On the 3rd worst holiday ever - pity party

[BlowDryRat]

TLDR: we are in Cornwall, staying in a caravan with walls so thin I can hear the DC breathing at night. All the pre-planned, booked months ago activities have been cancelled because it won't stop F-ing raining. Everywhere else is rammed or fully booked and wonders why we didn't book months ago We resorted to taking the children to the cinema on Tuesday, then to an English Heritage place exactly the same as every other English Heritage place that doesn't take me 5 hours to drive to. Today we are at the Eden Project. DD keeps trying to steal leaves and flowers and whining for ice cream. DS just wants a rest or to go on the zip wire,which is fully booked and I didn't pre-book because we did zip wiring last week. I'm allergic to all the rare plants and keep sneezing. All the ice cream is made with weird stuff.

I've paid a grand to live in a caravan, doing things that I could do within an hour of home. I can't wait to go home. I know lots of people are 'going on holiday' by camping under their imaginary dining table this summer but

@TeardropImplodes can I suggest that it was having the G7 summit in Cornwall and the police etc who travelled there who brought it in. Who might not have had the virus had India been on the red travel list earlier.

Don't blame tourists entirely, much as their behaviour can be bad.

See if you can get to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Sounds kind of dull (I normally fucking hate gardens including my own but it was amazing. We had similar age kids when we went.

@DottyHarmer, that does sound shit.

I remember a holiday in Bodmin Moor at this small place where everything was vegan, organic, hemp, natural, raw, etc, also had no heating and we were kids - it was totally rubbish and luckily the adults agreed after freezing one night and we went somewhere else the only truly epic moment which is actually one of my most awesome ever memories was escaping one night and running off to the edge of the cliff - it was v dark and I sat watching the sea. It was super foggy and I couldn't see anything left or right, only in front of me. Then a huge battleship appeared out of the mist on one side, totally silent. I was totally open mouthed then a second battleship came from the left and they totally silently sailed past each other. It was amazing. I still can't believe it happened. It looked like something out of a film.

OH @BlowDryRat are you still at the Eden Project now? get the DC to look for the geckoes in the rain forest biome they're brilliant!!! (under the roof in the little shack in the rubber-industry display usually)
Also the raul-rauls which are all over the damn place, and tree frog tadpoles .....

Try heading to St Just, have a lovely ice cream at Mermaids of Zennor then putt your sat nav on and head to Cape Cornwall (national trust car park but manned by the loveliest lady in the entire world who only charges a pound and is always smiling) walk down the hill and take them crabbing. It's such a good day out, kept mine amused when it was chucking it down. Its one of the most beautiful places ive ever been.

Ahh, poor you, that doesn’t sound very relaxing!

I cancelled three days camping in Cornwall, should have been there from Monday - Thursday next week. I decided I didn’t want the stress of traffic jams and camping in the rain - looks like I made a good call!

Do your DC like arcades? We always go to the ones in Newquay & it’s great fun. DD12 loves winning all the tickets to cash in for tacky prizes. There are shops in Newquay too, Waterworld with slides etc, the zoo if it’s not too wet. There’s an ice cream parlour - can’t remember if it’s Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerry’s.
Bit random but in Bodmin there’s a military museum. Sounds deadly but actually it’s great for kids & they put on activities. There’s also steam train rides on the Bodmin & Wenford railway. There’s the Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Charlestown which also has pubs, lovely cafes & interesting shops. Anna’s Workshop has lots of pocket money priced things but not tacky & Jangles is great for gifts & jewellery. Tall Ships Icecream is really good! There is at least one tin mine that you can go down into - we loved that as kids. I’m pretty sure Poldark Mine is still open but you could google it. Geevor Tin Mine is the other & not far from you.Wheal Martyn Clay Works Museum just outside St Austell is another one that sounds dull but is actually interesting & again there are kids activities.
Country Skittles in Hayle & there are bowling allies in Truro & St Austell too.
Kidzworld St Austell has lots to do.
Roller discos in Pool near Redruth.
Mevagissey & Fowey are nice for quaint shops etc & there’s a model railway at Mevagissey.
If you go into a supermarket you can pick up booklets with loads of money off vouchers. They may well have them where you’re staying.
Hope all that helped OP ☀️😎☀️😎

