Cornwall!!

[P0larexpress]

why do people pay stupid amounts to holiday here?
I nearly spat my coffee out in work today. A co worker has paid £1600 for a week in st Ives, last week of June!

she showed me it! It’s a pretty basic, one bedroomed cottage. Wtf!!

i have booked flights and an Airbnb in greece for just over £1000. I’ll admit I never holiday in the uk, because it just doesn’t feel like a proper holiday to me, but if I do it’s always a deal/ bargain Airbnb type thing.

what’s the attraction of Cornwall?
By all accounts it’s overcrowded cost a fortune to park , and eat out, and a pretty mediocre experience all round!

I live here, fairly close to Alexandra I guess, and have done for 45 of my 65 years. I love it, but not unconditionally, and I could not be paid enough money to live at the western end of the county again. Since I moved back here in 1990 to telecommute pre-Internet, the traffic has become completely insane in the summer months, property prices have escalated to astronomic levels and still it's really difficult to find work paid properly. DH created a business, and our employees are paid fairly. Nobody earns less than £17 per hour, not even the office manager who only works school hours. But we don't plan to expand and grow fast, so our handful of staff is never going to explode to 100. DC is unlikely to stay here, even with a decent deposit when we cash in the house that has earned more than us. But when the tourists go home, and it's wet and windy and cold, it is still a glorious place to live. The people are wonderful, funny and resourceful, and mostly very kind and welcoming once you establish yourself as a good egg. There's a wait and watch mentality while the community judges your character.

I have never experienced any bad feeling from the locals in the twenty years we have been going on holiday to Cornwall and we have stayed all over the place.
Yes it can be expensive to stay during the Summer holidays, is it more expensive than going abroad for similar sized accomodation for a family of four during the peak of high season ? I'm not sure ?

I’ve never had a bad experience from the locals in Cornwall. I love it and completely understand why they may be resentful of people buying second homes .

@CaptainBeakyandhisband I really liked your post.

I was shocked by how many businesses were struggling to recruit staff (waiting, bar, shop assistants) this time. I guess it’s just the hassle and cost of getting into St Ives for work doesn’t make it worthwhile.

Another reason for this is they just don't pay enough and want employees to earn the same £9.50/£10 per hour they were paying 5 years ago. Even if you lived in a cheaper town and commuted in there would be no where to park and hardly worth the cost of taking the train.

Thanks @transformandriseup i thought carefully about what I was trying to say.

That’s disappointing about wages. It’s always been then same though, some of the most exploitative jobs I’ve ever done were as a teen/student working a summer stint in St Ives. Employers actively looking for loopholes in employment law/following it to the letter to treat staff like slaves. I’ve had jobs where I’ve done 12/13 hours a day 6 days a week for minimum wage (age-related, not NMW), or in hospitality working whole shifts for fixed price based on a set number of hours (which was usually not enough). I’ve worked in shops where I’ve been under continual surveillance by HO and would experience phone calls if I wasn’t stood up straight, sat down, or leaned on the counter. Been laid off with no notice late in the season if footfall drops (only a week or so but by an amount that really makes a difference when you’re a hard up student). But at that time, jobs were competitive and you took what you could.

All of the above were about making the top slice as big as possible, so that the rich get richer. If they did improve things I can guarantee who would foot that bill - the tourists.

I think if I didn’t have family to see in the locality I’d probably boycott St Ives actually after thinking about and reading the above. But then again, that still wouldn’t help the average resident who needs an income, even a shoddy one.

I am going with the family (uni age kids plus DS girlfriend) to Cornwall for the first time in early July for a week, staying near Fowey.

Any recommendations for best things to do around there, since there are many experts on Cornwall posting here?

On the original question, we have been to Greece in family holidays for many years so I am a big fan of the swimming, non-rainy weather and the good food but we love walking so have decided to holiday in the UK or other cool places more in summer because it just gets too hot in Greece.

