.

I think it may be worth doing your own research as people like myself could post lots of suggestions based on what we have experienced in "normal" years.

As you are well aware this year is anything but normal and the chances are the suggestions will be booked up. Our hotels are currently closed to anything but essential travel and they reopen (if infection rates remain low) in mid May. By that time the only mass market short haul destination that Brits have access to is Portugal. Effectively, this summer will probably be a staycation year, in normal years Cornwall is mobbed. This year who knows?

Accommodation availability will be an issue.

I have a Calif to London trip booked for 3 - 10 July and I fully expect I'll end up cancelling. The situation is just too fluid and the rules could change multiple times between now and then. But if I was to do a trip at that time - at this late date I'd assume finding nice accommodations in Cornwall would be pretty difficult. A lot of Brits have discovered that 'staycations' (hate the word but it gets the point across ;) ) are more doable/practical now so scenic hot spots like Cornwall, the Lake District, etc have been booking up months in advance.

The G7 will be in Cornwall from 11 to 13 June. If your period coincides then may not be fun. Meanwhile the Brits will be enjoying freedom day from 21 June. So get your booking in early.

Yes forget about the G7.

if they are not there try the Carbis Bay , wonderful place.

<<Yes forget about the G7. if they are not there try the Carbis Bay , wonderful place.>>

Baboom, BC. That's exactly where it is. As well as the huge entourages of the delegations [well over a dozen] there are going to be 5000 extra coppers, massive numbers of journos, and then there are the demonstrators as well. Fortunately we don't live anywhere near there but i wouldn't be surprised to find that we will have problems getting around as well.

MJS - most accommodation is already gone for most of the season and at premium prices. Also as of this moment the USA is on the "amber list" of countries meaning that amongst other things you would be required to quarantine for 10 days "at home or in the place where you will be staying" plus taking 2 covid tests. Not sure I'd want to take the risk of booking accommodation only to find out you'd have to spend the entire time inside it unable to do anything. I'd love you to come and have a holiday in Cornwall but honestly I think that I'd start looking seriously at Portugal and leave Cornwall for another year.

Thank you all for your replies but I am aware of all your concerns and am quite up to date with the epidemiology of COVID both here at home and abroad. We will not go if we have to quarantine and we will not go if our destination is closed enough so it is not worthwhile. We will also not book anything we cannot cancel. We are finding quite bit of availability at the moment in Cornwall. They might not be the best places but there is significant availability both on booking.com and AirNBnB. So to return to my original question, any suggestions for one or two bases from which to explore Cornwall? Considering The Pig at Halyrn bay for one base

in addition, its about 50 days before we plan to land at LHR. By that time hopefully enough people of the US and UK will have been vaccinated either by needle or infection to markedly drop the new infection rate to a much safer situation

Your confidence may be right or wrong.

Anyway, lets talk about Cornwall. The counties main road the A30 is not a great road with a lot of junctions and at this time may be packed with lots of caravans, hence do not be surprised if you use it that it becomes blocked. Luckily many of the other roads are smaller and more wiggly and so they offer no real succor.

The A38 can also be used to enter the county and will often block up between Exeter and Plymouth or indeed Exeter and all parts north. Old hands at Cornwall visiting in August often travel in the hours of darkness.

Annhig may point out where I am over playing this story but at least with my words, you have been warned. Visitors come for a variety of reasons, the beaches which are wonderful, the food which is pretty good (don't start on scones, the story will never end) and the cider is better than the wine and the wine is fairly good. People also come to visit gardens which, because of the gulf stream can be wonderful. All this means that there are artists around and galleries. Pasties are another subject dear to all.

I would start looking for a base between St Ives, Mousehole and the Lizard possibly as far east as Truro. Slow driving and taking the train may be the best solution to get to some of the harder places. So I would not drive to St Ives, I would drive to a nearby station and catch the train in as the parking in town is "crazy".

Your second base needs to be east either on the north or south coast and again depends on your wants and needs. If surfing Newquay is a bit of a Mecca and the surfers ensure the whole town is high. I often visit the area around Fowey but after a bit yet another cove begins to bore.

