UK (again), Wales and Cornwall?
 

We took advantage of BAs fabulous 1/2price FF miles offer. We got 2 "world traveler plus" tickets for 75, 000 ff miles..plus 1100$ taxes and fees. Did not like the taxes, but I still think for World traveler PLUS it is not a bad deal.

We are going to spend 4 nights in London when we get there, then head out to Cornwall and Wales and maybe someplace else.?
We will be there 17 days and will get a car in Heathrow after our time in London.
It was going to be France, but my DH's grandmother was Welsh so he wants to go back.
We have been to N Wales, and a good bit of England.
We were in the Cotswolds last Ocotber and thought we would try for another great October!
Any and all input appreciated! :-)

Hi Judy,

sounds like a great idea.

unless you really want a fairly tedious drive, instead of hiring a car at LHR, get the train from Paddington and hire the car when you get to Truro, capital [and only] city of Cornwall. book the train early enough and with any luck you'll save enough to afford first class; I suggest getting a train with a dining car and having lunch on the train. the stretch of line between Exeter and Plymouth around Dawlish is particularly nice, as is the stretch west of Plymouth over the Tamar going across Brunel's bridge.

once you have seen your fill of Cornwall [where you could spend the whole of your holiday if you wanted to] I'd suggest making for North Devon, specifically the area around Bideford. i have a particularly soft spot for Appledore, but Lynton and Lynmouth are also lovely. Finally, it's a 1/2 day drive to south Wales - try the coast round Tenby, or possibly the Brecon Beacons. then you could return your car and get the train back, either from Cardiff, or if you wanted to end your tour in England, after a few days in Bristol.

do you know what part of Cornwall you want to see? do you like walking? gardens? galleries?
let me know what your interests are and I'll try to help a bit more.

Oh you are a dear annhig.
I just did the airfare, and I am just startig my quest.:-), I haven't even cracked open my Fodors guidebook, yikes!
BTW, I like almost everything, walking gardens, galleries, the whole thing.
Should we base ourselves in one place and do daytrips? Or look for sweet B&Bs.
Brecon Beacons and the coast to Wales are just the thing.

hi judy,

no problem - I really like sharing cornwall [and the southwest in general] with as many people as I can interest in it.

just a couple more Qs - how long are you thinking of staying in each place? [ie your total time in each of the three areas].

do you want hotels/B&Bs? to be in town or countryside?

personally, i prefer to be in a town so that there is something to do in the evening - the cinema, theatre, different bars and restaurants - but you may like the idea of being out in the wilds and waking up to the sound of crashing waves!

I like the town idea.
I liked when we stayed in Stowe and had a self catering. We would do day trips and in the evening would walk to some charming restaurants.
We have 17 days....4 days London (and theaters), 13 days to figure out. ;-)
I do want to do some castles in Wales...I love castles.

Annhig's suggestion of the train and car is a good one. Not sure which all car hire firms are in Truro -- but if that turns out to be an issue, you could take the train to Exeter and collect your car there.

W/ 13 days what I'd personally do is rent a cottage in a largish village or town in Cornwall for a week and spend the other 6 days -- 5 in south Wales and one heading back towards LHR.

A cottage would certainly be nice, but I love staying at B&Bs, and for the most part in Cornwall our hosts couldn't have been more helpful.

For example, at Pendragon Country House in Davidstow the owner recommended a 4-mile coastal walk and then drove with us to leave our car at one end so we could hike to it from where he dropped us off at the other. At Boslinney Barn near Mevagissey our host directed us to a restaurant run by her friends, where we had the best meal of our entire vacation -- and we would never have found it without her. I love getting recommendations even from other people staying at B&Bs, and with the many layers of Cornwall it was a real plus.

Also, I had just five days and really felt I only scratched the surface of Cornwall. If I had a week or more, I would definitely stay in two locations and delve into the areas around each.

Oh, and if you're not a fan of Doc Martin, you probably will be by the time you finish planning! I never watched the show until I heard about it on blogs about Cornwall travel, and now I'm obsessed. In fact, I'm ashamed to say I took a detour to see the village where it's filmed, and when we discovered they were filming that day I almost didn't want to leave....

Judy - is that 13 days, or 13 nights?

anyway, if we're looking at towns, your best choices are

Fowey - a stunning situation on an estuary, and good for exploring the south east, but perhaps a bit limiting as you have to keep going up and down the same stretch of road.