Hi @BunnyFree there are some much quieter beaches up that way. I would ignore the normal suggestions of Eden Project (though you are quite near!), as it's hugely crowded and very expensive. South coast beaches are much nicer then north coast in my opinion, with less tide and usually calmer. Heligan is lovely and so is the Roseland Peninsula. Caerhays Castle is beautiful though maybe kids might not be into it. Get out on the water to spot some dolphins - I think there are trips running from Fowey, though you might have to travel to Padstow, Falmouth or Penzance. If you like walking, head up onto the moor - it's beautiful and quieter than the coast

Have a lovely time 😊

I think it's mad too, especially as you have to drive through equally lovely counties to get there eg Devon! Devon also gets very crowded in the summer months, but it has more space and it's surprisingly easy to avoid crowds. But ultimately if you are confined to school holidays I'd go somewhere other than the south-west.

Cornwall is awful is soooooo overpriced! The sea is freezing, it's never properly hot, and it's more expensive than an all inclusive break in Rhodes. What's the point?!

we love walking so have decided to holiday in the UK

but you could have gone anywhere for good walking! But enjoy - early July before the hoards descend will probably be really good - decent weather and relatively quiet. I do think the main problem with the south-west is the crowds, so if you can avoid school holiday time you'll be ok (there may be a few Scottish families as they will already be off but otherwise not too busy).

Have sent you a message @BunnyFree with a couple of suggestions.

Thanks for the good suggestions @HesterShaw1 - much appreciated!

We have walked in Devon, Scotland, Wales, Surrey etc. The appeal of Cornwall this time is to try something new and also find a place with more activities for the teens. We will I think be out of school holidays so hopefully fewer crowds.

It gets way too busy in the summer too - the infrastructure isn’t there for 1000s of tourists (same as Norfolk, Lake District, New Forest, anywhere nice in the UK).

and if the infrastructure was there it wouldn’t be nearly as attractive.

Please show me where to get AI for a week in Rhodes cheaper than the week in Penzance I have booked for £1438 in a beautiful spacious cottage!

In the summer holidays

Well, my daughter and I have stayed in Rhodes AI for a week for under £1000 (with flights). It was before covid. Our holiday in Devon was definitely more expensive than the stays in Rhodes.

Sorry I meant a family of 5 plus cot - in summer holidays. And it’s a beautiful fully equipped cottage.

Genuinely interested because we’re also going to a Greek island and it’s costing a lot more for self catering in a much smaller basic unit. I’d really love to know where these dirt cheap AI are!

Prices have rocketed since Covid everywhere.

We went to Cornwall at Easter. It was freezing, traffic was awful and accommodation useless. Came home and booked Greece! :-)

The profiteering going on in the UK is just pure greed, these business here got huge handouts from the tax payer and are now hiking prices.

Our hols in Mallorca was the same as 2019 and the 14 days in s/w France is just little more than we paid pre CV, reflecting increases in energy etc.

@Karwomannghia

Lol it certainly won’t be too hot! Won’t be hot at all, it is in the uk after all!

Nobody is profiteering, they are trying to earn a living wage.

I live and work in Cornwall. Cleaners are now paid £15- 20 an hour, which is good, they are not profiteering. Food is expensive to buy so unless you want to eat at a Toby cavery type place a meal out will be more expensive. Cleaning and doing the laundry in a 3 bedroom cottage will come to at least £150. That's not profiteering. The 'handouts' you talk of equated to the same as people got on furlough if you were lucky and helped us to survive in lockdown. Do you think people in hospitality didn't deserve to have any help from the government? I'm confused.

All Inclusive by the way kills the local area. All those waiters in Rhodes will be paid peanuts to dish out the slops they serve in most of them. Drive up into the hills to the nearest inland village to see where hospitality workers live on their tiny income. It's an eye opener.

I live and work in Cornwall too. I'd say the accommodation sector has definitely been profiteering the last couple of years, especially those who cancelled pre existing bookings then doubled the price, or those who cash bought cottages and stuck them on AirBnB for £2000 a week. Many have been bitten on the arse now though - it's been a really quiet spring, and this has had a knock on effect on all businesses.