So layout your planned visits and interests on a map and come back and talk about where to stay to visit List 1 or List 2.


In terms of time for journeys, I normally use Google times and add 50% for Cornwall. 2 years ago my sister took 12 hours to get from Heathrow to Liskeard which Google bravely thought would be 4 hours.

Mmmm....forget Carbis Bay, G7 or not.

they appear to have gone upmarket since we visited, the rooms are £1200 a night. Not seen that rate since our last visit to The Turks & Caicos!

In all honesty , you could just simply key in the area around Mylor or Helton into Air BnB and see what comes up. Just be prepared to hunker down and enjoy what’s on your doorstep, we haven’t been to Cornwall in summer for 4 years, Ann will know much better what the current or coming transport situation is like but usually the transport network is nowhere up to coping with the amount of visitors.

I wouldn’t start with what you want but rather what’s left and if it looks OK just book it. At least you won’t be travelling with a dog which complicates matters even further and lead us to buy a holiday house. Just so sick of being offered dog kennels to rent on Air BnB when you tick that infamous “pets allowed” box.

There is much to do at both those locations, we think The gardens at Heligan , Trebah and Trelissick are world class for their context and planting. Heligan is just magical with 10 ft high gunnera and a secret beach at the bottom. We also love Restronguet passage and its walks.

I’m also going to take a flier and say that by the time you travel I think the U.K./US will have a reciprocal agreement in place for travellers with some sort of Covid passport. Just allowing Portugal on our green list isn’t going to work and the National Infection rates per head in the US are low.

But as ever who knows ?

Heligan, lost gardens of. Are great fun. If going on a nice day get there early as the Cpark fills up fast and you find yourself at the bottom of a muddy field.

another reason to buy a Volvo !

<<Heligan, lost gardens of. Are great fun. If going on a nice day get there early as the Cpark fills up fast and you find yourself at the bottom of a muddy field.>>

not sure when you last visited Bilbo but IME said field has been greatly improved and if it's that bad then really you'd be wasting your money going.

<<In all honesty , you could just simply key in the area around Mylor or Helton into Air BnB and see what comes up. Just be prepared to hunker down and enjoy what’s on your doorstep, we haven’t been to Cornwall in summer for 4 years, Ann will know much better what the current or coming transport situation is like but usually the transport network is nowhere up to coping with the amount of visitors. >>

Well having been the voice of doom first time round, I'm going to be rather more optimistic about travelling when you get here, bearing in mind that you will not be hitting any school holiday traffic. However I would strongly advise thinking about getting the train one way, not just to avoid the traffic, but also to enjoy one of the iconic railway journeys anywhere in the world, ie the stretch from Exeter to Penzance, with the parts around Dawlish and Plymouth being particularly spectacular. And whatever you do, do not drive in either direction on a Friday night or Saturday. BTW, i looked at flying but there don't seem to be any direct flights to Newquay from LHR at the moment but there are flights every two days [20, 22, 24 etc] on Easyjet from LGW and there are several car hire firms at Newquay.

As for where to stay, Falmouth is one of my favourite places and you could easily spend the whole time there and never run out of things to do. Someone, I've forgotten who, [I'll try to find it] wrote a TR about their stay in Falmouth in 2019 and had what sounded like great accommodation. There are loads of gardens in the vicinity, walks, and the little nooks and crannies of Falmouth and Penryn to explore and more restaurants than you can shake a stick at. In inclement weather [I hope you wouldn't get any] there is the National Maritime Museum, the Town Museum and Art Gallery, the Arts Centre which is always fun, [and has great films on too] and there are quite a few gardens that have galleries such as at Trelissick. And then there are the boat trips which you can take across to Flushing, or St Mawes [the starting point for a couple of great walks] or down the Helford, or up the Fal to Trelissick gardens or even as far as Truro. And Land's End should you be so inclined is only just over an hour away.

