TravelCamping in Cornwall
Travel
November 17, 2022

Camping in Cornwall

Wow, what an adventure it was. There was some ups and downs but overall a fabulous break from the monotony of the school term. This holiday was on a budget due to our big holiday coming in October, so while the kids are still young and everything is an adventure we take advantage and go camping.

This year we took them to Cornwall an area of the country I had not been since a teenager, I had seen instagram posts from friends of mine and I wanted to feel like I wasn’t in England even though I was. We booked fairly last minute due to childcare arrangements but were able to find a basic campsite perfect for our needs as we knew we wouldn’t spend much time at the actually site.

We set off nice and early in the morning as we knew it was a long drive and we needed breaks. The journey itself was fairly easy and we got to stop off at the amazing Cheddar Gorge one of Britain’s most spectacular natural landmarks. We couldn’t stay too long though as we needed to get to the campsite and set up. 

The campsite was situated a 15 minute drive from St Ives which had some beautiful beaches and great fish and chips. However as it is a huge tourist destination parking was a nightmare, unless you arrived at the crack of dawn you will end up parking near the leisure centre at the top of a steep hill and even wait to get in the car park. Another downfall was that only one of the four beaches was dog friendly during high season. It was lovely but small beach so if like me you have a very sociable dog they will feel the need to play with every dog on the beach and potentially ruin somebody’s picnic.

As we were camping in England the inevitable happened it rained, A LOT, luckily only for a day or two but this made us very aware that the tent wasn’t very waterproof. We borrowed my parents much larger tent, which was at least 10 years old, but was still top of the range, just not been used for a very long time. It clearly needed weatherproofing, so off we went to our nearest mountain warehouse to get some spray for the worst areas. I would like to say that worked a treat but no, the following day it was throwing it down so plan B tarpaulin over the top of the tent, which in fairness we should of done first as it did the job.

During the madness of the rain problems we did crack on with the fun things. The boys really enjoy camping at the moment as they don’t do it normally and it’s a huge adventure, where as Ida is becoming more like a teenager the adventures are great but sleeping in a tent isn’t. We did our best to keep everything we did fun even the bedtime routine which became teeth, pjs and magical campfires with spooky stories from dad. We kept dinners cheap and basic, which they enjoyed as it mainly involved hot dogs and marshmallows for pudding. There were lots of families at the campsite and they made loads of friends pretty quickly including a lovely little boy in the tent next door.

Each day was a new adventure; we were given a great little map with different attractions and obviously I was scrolling through instagram reels to see about any hidden gems in the area. Day one was spent in St Ives, Day two we went to the very well known Kyance Cove, this beach like many others is not dog friendly during high season, we were however allowed to walk round it and go to the coffee shop which allowed time for the kids to pop down to the beach and explore.

As Nala just adores water and swimming we were desperate to find a dog friendly beach in the area we did some google searching and got back in the car. We drove 20 minutes up the coast to Mount’s Bay it was perfect. Sand, sea and sandcastles even a little private beach if you can brave the cold waves. We spent the rest of the afternoon there but eventually it was time to head back to hot dogs and burgers.

Day 3 was fairly wet so did our best to find indoor places that wouldn’t charge us a small fortune. We chose Pendennis Castle because who doesn’t think castles are cool, it was owned by English heritage and allowed dogs. What made things even better was that there was a medieval event on so plenty of knights with swords fighting each other, there was also a part of the castle we could hide away from the rain. Overall it was more of a slow chilled out day avoiding the rain.

 

Day 4 we had some really good weather so made the choice to go to Lands End, somewhere I had not been before. We also made the 30 minute trek to Nanjizel beach which was an adventure in itself, with cliff side pathways and rugged terrain. We made it to the small rocky beach which was popular with cliff jumpers. Again Nala was in her element scrabbling over rocks and trying to jump into the water.

Eventually we made our way back to Lands End, the kids were desperate for some sweet treats so we got them some sticks of rock in many different flavours, a great end to a lovely day. We got back to the campsite and the kids ran off to see their new friends while we got on with dinner. 

Day 5 was probably the best day, we were able to book ferry tickets to The Isles of Scilly, and the ferry trip was around two hours so it meant a very early wake up call. We all scrambled into the car and drove down the Penzance Harbour and parked up. Tickets at the ready we got aboard the Scillonian for a day trip, the price including Nala cost £135 for return tickets. Sounds expensive just for a day trip but we had been very frugal with the rest of the holiday we wanted to do something very memorable.

None of the kids had been on a ferry so they were amazed by the experience, unfortunately John was not feeling too well so spent half the trip in the bathroom. We finally arrived to what felt like a different country, as I always do I had scrolled through instagram and found the most deserted picturesque beach I had every seen, similar to one you may see in the Caribbean. We ordered a taxi and went straight to the north of St Mary’s, when we arrived we were definitely not disappointed there was clear oceans and white sand and even a palm tree it really was stunning. We spent the rest of time swimming and playing around on the beach. It was eventually time to head back to the ferry after a wonderful relaxing day, it was just perfect, and nobody could disturb us so we had some real family quality time.

Day 6 was a lovely day droning around St Michaels mount and chilling on Long Rock beach attempting to get a kite to fly and building sand castles. For our final dinner we headed back to St Ives to get fish and chips and eat them on the beach. We managed to find one with a bar and allowed dogs on after 6pm. It was a fantastic way to end our holiday, it was a very sad thought knowing we had to leave this amazing part of the UK.

The following morning it was time to pack up which seemed a lot quicker then setting up. We decided that we wouldn’t end the holiday straight away and on our way home we went to Tintagle to explore and get some epic drone shots. It was another lovely dog friendly beach but was very busy as it was a Saturday.

Unfortunately we did have to make our way home, something I was just desperate to delay as I much prefer to be on holiday away from the stresses of daily life and the anxieties of work. We did have our October holiday to look forward to so I guess that helped.

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