Cornwall is home to the classic British seaside holiday.  Some people have said that it’s cheaper to holiday abroad.  I don’t know where they’re buying their holidays but I’m sure that’s just not true.  There is also so much to explore here in the UK that it’s not necessary to jet off overseas for every holiday.  We are in the era of the staycation.

Cornwall is one of the mildest and sunniest regions of the UK, the weather is affected by the Gulf Stream.  This doesn’t mean it’s always warm and sunny though! This is Britain after all.

I spent a week with my fiance camping at Perran Sands, a Haven park near Perranporth.  The pitch cost less than £100 for 7 nights, great for those of us on a budget.  The park itself offered indoor and outdoor swimming pools, family activities such as mini-golf and evening entertainment.  We used the pools a few times but otherwise didn’t use the facilities that much.  We spent our days out and about exploring this region that neither of us had visited previously.  A tip for anyone visiting this park is to take alternative tent pegs, i.e. the plastic ones with spikes, rather than the simple metal ones that come with your tent.  Underneath the thin layer of grass is sand.  When it’s windy the wind lifts the tent and the tent pegs simply pull out of the ground.  We woke in the middle of the night to find the tent half collapsed on us one night!  Another day we’d been out all day and returned to find that the park ranger had hastily re-erected out tent as it had almost blown away!

Perranporth beach offers a huge expanse of soft sand but also this amazing rocky outcrops.  These create loads of opportunities for rock-pooling.  The beach was busy bearing in mind we weren’t travelling during the school holidays.  There’s a pub on the beach that has sand on the floor inside and tables out on the sand outside.  This gave it an awesome surfer feel.  Perfect for people like me who prefer to be barefoot.  There’s something about standing at the bar with no shoes on.

The bustling St Ives is a beautiful town with plenty to see and do.  We took a RIB ride out around the coast. I’ve done this before in Weymouth, but for my fiance it was his first time out on one of these high-speed inflatables.  I love being on the water and I can’t recommend this RIB rides enough.  We enjoyed fantastic weather so were able to make the most of the numerous ice cream vendors along the sea front too.

The winding back streets of St Ives are filled with little, tucked away B&Bs, pubs and art galleries.  We used the Park and Ride as we didn’t fancy trying to find somewhere to park in St Ives.  Although the Park and Ride is expensive I’m glad we chose this option as I think we would have struggled to find anywhere to park in the town and negotiating the narrow, busy roads wouldn’t have been fun.