Fri 8^th Aug

St Ives Apartment: Porthminster Apartment One: here and here.

It was a lovely and mild, albeit cloudy, morning for our journey from Dartmouth to St Ives but we were glad for anything other than rain throughout this whole trip and, thus far, we’d been fairly lucky.

There was some time to fill on our way to St Ives so we stopped off at Polperro along the way. Polperro was a most picturesque harbour fishing village with whitewashed cottages lining the steep hillside either side of a narrow harbour. Pedestrian access to the village was from the only car park located a 10 minute walk up the hill from the village. Polperro featured quite significantly in English smuggling history and there was a small Museum of Smugglers that we visited. Access to the village, along a single road with restricted access entry, would be quite challenging for the residents and the distance they would find themselves from significant services must be an issue; so I admire their tenacity for enduring this lifestyle. It would be interesting to know the demographics of the village population. The residents we saw looked to be at the ‘older’ end of the age spectrum, which, begs the question about the sustainability of such villages.

It was close to 3.30 pm by the time we arrived at St Ives as the traffic along the way was just horrendous. Our GPS had taken us, and it seemed all of Cornwall, along rather long and narrow lanes, with near impossible ability to pass oncoming traffic, resulting in lengthy delays and much anguish on my behalf. Once in St Ives Village, trying to access our apartment was no better as it was located on the absolute waterfront and, being a warm school-holiday Friday, it seemed half of the UK was down here as well. Having successfully located the apartment and unloaded the car, whilst parked in a Police Only parking bay, we were then faced with a long and narrow staircase and this took a bit of negotiating. Once inside though, we found that the apartment, thankfully, was lovely and had excellent views out across the harbour with a good sized deck running the length of the space. It was very bijou though and more suited to people traveling light, that is, not with two large suitcases, two carry-on bags and a bike. There was another apartment next door, Porthminster Apartment Two, also on AirBnB, and both apartments had sole access to a shared washing machine. This washing machine was working which was a huge relief and it got quite a workout during our stay. (Just FYI: I had booked our Porthminster Apartment One through the AirBnB link.). It is worth noting that we think Apartment One would be a better option than Apartment Two. Our Apartment One had a balcony and water view across both the bedroom and the living room. Apartment Two only had the balcony and water view across the living area, not from the bedroom. The bedroom was at the rear of the block.

The restaurant I had booked for dinner ended up being below our apartment, Porthminster Kitchen. We were seated on the balcony, directly below our apartment, and had a lovely view, the exact same one as from our apartment. The food was only okay and, with our meal costing $300 AUD, I would have preferred cloth napkins rather than the very small paper serviettes that were on offer.

With time to sit back and relax we realised we’d been overly ambitious with our expectations from this stay. We were in St Ives for 4 nights leaving 3 full days of sightseeing. My initial plan had us venturing out by car each day, exploring the local area up and down the coast and visiting another Rick Stein establishment but, after today’s experience of heavy traffic and blocked laneways, we realised this wasn’t feasible. As well, our departure from St Ives involved a 5 hr drive back to a Heathrow airport hotel, for an overnight there before our early flight out to Paris, but this now seemed too great a challenge. So we decided we would break the trip up back to Heathrow with a night in Salisbury, meaning an earlier departure from St Ives by one day, and that we would try to limit using the car whilst we were her now for just two full days. This meant cancelling our booking for Rick Stein at Padstow but one less restaurant meal wouldn’t matter. We would both sleep a whole lot better with those changes in place.

 

Sat 9^th Aug

Our goal for the day was to avoid using the car and spend the time around the village of St Ives. It was a glorious morning with the sun rise visible from our balcony. We used the early part of the morning to explore along the beach and harbour front areas as it was so delightfully peaceful with few people and no cars around. Being such a warm and beautiful Saturday we expected that it would get very busy here later on.

We set off after breakfast to do another section of the South West Coast Path, having previously done a section when we were in Poole, but this time walking north from St Ives up to Hawkes Point which was a return walk of about 7 km. (It was like the No 2 walk on this link except we went on a bit further to Hawkes Point). There were a few areas of steep gradient, as well as some stairs, along the way so it was quite a workout and the return trip took us about 2.5 hrs but that included plenty of stops for photos. This was a lovely walk as you have the magnificent coastline view out over St Ives Bay for the entire time. We left at about 11 am and I’d highly recommend this walk be taken in the late morning or early afternoon as you then get plenty of shade for much of the journey.

It was near 2 pm by the time we got back to the apartment so we had a late lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying the view from the balcony where we also enjoyed dining on a home cooked meal.

 

Sun 10^th Aug

It was another glorious day of sunshine and a blue sky so Mark set off for an early bike ride and I set off for a walk. We had decided we would try heading out by car this morning to take a peak at a couple of sights and our thinking was that, being a Sunday morning, there wouldn’t be too much traffic and that worked out pretty much to be the case. We headed first to St Michael’s Mount but this was just a photo stop as the tide was in and so pedestrian access was not possible. It was then on to Lands End, the most south west part of Britain, and that was just a photos stop too. The crowds were building up at both sites and we were there fairly early so I would hate to be there much later in the morning.

It was near midday by the time we got back to St Ives and we thought we’d try a Cornish Pastie for lunch as they are all over the place here. We might have chosen poorly but we were both rather underwhelmed.

The tide was still out and yet to reach a full low so we decided we’d go for a beach walk after our lunch. There were loads of people on the beach and in the water and the water temperature, whilst quite cool, didn’t feel too bad. In fact, if our accommodation had of provided beach towels we may have been tempted to have a dip during our stay but we settled for a walk up and back that covered a distance of 3 km.

It was after 4 pm before we ventured out again but it was so crowded, with people waiting for the start of the St Ives Raft Race, that we turned around and headed straight back to our apartment. We realised we would have a much better view of the race from our balcony and, that we did.

The Raft Race had promised mayhem and they certainly delivered and this gave us a great spectacle to watch for over an hour. It was then another home cooked meal for us as we continued to enjoy the balcony and excellent view. We had enjoyed our time in St Ives and appreciated the bounty of glorious weather we had enjoyed for the last two days; it was a true gift. We were ready for a change of scenery though and looking forward to heading across to France and Italy.

This was the last UK blog, and our last overall blog for a few days; until we arrive in Paris. We have an overnight in Salisbury and one at Heathrow airport before our flight to Paris but they are brief stops so I am taking a break. See you next in Paris!

 

Other St Ives Accommodation Options: 

Our apartment, Porthminster Apartment One, was in a great location, clean, modern and with all you need for a short stay but it was very bijou (we had to take turns opening our suitcases) and it only had a double bed. It would be better suited to travelers with less luggage and who don’t mind such a small bed. I did have a bit of trouble finding suitable accommodation for this trip given that many hosts had a 5 or 7 night minimum rental period and we only wanted 4 nights; so keep this in consideration if you’re ever looking for accommodation in this area.

We had enjoyed our short day in the area but, coming in the peak season of August, meant we had to restrict our wish-list of activities. Keep that in mind also if you were ever thinking of visiting St Ives, Cornwall.

We did spy some other accommodation options, that were in a similarly good location, and I have linked these below. Check them out:

• Sandy Toes Stays.
• Smeaton’s Pier Apartment.
• Aspect Holidays:Harbour View Apartments
• Sonamara Wheal Dream.
• Pier View.