Cornwall summer

[FellWanderer]

Hi. We are thinking about booking a few days in Cornwall in July/August.

We are hoping to have lots of nice walks and visit castles/National Trust/English Heritige type places. No dc to entertain. I really want to see Tintagel castle so would probably choose accommodation near there. I've managed to find some places that I like the look of.

We would like a meal out at some point but we're not too fussed on exploring the towns/shops etc as it's not really our thing.

We know it will be really busy but would the walks/types of activities I've described be quiter than if we were staying in one of the towns and spending all our time on the beaches/in shops etc?

Thank you in advance.

We did Cornwall last summer holidays and it was fantastic. We stayed in a caravan in Marazion, just meters away from St Michael's Mount.

Our days were spent walking the coastal path (which was outstanding) and not crowded at all. We didn't really drive anywhere because our beach had plenty of room to adhere to rules. We hired kayaks and paddle boarded for hours.

We ate out a couple of times which was lovely - you just had to book ahead.

As for getting there, Cornwall is always a nightmare to get to. We left early and arrived at 10am - the roads were starting to get busy but nothing that delayed us.

Our worst day there was the day we visited St Ives. I can't say I liked the place and it was heaving.

Tried to book a ticket for mid May at Tintagel - they don't have any sessions available at all.. but maybe that'll change shortly once there's a better idea of when they'll reopen - that, or all available tickets are sold out!!

Quite depressing really.. I've been indoors since March and really have had enough and was looking forward to getting out and out a bit this year having forgone our normal travels abroad.

Any other ideas of where to go in UK this year without too much planning? (Hoping to go abroad late October depending on restrictions.)

It will all be very busy. The roads were heaving last summer (took me 3 hours to get from newquay to penzance) and over 40 mins to get from one end of newquay to the other on numerous occasions. Very frustrating, I live here and it's quite testing and if you plan to go out a lot the roads will ruin your holiday if you don't plan for very long journey.

Walking around monuments is definitly quieter than the beaches and towns but again, car parks close to these places are full by 10am. It's all about planning. Go early, leave at lunch time when more people are in restaurants than on the move.

So we went to Port Isaac last August - and it felt nowhere near as busy as everyone else reported. The exceptions were a) Padstow and b) the carpark at Polzeath. Everything else was honestly fine - we expected it to be far worse.

If you do go OP and can find somewhere in North Cornwall to stay, don't rule it out. Just be sensible and make plans - eg don't turn up at popular spots between 11-1 and expect to park your car.....

We go to Cornwall a lot.

It was just as busy last August as any other year. I saw no difference at all.

I think 'busy' is very much a personal interpretation though isn't it.
Especially for those of us who live in a fairly deserted Cornwall for much of the year.
A half full car park or a quarter full beach will have me going 'gosh it's busy'
St Ives or Padstow on a summers day tip me over the edge, when they are really just fairly crowded towns.
But I can take crowds in London because I expect them. It's down to your personal thresholds I guess, and being pragmatic.

We go to St. Ives every year and honestly last year was no busier than usual. It was a little more difficult to get a table in restaurants but we still managed to eat out most nights, even when we hadn’t booked in advance. The beaches were fine, busy but not packed - managed to get a car park space no problem and the few days we went out and about (paradise park etc) it really wasn’t busy at all (had to pre book and they were only letting certain amounts of people in).
We visit the Lyn peninsula in north Wales a lot and I actually find it a lot busier there in summer as there aren’t as many places to eat out/things to do so everyone flocks to the same few restaurants etc and the beaches are always packed.
There’s so much to do in Cornwall and so many places to visit/things to do. I’d book it OP, I can’t wait to go again this summer!

I’m properly impressed that you found a parking space in St Ives, looby!

Where did you park?!

I think it depends entirely on where you go. Touristy places like St Ives are always busy. Personally I would stay further north, near Crackington Haven or Bude, it's usually a bit quieter along that stretch and not too far to drive to Tintagel.

Malteser We usually park in the Island (?)car park - you have to sometimes wait 10 mins or so for someone to leave but we just do a stakeout til we get a space

I’ve never in my life managed to park on the island!