It is miserable in the rain and the weather isn’t looking great for next couple of days. Flambards is worth a shot- some indoor bits
Ice Cream- callestick farm, Mr B’s in Hayle
There’s a soft play place in Newquay that has a great bit for older kids.
The Jubilee pool in Penzance- outdoor, geothermal and you’re wet anyway.
Adrenaline quarry or the inflatable water park in Mabe. I think there’s also one at Retallick Resort- there’s a ‘wave rider’ there too
Crealey

@newnortherner111 we're not the G7 area. We totally get that people have had a rotten year and that no one wants to cancel a longed for holiday or be reminded of Covid while they are here.
It's not all tourists but a significant number behave incredibly badly, which I'm sure they wouldn't do back in their local area. So while we were all still shopping one per family with masks, entire bored families were browsing the supermarket. DD is working in a cafe, every day someone tries to get a meal for free.
The determination to get huge campervans to tiny local beaches and then leave human shit behind rules out these places for us. The beach cleans get reported on local media - buried BBQs, broken glass. A significant number of visitors make us feel unsafe in our own towns. And it's made worse by local teachers moving out for summer and letting their houses for AirBnB in normal residential areas. I dont give a shiny shit it's your landmark birthday, I don't know you, you don't know me and I need to be up at 5:30 am to drive to work at our only under A&E with my empathetic face on.

At least you have the option of going home. I live in Cornwall.

Eden Ice-cream doesn’t contain artificial sweeteners. They use unrefined cane sugar. Not to everyone’s taste maybe but the opposite of artificial. I love it myself.

I went to Deal in Kent for a holiday a few years ago. The only thing I got out of that holiday was learning never to holiday in the UK again, unless it was last minute and you knew the sun was going to shine. We went to the Tate in Margate on the August bank holiday and it was absolutely pissing down and I thought never ever again.

@BlowDryRat
You need to check out the Met Office Weather Warning here It might actually be more sensible to give up/pack up and head for home.

Do you have Natty Trust membership. Lanhydrock’s pretty good and more importantly large to stay out the rain for longer.

Is it both biomes you’re allergic to. The Med one is a lovely place to sit.

[quote DottyHarmer]@Gingernaut -ha! My dad booked some rum holidays out of the local paper. Really memorable was a caravan in Swanage. It was in the middle of a field and had no facilities - no electricity and no loo. Very happy memories of my mum racing across the field to the toilets in the corner pursued by cows. And then the cows barged into the caravan and my mum was crying that we were all going to die .[/quote]
Thankyou for making me chuckle. We're now stuck on the A30, going absolutely nowhere.

Worst holiday ever was to Tunisia. I got food poisoning from the AI buffet and couldn't leave the room.. Dh got gout and was also confined to the room....he couldn't walk. When we got home I drove DH (dB at the time) to his home in South London and got really lost coming home - no map, no smart phones, just a DH with no sense of direction on the mobile!!

Second worst was John Fowler in Brean. It was from a supplement in the newspaper....the accommodation was just filthy. We had a crawler we couldn't let crawl or he got black hands and feet. Beds were tiny. Never again.....

My criteria now is the accommodation must be an improvement on my home. In case I am stuck in it.

Next week we are hopefully off to the New Forest - but DS came down with a tummy bug yesterday and has given it to me. I can't leave the bed or the loo. Fingers crossed the other kids and dh escape.....or we may have a holiday from hell!!

From all these recent posts I'm glad I was brought up a diet of wet camping holidays. I can't believe how many people would just pack up and leave.
Stick the waterproofs on and get out. Make hot chocolate when you come in, paddle in rock pools in the rain. On the plus side outdoor places will be quiet.
Plenty of places have undercover buts. Sitting watching the rain wrapped up can be relaxing

Quite a few years ago we had planned a lovely calm week away with our toddler (in a place chosen for being quiet but with soft play etc nearby in case it rained). Due to a family emergency we ended up also taking our 2 older nieces (who didn't really want to be with us so they were both stroppy) and it rained solidly from the moment we left home. So much so that we had to keep changing our route to avoid flooded roads and the journey that should have taken 3 hours took nearly 10.