Truro - county capital, most theatre/ cinema/gallery opportunities, and the most central for visiting almost anywhere in Cornwall,

Falmouth - a great place itself with plenty going on, but also lots of boat trip opportunities plus driving tours of west cornwall and the Lizard

Penzance - another terrific place to stay, especially if you want to explore the far west down to Land's End and southern part of the north coast, plus you can get the boat or helicopter to the Scillies from there.

St. Ives - VERY touristy in season, but still a lovely place with galleries, beaches, and good access to the north coast.

Padstow - very good centre for exploring the north coast plus a foodie paradise with more Rick Stein restaurants than you would have time to eat in.

Port Isaac - the Port Wenn of Doc Martin fame, VERY touristy in season, and out of it as well, I suspect. not a huge amount there and although it has charm, it's not big enough as a centre, though it might do for a one night stand.

re car hire, you can definitely rent through Hertz from the railway station in Truro; there are others like enterprise and thrifty, as well as Avis, but they are not at the station, though i suppose they might deliver.

to get the best combination of interesting centres plus day trip opportunities, I might go for 3 nights in Falmouth, 3 in St. Ives, then drive up the coast and stay somewhere in North Devon for a night or two, [say Appledore, but Hartland and Bideford are also nice] tour the north devon coast/exmoor on the way to Wales, then spend the rest of your time in Wales. if you reserved two nights for this part of your trip, you wouldn't need to book and could just stop where the spirit lead you.

Wow great advice all.

Janisj, we have a 3:00pm flight from LHR, so we will probably drive out that morning from Wales.

Abbydog, I have to get some books on Cornwall. I have a big generic Lonely Planet UK book, but I need a more specific book with more detail.

Annhig, we have 13 nights left to do stuff.
Thanks for the wonderful list of towns and the pluses and minuses of each. :-)

judyrem - you might like to look at www.visitcornwall.com to help you get some more ideas of what you want to see.

Thanks annhig, I put it in my favorites.
I just got my Wales and England book out and have started my research.
I was wrong about the nights is 12 niights left to tour.

mmm - 12 nights is cutting it fine for staying in 4 places. but i still like the idea of 3,3,2,4!

I am thinking of St Ives or Penzance, Falmouth, Tenby and Chepstow then head back to LHR from Chepstow.
Annhig, what say you?

I would stay in St. Mawes over Falmouth. Falmouth is certainly more bustling, but I don't think it's particularly charming. If you base in St Mawes, you have wonderful walking and Falmouth is an easy ferry ride over. I love Padstow/Rock area and the Rick Stein restaurants are great.

We loved St. Ives and Fowey both. We stayed at Hotel Tresanton in St. Mawes, and the Garrick in St. Ives (neither recently of course).

Are you a Daphne duMaurier fan? I bought an out of print book by her called "Vanishing Cornwall" in Fowey.

If you're enchanted with King Arthur be sure to see Tintagel.

judy..

while I think Port Isaac and Polzeath are delightful little places to visit, my heart is in Boscastle.

Only a few miles up the little coast road (NOT the main road!) from Tintagel, past the glorious and secret St Nectan's Glen (google it) you then come to Boscastle. Oh, I love this village. For many summers I rented a large house down at the bottom of the village, well like 200 steep steps up. But it was wonderful, and my kids had total freedom, getting croissants from the bakery in the early morning, fishing for crabs and small fish on the breakwater in the evenings, roaming all over the hills and cliff paths at all times (yes, perhaps I was an unfit mother but they had fun, I had peace, and they are all still alive!).

Google images 'Boscastle' and then defy me by not visiting it when you are in Cornwall! Bude is a nice little town on the north Cornwall coast, but you can skip that really. Boscastle, no. If you are into English literature, check out this Thomas Hardy link...

http://www.brycchancarey.com/places/cornwall/hardy1.htm

I could also go on about the South Devon coastal villages like Salcombe, Hope COve, Thurlestone, Bantham, and you HAVE to go to Bigbury-on-Sea, and take the sea tractor across to Burgh Island. I have also spent many summers down in that part of the country and it's wonderful too.

St Nectan's Glen - worth an hour or two of your time...


http://www.tintagelweb.co.uk/St%20Nectan's%20Glen.htm

And I see it now has 15 reviews on tripadvisor and is voted no 27 of 223 attractions in Cornwall. I'm disappointed so many people have 'discovered' this magical and mystical place in the last year or so.

http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/nor.../boscastle.htm

http://www.visitboscastleandtintagel.com/

http://www.thisisnorthcornwall.com/boscastle.html

Hi there,
What part of Wales is DH Grandmother from?

