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?

I live in Cornwall so am biased but it is beautiful. Lovely beaches and tiny fishing villages interspersed with bigger towns with plenty to do. On the whole Cornwall welcomes tourists as they rely on tourism. I love coastal cliff walking and do at least one a week and often chat to visitors who love being outdoors on the cliffs watching the waves or walking some of the hundreds of miles of coastline we have.

Give it a go sometime but come in June or September when it is quieter. We have had mainly sun this year and hardly any rain. I walked north of Bude yesterday and it was 24 degrees and sunny all day.

I love the rugged coastline to walk along, lots of ups and downs and little coves. Quaint little villages, gorgeous beaches. We don't go in the summer holidays as it's too crowded.

Also, just because we love Cornwall, doesn't mean we only ever go there. We also enjoy Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Wales, Devon etc!

I love the beaches and the sea is warmer and an amazing colour, the whole area is beautiful.
I love the islands of Scotland too, mull, orkney etc as much if not more, but they have terrible weather and midges which makes them less appealing.
I hate crowded places but there’s still plenty of quiet spots to be found especially as we visit at the end of June

I get you OP. Kent and Sussex are much nicer (and marginally cheaper...)
I went to Folkestone for the weekend in May and it was lovely. Sandy beach, nice pubs and cafes, lovely seafood.

So I find that Cornwall doesn’t have an architectural style so just isn’t as pretty as the Cotswolds (pale stone) or Norfolk (brick and flint). Also the roads are weird - super narrow with high banks - so constant getting stuck on small roads issues. It takes a bloody age to get there and is more windy and rainy than the east coast.

Norfolk for me is so much nicer. But indeed don’t tell everyone 😎

You are right in that there isn't one architectural style but many from the tiny cottages built for fishermen or miners to the Cornish Manor Houses or very old churches. West Cornwall particularly has a plethora of styles from thatched cottages in places like Lamorna or St Just or Cadgwith to the wonderful old manor houses often now owned by the NT. Tintagel particularly has some lovely buildings.

I went to the Cotswolds this year for a walking holiday with my walking group. All of us live in Cornwall and we agreed that Cotswolds was picture perfect and the Cotswold stone beautiful but it was all a bit samey with very flat landscape. I prefer Cornwall with the variety of the rugged cliffs of North Cornwall to the flat Bodmin Moor to the beautiful beaches in West Cornwall and fishing villages of South Cornwall like Looe, Polperro or Fowey.

@Cornishclio yep the rugged cliff walks in Cornwall were beautiful and if you are a surfer then I totally get it. You can’t surf in places like Norfolk.

Norfolk and Cornwall are two different things. But I still didn’t see any architectural style in Cornwall and many buildings were simply badly built and random styles. My DH and I commented on it a bit. That and the enormous trek (yep Norfolk is also a difficult drive but Cornwall was double for us) - means we had a good time but wouldn’t go back and just don’t understand the hype.

I think one great thing about Covid is that people have really started to explore the U.K. more and realised we have some really great places to go. I don’t think we can really compare them to be honest. We are lucky they are all nice. Have read this whole
thread and am getting excited to branch out a bit more over here.

Isnt Cornwall like Brittany but with terribly expensive parking?

I was thinking the same when we were sitting alone on gorgeous white sand beaches with crystal seas in Scotland this year. Even the journey (admittedly long)was easier because going North when everyone else is going South makes the motorway more bearable

It's nice but Northumberland is more beautiful and far quieter so I don't get the hype.

I have a cottage with sea glimpses in a village near the main line train station. We're seeing our 18thC cottages fetch over £300k and there are now Airbnb in the village. But it's heartbreaking to see families desperately looking for homes that are becoming increasingly more expensive. Cornwall Council lose money from rates due to people registering their houses as businesses.

I avoid Fowey, Mevagissey, Charlestown etc in the main season, getting to the P&R in Truro's a pain. People have BBQ's on beaches when they're asked not to, Polzeath has the usual issues with unaccompanied teens partying on the beach, Boardmasters was busy over a weekend of train strikes. But I've walked in a T shirt in November on the beach, go to Heligan as the spring flowers emerge. I see the sea every day. Come out of season, there's plenty of accommodation open all year round, restaurants are quieter.

