Cornwall road trip 18-25 Aug 2019
My friend Heather drove all the way from Bulgaria to London after I left by plane Sofia one week ago. She picked up her American friend from the Airport in Sofia and they drove together through Europe all the way up to London. It took them a week. Then we met in London and left by her car to Cornwall. It took me a while to find the right direction while being guided by the GPS. In a first hour we’ve managed to moved 0 km ahead. Finally we managed to stop somewhere nice for a supper in the local countryside’s pub. Weve ordered some healthy scallops and unhealthy fish and chips.
This is the initial itinerary of our road trip in Cornwall which at some points we respected and others not.
We are set up for the trip to Cornwall. We arrived to Bude to Elements Guest House with a beautiful sea view on the stunning Cornish coast. http://www.elements-life.co.uk/
After such a nice full breakfast (juice, musli with yogurt and fruits, full English , croissant with jam and pain the chocolate and cappuccino) we went for a walk around the coast and left for the next destination towards St Ives. This was the location where my friend’s ex employee was living.
Before getting to St Ives we stopped by a lovely village of Boscastle. My friend Heather went to visit the museum of witchcraft and magic while I was waiting with Minnie Monkey and watching a stream of the river. It was such a beautiful picturesque landscape with the mountains, river and old made of stone village. It looked like a ferry-tile. Minnie has got her first doggies ice cream amongst the selection of Dirty sock and Carrot crunch. She was rewarded by doing nothing with the carrots crunch flavour. Apparently the dogs ice creams are much healthier than the humans ones. All organic without any preservatives.
Eventual we arrived at Lelant where we met Thom at his family’s house, then he took us for a walk to the long dogs friendly beach Lelant https://images.app.goo.gl/ohryNwjtSAoExWc77
It was a really stunning place and great for long walks. After a couple of hours walk we went back to his mom’s house where he cooked for all of us including his lovely mom, a vegetable pasta. We had such an amazing dinner with a very tasty desert made of strawberries with yogurt and honey followed by the selection of cupcakes. We spent a nice evening chatting, learning about Cornwall and each other. We’ve been offered a cosy guest room where we went to sleep.
The next day in the morning we came back to this stunning beach of Lalent to sunbath and walk long distance along the sea coast.
The beach was sandy, long and dogs friendly. We took some long walks in a powerful and strong breeze. Probably this is the best and well recommended beach here in Cornwall if someone has a pet and loves long walks on the beach.
We moved on to have a supper somewhere else. We went to St Ives https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ives,_Cornwallto an upscale Beach restaurant http://www.stivesharbour.com/about-st-ives/with a great freshly cooked fish. We had a big supper consisting of scallops, mussels with bacon soup, followed by the fillet and whole sole fish with vegetables, salad and wedges (fries).
We had a little bit of an issue on the way back from the beach restaurant. We parked in the council car park at the St Ives museum which was pretty handy. Unfortunately we were fenced in and couldn’t get out. My friend decided to dress up and wear a make up hoping to find a nice guy who would help us out. Instead she found the old lady with a moustache who wasn’t very happy but kindly she unlock the gate and set us free for the next leg of our journey.
The distance between each location down in Cornwall is not big, max it takes 15 min up to half an hour to go from one to another location.
We went to Zennor https://images.app.goo.gl/W7QtuQ57aDSNnchK7 an incredible sea side with stunning views and long cliffs hikes. My friend is not a big fun of long walks, so I went for a short hike on my own and she rested in the best spot with her little dog Minnie Monkey Donkey.
Then in the evening we went to Portcurno beach https://images.app.goo.gl/uwSjBTbDUKpufT6e7 where dogs were not allowed. Likely after 7pm nobody would pay attention to the pets therefore we spent some time there.
We had a nice fish dinner at an award winning Emilie’s restaurant at Porthleven https://www.ameliesporthleven.co.uk/
We had some squids, mixed vegetables, Hake fish with veggies and strawberries with cream. Very delicious and healthy dinner. From the tables around many people were ordering some typical English food such as fish and chips or Italian pizzas ,...
It’s a good quality dogs friendly restaurant in the heart of the Porthleven with a marina’s view. Highly recommend. https://www.ameliesporthleven.co.uk/
The town looks like Bude therefore I though initially that we were back to Bude.
The waitress who served us spoke a very good English. My friend who owns the mind body company has offered her a job. The restaurant was by the little harbour with lovely view and vibe.
We stopped for a night at this sophisticated Penventon Park hotel in Redruth https://www.penventon.co.uk
The hotel is a dog friendly with a very comfortable high standard accommodation and breakfast. Probably the best breakfast you can find in this area with a lot of choices. I had some eggs royal, while my friend had some pancakes with fruit.