Cardiff is a great city and well worth a visit. There is a large castle smack bang in the centre.
The National Museum of Wales is also in the centre and if you like art galleries, then it is well worth a visit.(Entry Free)

Hang on to the car when you leave Cardiff, you will find it far easier if you avoid public transport.

Tenby is around 100 miles West from Cardiff,should be quiet in October, the surrounding area is beautiful. Don't just see Tenby. See Laugharne, St Davids, Manorbier area, Pembrokeshire Natiomnal part is gorgeous.

Chepstow is South East Wales, small castle here fairly close to Cardiff and Very close to the Severn Bridge (M4), which incidently has a Toll of £5.60 for a car to enter Wales. Free to get out. (Cash only)
You could of course enter Wales further North, if your heading for Brecon that may also be an option.

(Just for information, Chepstow is port of call for the National express bus that heads from Cardiff to Heathrow.)

Good luck planning

Muck

I am thinking of St Ives or Penzance, Falmouth, Tenby and Chepstow then head back to LHR from Chepstow.
Annhig, what say you?>>

sounds great to me, though I think that I would try to squeeze a night somehow between St. Ives and Tenby [though I'm not sure what order you will be doing them? - Falmouth, St. Ives, Chepstow, Tenby seems logical, but it's a long way to london from Tenby in one go]

i think i would go for St. ives over Penzance only because you have chosen Falmouth; which I do not agree has less charm than St. Mawes, though it is less "picture postbox". There is far less to do there, and I'm not sure about the walking unless you mean the trip to St. Anthony's Head via Place, which you can do anyway from Falmouth. Yes the Hotel Tresanton is great, we've had the odd family meal there, but staying there is an arm and a leg, and you will get a great deal better value in Falmouth, IMHO. For example we stayed a night at the Greenbank in Falmouth for our anniversary and it was terrific - wonderful views and service.

From st. Ives you can do all the places that julia mentions, which again are great to visit, but not necessarily to stay in as a "mature" couple.

happy planning.

Salcombe rings a bell with me. We may have walked a bit of the Coastal Path there. It was a beautiful little spot.

We also popped in to Jamaica Inn (because of the book). There was a fierce wind that day and the sign was swinging madly. One could just imagine smugglers, etc.

Salcombe is indeed beautiful, but over-run by tourists in season. also, it's in Devon!

Jamaica Inn has always seemed a little forced to me, but it makes a reasonable lunch stop. the best place, IMHO, to get the feel of the wreckers is Morwenstow - see the church where the Rev. Hawker preached to the animals [yes, he was a little nutty] his hut on the cliff where he used to sit watching for ships that his parishioners would try to wreck, so he could rescue the living and bury the dead..a truly great man.

I have been out of town for a week, so I am just starting my in depth stuff.
Thanks so much for your input all....I ahve to get a Cornwall book.

I sat down with DH and we looked at the map and decided to do Cornwall and SW England next time.
We are going to concentrate on South Wales and Ludlow.
Ludlow first, maybe in a self catering, then Tenby, then Chepstow with a return to LHR.
My DH did not want to drive too very much.
We thought to day trips from these towns.... Caerphilly, Tintern Abbey, St Davids, Cardiff, Iron Gorge etc.

BTW Mucky, would another town in the Tenby area be a better base?

oh Judy, what a shame. Still, I'm glad to read that there'll be a next time.

good luck with your Wales planning.

Hi Judy,
Tenby should be fine, you can access the area quite easily from there. It's a lovely walled town, right on the harbour.
Also...
Check your map, for a small place called Solva.
One of my favourite places in West Wales.
Check out Cenarth, where they have the Coracle centre.(Coracle is a traditional welsh boat)
These places can be seen en route.

Caerphilly is fine for a day trip. It has a fabulous castle, http://www.castlewales.com/caerphil.html well worth the visit but not much else there really. I would stay in Cardiff and drive there for an afternoon. And whilst your there check out Castle Coch, (The red castle) It's quite close to Caerphilly. http://www.castlewales.com/coch.html

Muck

I will be back Annhig. :-)
I have it half planned already!

Mucky thanks for the info. Keep it coming!!!!
You really think we should stay in Cardiff!?
I think DH does not want to deal with the traffic..so it will be day trips from Chepstow and Tenby.

I have my trusty GIANT map and see a relatively decent route from Ludlow to Tenby. we will stop at a few places along/near the way. The Gold mines sound good and there are other sites I have highlighted.

