the only thing they angle for in Clovelly is the tourists' dollars - did not see any real fishing going on in this Portofino of Cornwall >>

sadly you're right about the Clovelly of today, Pal, even if your geography is a bit wonky. but it was a working fishing village once, and those donkeys were real workers - they have been changed into land-rovers now. but locals still use sledges and mats for transportation of good and rubbish [like they so in Appledore where we once owned a house] and if you were to visit in the winter, you might find that things hadn't changed that much over the last 50 years or so.

BTW, there is a very nice drive which goes along the coast from Clovelly, and at the other end you'll find the lovely little village of Bucks Mills. OK it's not as big as Clovelly, it has no pub, and no facilities, but it really is VERY pretty.

Wow, I am nothing short of humbled by ALL of your responses.

Based on all of those suggestions, here is what I an thinking and welcome your advice. We drive from Bath to Port Isaac or Padstow via Clovelly (probably stop for lunch and a walk around).

We stay in either Port Isaac or Padstow for 2 nights.

Then we drive to Penzance and stay there for 3 nights and take day trips to St. Ives (I think someone said there was a train from Penzance to avoid the heavy traffic at St. Ives), Mousehole, St. Mawes, Lands End, etc.

NOW, my big question! Would it be better to drive right to Penzance from Bath and make St. Isaac and Padstow a driving day trip? I don't think the races at Newton will work as annhig is right - it should be done coming in or out of Cornwall. The horse race enthusiast will have to live with his disappointment!

After that it's time to leave Cornwall and then head back towards London and find somewhere to overnight before our flight from Heathrow to Toronto the following day.

Day trips to St Ives. Park at Lelant Saltings and get the train to St Ives. Don't even try to park in St Ives in July.

The car park at Lelant gets very full and trains are only 2 an hour I think but check at National Rail website.

Thanks Havana128.

Hilda_Bell, may I tag on to your thread and ask annhig a question?

I will be in Cornwall from June 29 to July 4th; we are hoping to fly from Cork to Bristol ( I wanted to fly Cork to Exeter, but there doesn't seem to be a direct flight) and then drive from Bristol to Cornwall and I seem to remember annhig, you said you drove to Bristol often for work? Are you able to tell me approximately how long it will take to drive from Bristol airport to St. Mawes? We are staying at Hotel Tresanton there.

Certainly, raincitygirl, you may tag onto this thread. More than enough room for two!!

Thank you!

Please share the links for where you decide to go

FYI, we parked at the Leisure Center in St. Ives around 9 am (?) in August and didn't have any problems (though it did fill up). It's all downhill into town and we caught a bus back. Another option to consider.

Agree with indy, we've used the leisure center car park, which is huge, and taken the shuttle down to the harbor area, very convenient and cheap, maybe 50p, possibly more now. Bus runs every 15 min. Just follow signs as you enter st ives. It's an easy walk down, steep walk back.

For those wanting to avoid parking hassles on a day trip to St Ives perhaps the local bus may be the solution - assuming it's still running. In the mid 80s travelling on a BritRail Pass stayed a couple of nights at Penzance; the first afternoon/early evening after arrival (it was late May) walked around to Mousehole and back, and the next day took a local (not a tour) bus which allowed a brief stop at Lands End for the obligatory photograph, and then a good couple of hours in St Ives between services continuing clockwise and completing the circuit back to Penzance.

Hi hilda,

a lot to think about here, forgive me if I miss something!

I've looked at your proposed route and Bath to Port Isaac via Clovelly is shown on google maps as taking just under 4 hours, [for Padstow allow another 30 mins or so] which would give you plenty of time to stop in Clovelly and/or divert via a number of other places, depending on what time you want to get to your final destination, remembering that it'll be light until quite late in July.

As I said upthread, other places I would suggest [though you won't be able to do them all] would be

Dunster [lovely castle and gardens plus well-preserved village which features in an episode of Poirot, though they have done the opposite of PalenQ and moved it to Cornwall]

Appledore [historic ship-building village in a very pretty spot on an estuary]

Hartland Point [stunning cliffs] and

Morwenstow [wreckers village where the victorian Vicar the Rev. Hawker used to rescue sailors and souls, as well as writing the cornish anthem Trelawney and inventing the Harvest Festival]

[of course there are loads more, but diverting via at least 2 of those would be possible in your time frame and would make a lovely day's drive through north Devon and Cornwall]

After your stay on the north coast, Penzance would make an excellent base for the rest of your time; you might even take in St. Ives en route, [using the excellent parking suggestions made by Indy-dad and others] and then drop down the north coast road [possibly via the historic mines on the coast at Bottallack or Geevor] and across the peninsular to Penzance.

I've looked at the bus schedules and there is a bus that does a circular route from Penzance to Land's end and back [no 1/1A] http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/devo...=1&redirect=no

but if you have a car, I think that even in July you'd do better to use it as the bus timetable is bit restrictive. Places you might like to see on a westward day's drive round the area would be Lamorna, Pothcurno [wireless telecomminations museum plus Minack Theatre and beach] Land's End [drive to Sennen and walk back would be my proposal] Sennen, and st. Just. [though thinking about it, I might do this the other way round, unless there is a matinee at the Minack, when the close the site to visitors]

going east, Marazion is the main place you'd want to see and if you take in St. Michael's mount and its gardens , [National Trust; boat out and walk back or vv depending on tides] that'll take most of the day.

then there are the walks you can do to Newlyn and Mousehole as farremog and others have suggested, a visit to the NT gardens at Trengwainton, [best in spring but still lovely in summer] and in Penzance itself, a walk around the sub-tropical gardens, a dip in the Jubillee tidal pool or in the sea, the outstanding Penlee Art gallery and museum etc. etc.

