Why is everyone obsessed with Cornwall?

[thefoggiest]

Disclaimer: I've never actually been!

But why traditionally cornwall and not say the isle of wight, or sussex, or east Anglia?

I guess I can understand flocking to the southernmost tip back in the 60s when there would be washout summers but (thanks global warming!) isn't it time to branch out a bit now?

It’s beautiful. BUT only if you go out of school holiday season! My totally favourite place.

having said that Northumberland is gorgeous too but Cornwall has a pull I can’t describe, mizzle and all.

It wasn't that expensive, caravan site was £460 for 2 weeks for touring caravan, that was school holidays so quite reasonable

My Cornish relatives told me that Wales - where we live - is Cornwall for poor people. 🙄

Never been.
Such a very long journey far in the car and £££ compared to lots of other beautiful places.
I will go one day when the kids aren't with me, and I'm sure I will love it, but given the cost and the travel I just don't fancy it in the school holidays.

We went to Northumberland this year right in the peak holiday season heatwave and I was staggered by how empty the beaches were, how easy it was to park, and how little traffic there was. While we're tied to school holidays I'm not sure I'll go anywhere else again!

We've just booked a week next year. Have been to Dorset before Covid and really enjoyed it so keen to explore more of the south west.

There's lots of places I would like to go though. Definitely the Highlands, Norfolk Sussex, and South Wales.

It's so pretty, especially out of season. But I'm not sure we are welcome, sadly. I love Scotland, Norfolk, Dorset, Wales, Northumbria... Many lovely places to go.

I think you should visit and find out for yourself. But do so off-season (May, June or September are all lovely).

It does have an otherworldliness that other places can't match – well, maybe West Wales, or the Scottish highlands can – that sort of end-of-the-line feeling. And a distinct culture and character all of its own.

I think in the middle part of the 20th century it was not as busy as it is now because it was hard to - it was a 7 or 8 hour drive even from London back then, before the M5 existed and the A303 was dual carriageway. People went and it did feel really something special. Nowadays, it is rammed (and spoiled) in high season but the magic is still there for the rest of the year.

You're still an outsider unless you're born & bred, and they still talk about you behind your back and grumble about people buying second homes in Cornwall and pricing our locals who now cannot afford to live there due to house prices being pushed up so much by emmets like you.

HTH.

I’ve always thought it looked nice and wanted to visit, but it is (quite literally) much cheaper and quicker for me to go to somewhere sunny in Europe from London.

So never have been and am unlikely to go.

If you’re in England, I can see the appeal. If you’re in Scotland, or Wales, it’s a bit underwhelming given how fantastic the coast can be in each country. Northumberland is of course pretty epic.

The one time I went it was nice but very busy and nothing you can't find in Wales (ssshhhh)...

100% … second home owners are destroying Cornwall.

I don't think anyone ever went to Cornwall for the weather! It may be very Southerly but it's also very wet. Cornwall is beautiful and picturesque. It is more scenic than eg, Sussex (I'm from Sussex so feel it's OK to say that!). It has some beautiful beaches, good surfing in parts, if you're into that and lovely fishing villages. It's incredibly busy in holiday season though and must be a nightmare for locals.

I've never understood why people based in the SE don't go to Northern France (Pas de Calais) instead - thinking Le Touquet or Berck-Plage. Amazing beaches, great (and good value) food and a lot less of a journey - less than an hour from the Channel tunnel. A hidden gem.

The combination of beautiful beaches and beautiful countryside is great, but I don't think Cornwall is any nicer than the coasts of Devon (especially the south coast - sorry, Barnstaple..) and Dorset, which are more accessible.

I think it's a specific FOMO for the middle classes who live in SE England. Londoners in particular seem obsessed with Cornwall.

Don't tar all Londoners with the same brush, I think it's those in the home counties who are obsessed. I'm a born & bred Londoner & hardly any Londoner I knew growing up or even know now go there for holiday.

The road are shit in Cornwall, makes getting anywhere a nightmare, and if you're going past Woolacombe in N Devon or Bantham/Bigbury on the S coast of Devon then you might as well stop there instead. I do love the Minack theatre though but all the best bits of Cornwall are the furthest away! and the time/ hassle of getting there makes it generally not worth IMO it unfortunately.

The people in London I do know who go aren't Londoners 😆

You know nothing about our life, circumstances, where our family is from, how much time our family spends at each home, so you can ‘jog on’.

I’ve only ever been treated well in Cornwall. If you see my username, you will see where home is for me. Thankfully not everyone sees me as an outsider but attitudes like yours are why I do miss my home. So thanks for that.

Devon is nicer.

Fair point! Thinking about it, the Londoners I know who go aren't from London.

I'm reading with interest as going for the first time in October. Really wouldn't fancy it in school holidays, had to pop into the Lakes yesterday to pick something up and the crowds were something else, and I imagine Cornwall would be similar?

Cos they don't speak French and don't want to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

But there is a solution, just off the coast of Normandy/Brittany - the Channel Islands! Although I shouldn't encourage everyone to go there and make them crowded.

It's a warmer quality of wind and rain than the rest of the UK 😂

There's a lot of variety and you don't have to be packed into the busiest places.

Something I find frustrating in a holiday is finding yourself in an out of the way place and every outing involving the same 30 minutes start to the journey. Scotland is gorgeous, but after an epic journey to get there (giving Cornwall the advantage) there tends to be a lot of driving once you're there too, so it's not somewhere I've prioritised since having DCs. Oh and midgies. So many midgies. And the A82.
Norfolk was lovely, but I'm not the biggest fan of flat, lowland areas so it's not an area that pulls me back. North Wales tends to be our long weekend zone.

We swerved Cornwall in 2020 and went to Dorset hoping there was less exodus, and there was enough outdoor stuff to do to swerve intrusive Covid restrictions. Cornwall felt calmer this year than it has since the Poldark effect.

Definitely.

Although I once read a book by a lady from the Teignmouth/Dawlish area who'd cycled all the way round the UK, and she was always sniffy about Cornwall, having grown up in Devon but having cycled around it, she changed her mind. I suspect she wasn't there in August though, I can't remember from the book now.