Hi Judy,
No you don't have to stay in Cardiff.

BUT..

Just a suggestion which you can totally ignore if you like. :-)
I can recommend a hotel that is on the outskirts of Cardiff, easy access to the M4 West and East, A470 Caerphilly and Cardiff. It also has a good view of Castle Coch.

It's up to you of course...whatever you decide have a great time.

http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/cardiff

Muck

Thanks Mucky!

BTW, here is our self catering in Ludlow.



http://www.24millstreet.net/

Judy, that cottage looks lovely!

I'm sure you will love Ludlow. For 3 years 1994-1997 I lived 5 miles from Ludlow on the lower slopes of Clee Hill in a tiny hamlet called Whitton.

I spent a lot of time in Ludlow and also Tenbury Wells where the children started in school. It is a most beautiful part of England, even more so than the Cotswolds.

The views from the hills are out of this world. Where we lived we could see - on a clear day - 60 miles south to the Brecon Beacons and the peaks of Pen-y-Fan and Carn Dhu. To see the sun set behind them was something very special.

I loved living there. It was only some very unpleasant personal circumstances that forced me to move away. But one day I may well move back to south Shropshire.

I think so too julia_t! It is so interesting looking.
BTW, I remember you telling me you lived there once and you loved it. So, here we go! It looks wonderful.
I thought that basing ourselves there, we can do so much...Stokesay, Powis, Ironbridge so much to see.

We will do Cornwall and SW England next year.
I never tire of the UK.
I still buy my lotto tkts, so I can have a place in the UK..... in my dreams.
:-)

I'm glad that you're already planning for Cornwall, Judy.

Before i forget, let me tell you about the drive we did today [not our original plan, but the helicopter to Tresco broke down and our day-trip there to celebrate my mum's 80th birthday was cancelled, so we had to come up with a plan B].

From Penzance [which we left at about 10am] we drove west towards Land's End, but turned off before we got there to Porthcurno, to see the Minack Theatre, built in a stunning spot on the cliffs overlooking the beach. After an hour or so admiring the view and the gardens, we drove back down the road to the Telegraph Museum, reached through a 2nd WW bunker. [we didn't stop; the weather was too nice to want to be indoors].

We carried on round the coast [we missed out Lamorna and the Logan's rock as we'd been there before but they are both lovely and interesting], by-passing Land's End itself [the amusement park is not really something to interest an 80 year old] but heading to Sennen, where we could have parked on the cliff, but not in the village. You can easily walk from Sennen to Land's End and enjoy the fabulous views without the tackiness.

Then we drove slowly up the coast towards St. Ives, ending up at about 1pm at the Gurnard's Head hotel [the closest that Cornwall has to a gastro-pub, IMHO] on the way we by-passed the Geevor MIne [a tin mine which closed about 20 years ago; you can see the miners' changing rooms and gear, watch how they sorted the ore, and go down a 300 year old mine working], but did go down to Cape Cornwall following the road down from St. Just, a very quaint and increasingly interesting little town.

At the Gurnard's Head, we had a very good lunch - steamed sole with spinach, broccoli and steamed pots, salt beef with the creamiest mashed potatoes, carrots and beans, and smoked salmon with celeriac remoulade and soda bread. we could have had a set lunch for £16.50 but we'd taken mum out to donna last night and we still quite full! To drink we had [very strong] flat dry local cider, beer, and a shandy.

if we'd done all there was to do, and got out and walked along the coast, it could have taken all day to do this drive, rather than 3 hours.

To finish, we drove over the hills back to Penzance to buy some lobsters from the shell-fish processors at Newlyn - about 20 minutes - which gave us some wonderful views over St. Michael's Mount and the Bay.

BTW, the Gurnard's Head people run The Griffin at Felin Fach at Brecon. I've never been there, but I should think that it's pretty good if the 'Head is anything to go by.

Have a great time on your Ludlow/Wales trip!

Wow annhig, what a fabulous day.
I 'll do that next year!
The sole and all the food sounds yummy.
Sounds like you had good weather.

Judy - the weather was lovely - which made the cancellation of the trip to Tresco all the more gaulling and frustrating. I hope that what we managed to cobble together made up for the disappointment a bit.

it was a great drive, and brought home to me something that I had not really appreciated - actually the north and south coasts are very close together at that point, so whether you stay at St. Ives or Penzance, you can easily enjoy both in one day.