We survived by:

• Buying loads of really nice food and drink, the teens were quite impressed that for one week only the usual rules about snacking/sugar consumption etc went out of the door
• DH and I each took a 'team' (mainly to split up the arguing nieces) to a different local town and we had to see what DVDs/games we could buy in charity shops etc for £20. The team with the best haul got to choose which to watch first and to choose a takeaway for that evening.
• Watching loads of films
• We bought a cheap plastic table cloth, cheap plates from the supermarket and ceramic paint from a craft shop and did our own 'paint a pot' day (kids saw a shop offering this but it was fully booked due to the weather)
• Puddle jumping competition, to see who can make the highest splash (this only worked because I had insisted we all take waterproofs)

We got through, and the nieces even smiled occasionally, but I would not be rushing to do it again!

We stopped going to the Eden project as the kids said that the food was so bad (not massive fans of veg filled burritos 🙄) and the ice cream is terribly 'good' as if it were knitted by lentils.

I feel v sorry for you. We also had the fortnight after the private schools finished and it was I credible weather apart from the night of the football final when I was so cold I was shivering.

Have you thought about going on restaurant cancellation lists?

I would second Moomaids of Zennor ice cream. You can get it it at Porthgwarra beach from the little cafe there. Just next to Porthcurnow beach. The double scoop portions are huge and the ice cream is to die for. The car park is National Trust and the beach just a short walk away either down the slipway or through a short tunnel under the cliff. Porthcurnow is the home of the Minack Theatre, carved out of the cliff. Beautiful golden sands.
You may be able to book a visit to Geevor tin mine, along the coast from St Just. A now disused tin mine, though back when I was young and lived in the area, so many local men worked there. Underground tunnels. Much of Poldark was filmed on the cliffs there.
Flambards would also be a good shout.
Frankly, a holiday in Cornwall with lots of rain is disappointing but you just have to change your mindset. Suggestions of wetsuits and maybe coastal walks, pub lunches and rock pooling are more realistic. There are some good pubs along the way.
Maybe a short train ride from Lelant train station into St Ives would be fun. No problems with parking! My kids used to love it, not having experienced many train rides.
Don’t give up, and definitely check out the weather in other areas. We sometimes sat on Sennen beach in thick fog and later found out that the weather at St Ives was brilliant all day!

Commiserations OP, it all sounds pretty crap.

I'm not surprised you resent spending £1k (plus spends) on a rainy holiday in crap accommodation - that's loads of money and could be better spent on a lovely overseas holiday in the (pretty much) guaranteed sunshine!

Bloody weather/ covid / COVID restrictions etc.

I was on marazion beach on Tuesday from 2-6pm it was lovely? And yesterday it was sunny albeit with occasional bursts of rain. We had to miss last week due to isolating so gutted we missed the heatwave. Come every year though so we’re used to Cornish weather.
If anyone can recommend a good website to show where it’s sunny in Cornwall tomorrow though I’d be grateful.

I live in Cornwall and the weather has been fine here . As for it being rammed or fully booked that does not surprise me as we have been told for months that we would be inundated by tourists. Places like the Eden project probably will be busy. Lost gardens of Heligan is probably quieter and quite good for kids if you do get a dry day. You sometimes do find the weather localised so if the weather bad on the south coast near Marazion then head north to Tintagel, Padstow or St Ives. Not a great year to visit Cornwall though as it does appear everyone and their dog is here this year.

My parents rainy day plan on Cornish holidays was to take us to Trago Mills (Liskeard) and set us loose inside with our pocket money. We'd spend hours wandering around looking at all the stuff. TB fair this was the 1990s and it was a bit more of an Aladdin's cave than it is today, but it is large and we used to spend a good few hours in there. Also National Trust, or having a 'car picnic' on Bodmin Moor.