It’s getting much harder towards the bank holiday weekend (26th of Aug) to find a suite room. It’s also quite impossible to find a dog friendly beach as dogs are not allowed in most of the beaches in Cornwall between the Easter and October. But definitely the best beach spots are the dogs friendly, they are obviously wilder, less commercial, far away from the bars and restaurants. I don’t mind that, as I love the nature. Saying that, the beaches and the coast line are stunning but I’m concerned about the water. I’m considered to be a marmade but somehow since we’ve been in Cornwall for almost a week I haven’t managed so far to swim.
Those are nice beaches which I could recommend if you’re going to end up in Cornwall.
Sandy long beach near by Penventon Park Hotel
Mullion in Helston https://images.app.goo.gl/hdbjWvtRHnCYWFrC7very beautiful coast line walks, no access to the beach, it’s a rocky and stony beach. The hiking around the cost is stunning. We had a little argument here with my friend who left me because of the miss-understanding. Likely she came back to pick me up and we drove ahead to the next destination.
Kynance Cove - This is one of the most visited and spectacular coastlines in Cornwall.
It is situated on the Lizard peninsulaapproximately two miles (3 km) north of Lizard Point. The BBChas described Kynance Cove as "one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the South West" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynance_Cove
We could only overlook it. We didn’t manage to access the beach as it wasn’t a dog friendly. There were some controls so we couldn’t smuggle in our Minnie Monkey.
In Kuggar - there are two beaches: one for humans and the other one dogs friendly. It was ok but nothing special, I would say even if all the beaches on the cost of Cornwall are petty. This one is not must see at least in my opinion. https://images.app.goo.gl/zQsxzYv1PkrEHaGF6
Near Falmouth you find:
Maenporth-dogs not allowed https://images.app.goo.gl/bq7W1AdihUrkMbRRA
Porthluney bay - dogs friendly beach
We spent a night at Trelan gate house - home sweet home - beautiful immersed in the nature, family home. The cheapest £90 b&b and the most family like. This property is now on sale for £500 000. It’s a 5 bedroom house. Comparing to London’s prices is a bargain. It would be perfect for the yoga retreat centre. The owners who moved out of London 15 years ago, are moving to Spain - warm Andalusia. I couldn’t blame them for a choice. Even if Cornwall is such a beautiful part of the UK, the cold weather sucks. Additionally it’s more expensive than Spain. Spain has everything: the mountains, sea, olive, almond trees, and the heat!
The cost of accommodation (b&b) per night during the high season in August in Cornwall is from £90-£250. The dinner approx £20 per person one course meal.
Comparing to other destinations such as Eastern Europe, Central and South America where one night at B&B is often £10, full breakfast £5 and 3 courses meal £10. This makes the UK one of the most expensive destinations in the world. The weather is never guaranteed and there is nothing that special about this country. It was great to experience at least once Cornwall but definitely, the last holiday in the UK. There are such a beautiful other destination all over the wold with very limited infrastructure but definitely amazing landscape, climate and culture. Let’s explore the whole world and get to the most hidden places. Who knows where it is going to the the next trip....
Saying that the most important is who you travel with and how you get on with this person. It’s important to find a suitably traveling body as it happened in my case. I was lucky traveling with my friend Heather and her little Baby dog Minnie Monkey. We are a good troupe!
Thank you guys for sharing this experience with me and accepting me the way I am;)
The adventures: many...
The car’s key got stuck in the trunk and it was not easy to take it out. With someone’s assistance we managed to get it back otherwise we wouldn’t be able to go back home. ManyThanks to this generous person 🙏
Thank you Tony - the european customer service staff member to extend for us the time to return the car. Without this it would have costed my friend thousands of pounds switching into the mileage contract and considering each of 6000 miles she drove across Europe. She had a special deal on a monthly car hire which didn’t include the mileage. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get away with some damage done to the car and she’s been charge the insurance excess of 1100 on top of the £2700 car hire fee including the insurance. If she didn’t get the insurance (£600) then it would have costed her less to cover the damage. But you never know what worse could happen, therefore she was covered for a bigger damage just in case.
All ended up well and we’ve got back home safe but like speedy gonzales. In order to bring the car on new established time we had to make up an hour by driving like we were on the formula 1 race.
Well done to my Friend Heather for organising it all and being such a generous friend and inviting me on this amazing trip. We spent together a week in Bulgaria and a week in Cornwall. She traveled around Europe with her dog for a month. 🙏