Because of its pointy shape it has a lot of nice beaches and coves.
its also a beautifully hilly and rocky landscape- not knocking it but Norfolk is not.

middle class FOMO is probably a factor however it’s a stinker of a drive from here and IMO Devon, 1-2 hours closer, is better.

On my first proper holiday to Cornwall I had tonsillitis, so that may have contributed to my experience, but I found it dark & foreboding. Working in Port Isaac on location for a bit was just about OK, but Cornwall just weirds me out. It’s beautiful but, I dunno, dark.

I like Cornwall out of season but the journey is long and hellish. The beaches and landscapes are beautiful, especially during the stormy months when they take on a darker and more foreboding image. Anyone who visits in the summer is missing the best bits.

TBH I had this whole romanticised view of Cornwall due to Instagram 😂In my head, I was planning to move there and become a surfer/artist and live in a beautiful house right by the ocean. (Then I realised how expensive it is to have a house by the ocean, LMAO).

Then my best friend and I spent two weeks in Devon and Cornwall earlier this year, checking out potential areas to live... and both realised we were actually totally underwhelmed by Cornwall haha. We were like... is this it?...

We both preferred North Devon. I love the wildflower hedges and found it more visually beautiful, just more relaxed feeling. I found the people there friendlier too, but it could have been just that I was nervous about Cornish people hating tourists and imagining hostility.

People fall in love with different places for different reasons. I find myself more drawn to the mountains and we both got a good feeling when we visited the Peak District once, and I've wanted to go back to the Lake District so badly since going there for the first time last summer.

I have no desire to go back to Cornwall. It's so weird - I fantasised about moving there for over a year, but after going, I don't even care to go back 😂(no offence to anyone who lives there - it's just a personal thing!)

The Gower is stunning, as is Pembrokeshire, both have equally beautiful beaches as Cornwall (and I say that as someone who’s Cornish!) without being packed. We don’t go to visit Cornwall in holiday season anymore, as it’s prohibitively expensive to get somewhere to stay, and I hate battling our way there, just to battle our way to get anywhere once we’re down there. My family’s from a very popular tourist destination in Cornwall, and it’s double edged sword of bringing the money in vs killing off the town for locals as they can’t afford the houses/it’s like a ghost town in winter.

Shedwithivy - there are trains and buses in Cornwall

I didn't know people were obsessed with Cornwall. I've had many good holidays there, and Devon, and it is beautiful but I also love the North Norfolk coast.

I’ e been OP- I wouldn’t bother again! Been 3 times ( with friends/grps)
it’s a ballache to get to because of the traffic, is overcrowded, overpriced and the locals - who rely on tourism to a large extent- hate tourists. Never met ruder people !
you can get the same landscape in Ireland - in fact it looks a lot like the Antrim coast, or Yorkshire or even Dorset if you’re after sunnier weather.
it’s one of those MC holidays - like ski-ing or Centre Parks where it’s £££ so it’s deemed worth going for some reason!

I've never been to Cornwall but live in rural Wales which has nice beaches and scenery and is simular to Cornwall in many ways. I can't imagine the long trip down there is worth it unless I had family or friends there.

There are enough tourists here in Summer though, so don't want to encourage anymore🤣

I think their adventures were more Dorset based

The beaches are lovely. We've only ever been to North Eastern beaches which are really ugly and dirty in comparison. I love them, but in Cornwall it did feel more "abroad".

It's nice but so far to travel and actually too expensive and busy in school holidays. I've had nice holidays there but I've also had nice holidays elsewhere

To be honest I had just as nice a holiday in Brixham and Torquay and also in Dorset at places like Poole and West Bay and Lyme
A lot closer and not as overpriced. It's not that it's not nice, st ives is probably the nicest set resort in England and Fowey also lovely but it's such a fag to get to and bloody expensive as well for pretty mediocre service and food unless you pay very big bucks!

It’s the beaches that draw us back- for those who surf/ bodyboard, there are many beaches with reliably good waves. The sea is beautifully clear- it’s been far less badly affected by sewage discharge than many other south coast beaches. Even though it gets busy, there’s so much coastline that there are always many options. If you’re lucky with the weather, it’s golden.

We’ve been to Pembrokeshire many times and love some of the beaches there, but it doesn’t have the same depth of options for things like accommodation , food, and other activities.

We’ve been to the Lakes many times, but the traffic we’ve encountered there (especially if you need to go anywhere near Windermere) has been worse than anything we’ve met in Cornwall.