Have you ever been to Cornwall? Despite the 5-8 hour drive from Cambridgeshire it's SO worth it.
Asa and I love our sport, and so we booked a camping pod in Newquay as it's the UK Capital for Surfing. If only there was an option of a closer surfing beach because I absolutely love surfing.
The only problem was, the waves were almost flat the entire week. But enough about the negatives. It meant we could explore a little more..
Newquay Town
Newquay town itself is quite a "young persons" place I'd say, hopefully I've not caused any offense! There's lots of surf and skate shops, a few tacky clubs and some shopping areas. It's got a few arcades and pubs dotted amongst surf hire venues and winding roads down to Newquay Beach. It's perfect if you're wanting to skate and to see a beautiful part of the UK. If you're up for a drink at night and a surf in the daytime it's the place to be.
For us, we like that kind of shopping scene and definitely loved the surf scene so we had a good time! However I couldn't imagine those who love fancy places to eat out or high end shops as part of their holiday to enjoy it as much. It really is beautiful though. This photo is the view from a pub we found at the top!
Fistral Beach
If you surf, you'll have heard of Fistral Beach. Famous for surfing and people travel from all over the UK to come here to surf. The beach was packed most of the time, even in September.
Asa and I decided to book a lesson, it cost £35 each for a 2 hour surf lesson and we could keep the wetsuit and board for the entire day (until 5pm or so). It was really good as we'd not surfed for a while and the waves were really small, perhaps 1 or 2 ft. But that meant we could work on our technique and we had a blast.
Great Western Beach
Just around the corner is another absolutely stunning beach, well, there's several, but we visited the Great Western. You have to walk down a big hill to get there, so it's a pretty big workout on the way up, but the views are simply beautiful.
You can also get a surf and body board lessons here and they play music. They also have a beach cafe, toilets and a pizza shack.
This beach, being so low down, is surrounded by cliff edges and there are several warnings where rock has fallen. It makes for some stunning photos though:
Port Isaac
I was desperate to go here. Have you ever seen the film Fisherman's Friends? Well, if not, you should! It's such a feel good film. And it was filmed in Port Isaac. It's a beautiful little port, with tiny, unique buildings, beautiful scenery and so much history.
Asa and I had a spot of lunch in the Golden Lion pub that was in the film. Whether it was actually where they filmed the pub scenes in the film I'm not sure but it looked similar.
Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm
When in Cornwall, you'll see this cider everywhere: Rattler. It's actually really nice, and quite an easy drink. Asa and I had a fair few Rattler's on our week away! So on a really rainy, grey day where we couldn't really surf or body board we headed to a Cider Farm where they brew all of the Rattler Cyder.
It cost us £10 to get in, and you can wander around the distribution part of the Farm and see how it runs. Then you end up in the main farm. You can also book a Tractor Ride to see the Orchards.
There's a museum that shows you all of the old cider presses through the ages and then you end up in the cellar. It's really dark, full of barrels, and there's a man down there who showed us what the barrels contained and gave us a tasting session. They were brewing cider in barrels that previously brewed whiskey and brandy. The taste was so lovely and they gave us a very generous "shot" of a fair few drinks!
You can then buy some at the shop if you wish.
Asa and I were also intrigued by the Jam Kitchen they had there, and came back with 12 pots of jam!
Padstow Harbour
This is a beautiful little place but was absolutely PACKED. We actually booked a boat tour that went around the coast there, which was beautiful, but I was very nearly sick from the amount of sway that far out into the ocean. However, on a positive note we got to see some seals...
Asa and I sat and had a drink in a pub there and we tried our first proper Cornish pasty. I won't lie, we went back for a second one!
Padstow had some lovely little shops, mainly to buy gifts or fudge in and had a very warm, friendly atmosphere.
Hopefully that's given you a bit of insight into what Newquay and other places nearby are like. I will 100% be going back.
Meg
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