Self-catering in Cornwall in September

[Fionn]

I know this overlaps the earlier thread on Devon/Cornwall - where to stay. I want to book a week in Cornwall in mid-September for our family (2 boys aged 2 and 4), self-catering. Leese's suggestion sounds very interesting, just wondered if anybody else had any suggestions. Driving from West London, I know Cornwall's a long way but would prefer as short a drive as possible, 4 hours would be better than 6! Haven't been to Cornwall since I was a child so have to study some maps and see what's where.
Oh yes and anyone else want to book a week in the same village so we can swap babysitting?!

We stayed in Fowey last September in a cottage booked through Cornish Traditional Cottages. They have a web site. The cottage was fab (a 4 bedroomed detached farmhouse in the middle of farmland with an Aga in the kitchen) and the cows in the field next door would come right up to the garden hedge. We went with my sil and her family and we had a great time. The kids (all 4 of them) absolutely loved it. All helped by the beautiful weather we had. We live in brighton and I think the drive took about 5 hours including breaks. I thoroughly recommend it. Fowey was a good place to go as you can visit loads of places without driving too far. We went to the Eden project, Padstow and went sailing.

Thanks Debster, that sounds idyllic. I'll look at the website.

Fionn, just a word of warning ... we had a fortnight in Cornwall in June, and it was horrendous. We made the mistake of going 'right down to the end' (St Just), which was a very long journey. But also we had the misfortune of horrid weather (thick fog and rain for 10 days - yuk!), and discovered that it was quite a long drive to most of the wet weather attractions. There seemed to be much more around the Newquay area, or in North Cornwall/Devon border.

It would have been gorgeous in the sunshine - the beaches and coves are lovely, and we just wanted to go for walks, and it was too wet. I would not recommend going down so far.

KMG, poor you. I went to Cornwall 3 years ago, when it was just dh and I (although I didn't know it at the time, ds went too, as I had conceived a couple of weeks earlier) and we stayed in Helford Passage, and I well remember driving through St Just on our way to Cape Cornwall. It is a beautiful part of the country, but very isolated and with the windy roads took an age to get anywhere.
Fionn, I would agree with KMG about somewhere like Newquay, or even St Ives, there would be more 'wet weather activities' in those sort of places rather than a small beachy cove place (although very beautiful) - hopefully the weather will be kind but in mid-September it's a bit of a lottery. Have fun whereever you go, though.

KMG and jodee. thanks for the advice. It would be awful to be stuck miles from anywhere in wet weather with the children. Dp thinks we should wait and try and get somewhere last minute when we know what the weather is likely to do. Websites I've checked so far seem to suggest that many places are already booked until October, but I suppose we'd get something.

Hi, Fionn. I would agree about St. Just, unless all you want to do is sit on the beach- there are some very beautiful ones but not a lot in the way of entertainment.

Also a friend has warned me off Newquay. We had some cracking holidays there when small but now apparently there are drug dealers on the beach and used condoms everywhere. I don't have first hand experience of this so perhaps my friend was exaggerating, but personally I'm avoiding it.

Given that a neighbour's 18 year old has just gone on an 18-30 style camping holiday to Newquay - apparently THE place to go for such things! - I suspect the advice concerning undesirable beach finds was correct!

Can recommend South Devon - Salcombe. We have been going for years (before and after kids). Lots of child friendly pubs and shops, lots of sandy beaches. Its a lovely place, lots of marinas, little ferry to beaches - which the kids love, and crab fishing off the quay, swimming pools at local hotels, cliff walks, also when we went in June the weather was v. wet, and there were things to do - there is a great adventure farm called the Sorley Tunnel, and also an Otter and Butterfly sanctuary, and steam trains !!

There are lots of cottages to rent, and you can hire everything locally eg buggies, highchairs, cots, stairgates, towels etc.

There are 2 cottage companies that seem to rent all the cottages - both based in Salcombe. One is called Salcombe Holiday Homes, and the other is Coast and Country Cottages, and both have websites.

Hope this is useful.

Anybody been to Brixham before, if so, any tips, ideas etc?

Thanks very much everyone, I'm going to research all your recommendations. As someone else said recently, isn't mumsnet fantastic?!

Ems, we went to Brixham for a week in June, used Blkes holiday Cottages. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole now (long story!). Brixham is lovely and v. well placed for lots of other attractions- steam trains, boat rides,beaches, Model Village, Paignton Zoo, Quay West etc etc. We've 2 dds under 5 so didn't do alot of evening eating out but there were plenty of places for lunch. Enjoy!

I'm from Devon and would therefore highly recommend the Brixham area, Salcombe, Kingsbridge, Thurlestone, Bigbury (Burgh Island), Hope Cove and it is, obviously, a lot less driving involved than the end of Cornwall. I do love Cornwall too but would also avoid Newquay now, very much 18-30, huge amount of drinking, tacky amusement arcades but does have lovely beaches. I would also recommend St Ives, very pretty fishing village with lovely places to eat, lovely beach, Tate Modern, etc, also St Mawes is a pretty village to visit, Padstow where you can eat at one of Rick Stein's places (the cafe and bistro are much cheaper than his main restaurant and still fantastic food, children welcome I'm pretty sure).
If anyone was interested in staying in Brixham area, the Sloop Inn is a really good pub which serves good food and has about 3 or 4 cottages attached to the pub (old thatched cottage, always look beautiful), the beach is also about a 3 minute walk and by far the best beach in the area, loads of sand dunes, etc, for the kids to explore.
There are also some lovely gardens in Devon and Cornwall, the RHS garden in North Devon and, of course, Eden Project in Cornwall which is stunning.
I'm going home in August and praying already for some good weather to enjoy it all.
Hope you all have good, SUNNY, holidays.

We were fortunate enough to borrow a flat in the centre of St Ives for 10 days last summer when DS was 6 months and we had a lovely time but it is a fair trek (for us in Yorkshire) and the journey was pretty horrendous. However it is a nice location with kids (sandy, sheltered beaches etc).
NB DH went on a stag weekend to Newquay the weekend before and apparently it was full of stag/hen dos so maybe not that family friendly.

Also stayed in Pontins Brixham in May on one of the Sun holidays and there was lots to do in the area as described. Journey much less horrific but still not incident/stress free (DS at 15 months).

Going to North Cornwall (near Tintagel) with Country Cottages in September. So will probably bump into quite a few of you without realising!.) Desparately hoping for a better journey.