hopefully that's given you enough to think about for now!

raincitygirl, i haven't forgotten you, but I thought that a separate post might be easier to follow:

<<I will be in Cornwall from June 29 to July 4th; we are hoping to fly from Cork to Bristol ( I wanted to fly Cork to Exeter, but there doesn't seem to be a direct flight) and then drive from Bristol to Cornwall and I seem to remember annhig, you said you drove to Bristol often for work? Are you able to tell me approximately how long it will take to drive from Bristol airport to St. Mawes? We are staying at Hotel Tresanton there.>>

I checked on the driving time shown on google maps for Bristol Airport to St. Mawes, and got 3 hours 15 mins, which I think is a bit on the optimistic side especially if you are having to pick up a rental car, but it certainly shouldn't take longer than 4 hours max. i would approach via Truro and the King Harry Ferry which if you hit the timing right might take you past the Philligh Inn where you can have an excellent lunch. Alternatively, you could stop off at the Trelissick gardens [NT] just before the ferry and have lunch or tea, and a walk round the beautiful gardens.

you've picked an outstanding place to stay in the Tresanton - http://www.tresanton.com/

it's a top class place with a very professional but relaxed atmosphere and a great restaurant with a wonderful view. i'm sure they will have plenty of ideas for things you can do, but my tops would be a boat trip over to Falmouth, a walk/drive to St. Just in Roseland, and a trip [boat-trip and walk or drive] to St. Anthony's Head lighthouse.

feel free to ask me anything else you can think of!

Hilda - I thought you might be interested in the Minack theatre programme for July 2013:

http://www.minack.com/whatson.htm

even if you aren't sure about what they are showing when you are there, IMO it's worth going for the position and experience alone but tickets go quickly.

Thank you, thank you!! I appreciate the info about the bus to St. Ives but can see we would probably use the leisure car park. Maybe we'll take the bus to Land's End.

I like the thought of staying in Port Issac and, annhig, we will divert to Clovelly en route from Bath. I have heard of Appledore so that is on the itinerary as well. Then we will stay in Penzance for the remaining time. I had thought of visiting the Minack Theatre so will add that and hopefully we can get tickets.

Does anyone have suggestions for accommodation in St. Isaac and Penzance? We wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for a water view and would like to be able to walk into town. When I searched extensively through sites like tripadvisor the comments vary so much that it is hard to imagine people are talking about the same place!

Hilda - I will have to defer to others about accommodation recommendations - as you can imagine, we rarely if ever have the need to stay anywhere overnight in Cornwall.

that said, there was a recommendation on another thread for this place in Penzance:

http://www.chocolatehouse-penzance.co.uk/

in a great position, though it is self-catering.

if you look up Penzance on google maps, and then enter B&Bs in the search box, you'll find that there are a number of guest houses in the area around Alexandra Road and on the front - i think that's where I would start looking.

as for Port Isaac, we have eaten here [eons ago mind you, pre Doc Martin!] and they have parking, which in Port Isaac is a huge bonus:

http://www.theoldschoolhotel.co.uk/

the Slipway is the main hotel in the centre: [nice bar food]

http://www.portisaachotel.com/index.php

anywhere IN Port Isaac is walkable, [it's not very big!] and the places I have suggested in PZ are about a 10 min walk to the centre [Chapel Street].

We stayed at Glencree House and really enjoyed it. It's not posh, but Andrew was an excellent host and the breakfasts were outstanding. It's a block off the water on one side of town (so a slight walk to the restaurants, but manageable).

Check out the reviews -- all good.

http://www.glencreehouse.co.uk/

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_R...l_England.html

Ann, thank you so much for all that info, we are really looking forward to Cornwall and our stay at Hotel Tresanton, I'm glad you say it is a good place. Oh, and thanks for providing the link, I have been reading the "how to" on the Help forum as I don't know how to do it.

We will definitely stop and see the Trelissick gardens, we will be too late for lunch at the Philligh Inn (flight arrives into Bristol at noon) but will save it for another day.

The other thing I was going to ask you (and this may sound odd to some people), I think you talked about a donkey sanctuary one time, could you tell me where this is please as I am interested?

I am taking note of all the good information you gave Hilda and ideas from everyone else too, thank you all, and thank you Hilda. Loved your trip report indy_dad.
I may be back with more questions.

Have just booked two rooms at the Slipway in Port Isaac. It looks amazing so thanks for that, annhig. The Chocolate House cottage would have been perfect but is booked for the dates we want. I will telephone them in case there are cancellations. Glencree House looks worth checking out. Thanks indydad! I will also check out some more sites. In the meantime if anyone else has suggestions on Penzance accommodation it would be appreciated! Thank you all again! annhig you have to be the best Cornwall tourism ambassador!

The other thing I was going to ask you (and this may sound odd to some people), I think you talked about a donkey sanctuary one time, could you tell me where this is please as I am interested?>>

raincitygirl - the donkey sanctuary is in Sidmouth - east Devon.

http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/

a bit too far to do in a day trip from St. Mawes I'm afraid.

hilda - i should think that the Slipway is a good choice. good luck with finding somewhere in PZ that suits. if you like the look of the Slipway, the Abbey in PZ may appeal:

http://www.theabbeyonline.co.uk/The_...Our_Rooms.html

it's always had a good reputation and is in alistair sawdays which I find pretty reliable.

of course, I'm pleased to try my best to help people to get the most out of their visits to Cornwall. we want you to come back!