If you wanted to split your time you might consider Penzance which is an interesting place in its own right and say Port Isaac [made famous by the Doc Martin series] which is on the north coast above Padstow. Unless you stay only a few nights I would avoid Fowey [pronounced Foy] as though lovely it's hard work to drive into and out of and is best treated not as a base for touring but as a destination in its own right, using it for walking and getting the boat over to Polruan.

​​​​​​​Hope that helps!

Found it!

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-done-1655407/

Ann

there used to be a network of little foot passenger ferry boats which went of Falmouth to all the surrounding creeks ie pubs, Mylor, NT etc
not sure if they still run , was a great way to avoid traffic. We spent a week on Restronguet creek one July and travelled this way, the roads were insanely busy but in our little world we didn't know what was happening in the outside world.

We shall leave the Shepard home. Have late nights for tonight and the next few so will not be able to do much planning but thank you all for helping to narrow things down a bit. I am hopeful but not totally convinced we can do this holiday. Weather may also be an issue as we will want to stay outside as much as possible due to the airborne nature of COVID. Unfortunately I have not found long range UK forecasts to be particularly reliable. Will bring along some good books just in case. Falmouth sounds interesting. Our flight lands at 0655 on a Saturday and we are thinking about driving to somewhere in the Cotswolds to spend the day and take an early night. Move onto Cornwall on Sunday.

After a long night flight, different country, LHS of road, stick shift. Driving on first day.

Can you guess the advice? :-)

Certainly there are local lovely places to LHR, Windsor for example which is easy to bus to.

<<there used to be a network of little foot passenger ferry boats which went of Falmouth to all the surrounding creeks ie pubs, Mylor, NT etc
not sure if they still run , was a great way to avoid traffic. We spent a week on Restronguet creek one July and travelled this way, the roads were insanely busy but in our little world we didn't know what was happening in the outside world.>>

mmm - not sure, BC. if they are still running I haven't heard of them, and I couldn't find them on line. There are some water taxis which might be useful to get to Restronget and Mylor but I don't think that there are any little ferries of the type you describe, apart from the one that goes from St Mawes to Place and is the start/end of the walk out to St Anthony's lighthouse which is one of the walks I referred to. They sound like a great idea though!

mjs - i'm with bilbo here. Enjoy a day in Windsor or wherever and drive down to Cornwall on Sunday.

Turns out that Airbnb doesn't work for us due to limited late cancelation protocols. Managed to book what appears to be a decent hotel in Falmouth that we can cancel last minute. Appears to be some concern over the B 167.2 version of COVID in the UK with an opinion piece in the BMJ suggesting that delaying Uk opening might be prudent. Might be a race between vaccination and this new COVID virus and our possible visit to the UK.

After the Indian variant it looks like the Yorkshire variant is on the way, I'd take some confidence in the fact that the UK has more people with first jabs in just about anywhere, some of the highest vaccine take-up in the world, roughly 50% of all the virus rna testing in the world and the 12 week delay between dose 1 and 2 is now recommended for countries without enough vaccine. You're coming somewhere relatively safe.

Mind my asking what the name of the hotel is, mjs? [It's ok, I won't come and try to find you, it's just out of curiosity!]

As for safety I echo what bilbo says, especially here in Cornwall. You might also like to know that Cornwall is very popular with home-based tourists at the moment, so much so that when I phoned a local pub just now to try to book Sunday lunch for tomorrow I had trouble getting a table at my first choice.

Booked the Tudor Court Guest house on 55 Melvill Rd. Was not a lot of availability for anything that looked decent in Cornwall. We never travel during the summer normally.
Prefer April through May or September through November for most of the northern Hemisphere. We often travel through London so visiting Cornwall at another time is starting to look more attractive. We would prefer to spend most of our time outdoors considering COVID. The weather in the UK may not allow us to do that but it looks like there are plenty of things to do indoors in Cornwall if necessary. I do have a good supply of N95 masks (your FFP2) so maybe things will workout.

Sounds great , you did well to get anything. Will you have a car?

Weather - it is what it is. The reason the U.K. is so green is well you know....

Cornwall probably has the best weather in the U.K.

I don't know the Tudor Court more than to drive past it but the position is a very good one. You will be able to walk down to the beach on one side, and the town on the other and you are right by Gyllingvase gardens which are lovely and offer another way to get to the road that runs along the edge of the sea and down to the beach. If it's open it has a pretty good restaurant in side the Princess Pavillions. It looks as if it's shut at the moment but it might be open by the time you arrive.

There is a very good restaurant down on the beach - the Gylly Beach cafe - https://www.gyllybeach.com plus the nearby hotels all have restaurants where you can book tables which you might prefer. We've also eaten well at the restaurants near the Maritime museum which is just at the bottom of the road where you are staying on the town side. You won't be short of choices. As for indoor activities as well as the Maritime museum you might enjoy the Falmouth Art Gallery down on the Moor, [both already open] and there are lots of private galleries around which could be interesting. Further afield the Penlee Gallery in Penzance is stunning and there is plenty to see there too. You might also be thinking about the Eden Project but it does tend to get busy in bad weather though lots of the outside is interesting too. Still it's big enough for most crowds. With the time you've got you'd be unlucky to run out of things to do.

<<Cornwall probably has the best weather in the U.K.>>

BC - loathe though I am to disagree with you, having lived in Kent, no it doesn't. I'd agree it has the best climate though, but that's something different.

FFP2.... you'll find everyone with cotton ones

Still watching to see if we are going or not. Booked hotels in Lisbon and Porto if Portugal opens up. Also considering flying through LHR to Chania or possibly NCE or CDG as alternatives since Greece and France appear to be opening up

Well Englands is out. Portugal just opened up. Guess I will leave Cornwall for another time

Well thanks for letting us know. I hope the info here will come in useful sometime, mjs.

Have fun in Portugal.

So sorry to hear that, this year’s planning horizons are measured in hours not months !

I just wanted to thank everyone for your help. All your input will be useful in the future when I plan again for Cornwall. Will book accommodations well in advance next time.
Planning for Portugal has become a ordeal. Lisbon has become quarantined for every weekend due to an increase in the Delta strain. This may not affect us but I have only seen news reports without anything official. Considering skipping Lisbon ( although flying in/out )and making our trip one of Porto and the Douro plus the Algarve or possibly Bilbao, San Sebastian plus Porto.

no probs, mjs. I hope that you can get your Portugal trip sorted without too many more problems. You may be happier with your choice when I tell you that since the G7, our numbers in the places where it was based, like St Ives and Falmouth, have gone through the roof and are now some of the worst in England if not the UK.

Not quite the legacy we were hoping for.

Towns are now heaving, Looe is very packed with tourists

<<Towns are now heaving, Looe is very packed with tourists>>

Exactly why we don't go anywhere at the moment.

​​​​​​​Anyway Looe is a loooong way from here - at least an hour in the car!

Follow up
 

I should probably make another post for this but just wanted to let everyone know that we altered our plans again due to the shutdown of Lisbon last weekend. Flew SFO-FRA-LIS on the 25th than took TAP to Bilbao. Arrived 2300 and spent night at hotel Ercilla on a Marriott free night. Toured the Guggenheim with lunch at their lovely Bistro. Late checkout than returned to airport to pick up our car at Sixt rental. Turned out renting through TAP with Sixt was about 40% cheaper than going via Auto by Europe. Upgraded for free from a Mercedes A class to a Audi 4 station wagon (an estate to you brits). Was offered an S Class but declined as we both drive Audis at home. Drove to San Sebastián. Found that at least in this part of Spain you can pay with cash at the tolls. Also found Garmin pointing out all the speed cameras that Google ignores. Arrived at the Maria Christina hotel which is quite nice. Had
pinchos for dinner. Spending the 27- 28-29-30-1- some of 2 here. One day to explore the town. One day to explore between San Sebastián and Bilbao including Guernica. One day for the Pyrenees if someone has a sample itinerary. Alternatively possibly exploring the French costal towns nearby. Moving onto to Marquis Riscal hotel in Rioja for the second than returning to Bilbao for the night of the 3rd before flying to Lisbon on the morning of the 4th for 2 nights at the Barrio Alto hotel before leaving back home on the 6th. Now trying to get sleep via Lunesta

Breaking news Germany has banned flights from Portugal as of today. Fortunately we are in Spain. Now how to get home? Gotta call
UA as our return flight was from
lisbon

Reading this is a reality check for people like me who are still making plans to travel outside the USA in September...

<<Reading this is a reality check for people like me who are still making plans to travel outside the USA in September...>>

I agree LucieV. Here in the UK things seem to change on a daily basis and often on the dodgiest of grounds, eg the recent decision to retain restrictions for travellers from France which appear to be based on data from the island of Reunion, 6000 miles away.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rantine-change

So a follow up since we are now home. After hearing about the new German travel ban I called United Airlines who were of no help in interpreting the new travel restrictions on Portugal, which was now an area of variant of concern. An Internet search did not help much. United offered to fly us home via our scheduled flight via MUC if we could get ourselves there or fly us out of Lisbon via EWR to SFO. An alternative would be to fly us out of Bilbao with a 1-2 hour connection in MUC with our original flight back to SFO for an extra $570 each. We decided to take the last option for several reasons. First, although fully vaccinated we preferred not take any more risks with COVID by going to Lisbon for 1-2 days. Secondly a day in Lisbon would not be sufficient to explore the city and we would have to return at another date. Third, not having to fly to Lisbon gave us an extra full day of holiday as we would only be flying one day back to the US instead of on two separate days. Fourth, we had only paid $500 for RT SFO-LIS so the extra $380 RT LIS-Bil and $570 Bil-MUC was not onerous.
We enjoyed our stay in San Sebastian at the Maria Christina which was perfectly situated near the old town with underground parking below. Reasonably priced for the quality although rates doubled on July 1 when we departed. Treated ourselves to dinner one night at Arzak. Drove the cost road to Bilbao with a seafood lunch in Getaria. Visited Gazteluxgatxe but unfortunately the trail was closed. Spent a day driving through the Pyrenees. Spent a day driving up the French coastline. Had two excellent meals in Hondarribia. Best Pixtos Bar Sadara. and really interesting restaurant Gastroteka Danontzat. These last were recommendations from Nagori who ran the wine shop in the hotel.
Now we were faced with what to do with three extra days. We decided not to go to Rioja although the weather was best there because wine tasting would be the major activity and since I have to limit my alcohol intake 3 days of drinking did not sound sensible. The other options had us with driving two hours to Bordeaux or 4 hours to the Dordogne. Chatted with St Cirq who described lousy weather in her area. Weather reports were not good at either location. We decided on Bordeaux for the shorter drive with the thought that there more things to do in the city in the rain than in Dordogne countryside. I had spent 10 nights in the Dordogne a few years ago but my girlfriend had never been. I think the Dordogne needs more than a few days so going for short time now meant a return visit anyway. Easy drive ups to Bordeaux. Stayed at the Le Boutique hotel.Nice location. Staff Parked our car in the public lot next door. A pleasant hotel but no Maria Christina. Lots of outdoor restaurants and a booming social scene. Went to the wine museum which was not particularly helpful to me and killed my back as many of the exhibits were quite low. Nice restaurant on the 7th floor although a bit overpriced. Bought some hard cheeses in vacuum pack in a nice cheese shop we found. Bought some old Armangnac and some Normandy butter with salt crystals that my daughter likes. Froze the butter at the hotel and they gave us ice packs to keep the butter and cheese healthy for our tip back to Bilbao. Returned car at airport and took cab to the Catalonia Gran via Bilbao which had a very nice junior suite for cheap. Actually a very nice hotel. Spent the afternoon trying different Pintos bards. Flew back home via MUC the next day
.

mjs, you must be either very young or extraordinarily good-natured. Though I consider myself somebody who can roll with the punches, I don't think I've got what it takes to handle the amount of hassle you had to deal with.

(Based at SFO here also, btw....and really itching to fly across an ocean or two, but the more I read and hear about others' 2021 travel stories, the more l think I may need to wait a bit longer...)