People of Cornwall, help please.

[TheWonderhorse]

Me, DP and 3 dc (15, 12, 9) are going to Cornwall in June for 7 days.

What days out do you recommend? They're not daredevils so nothing too adventurous please.

I have...

Tintagel Castle (but we're Welsh and have seen at least a million castles so might just go and see the gorgeous coastline there).
Camel Creek
Lappa Valley
Eden Project
Hidden Valley
Enormous Slip and Slide
Bodmin Jail
Museum of Witchcraft
Minack Theatre

Have I missed anything? This is too much for 7 days I know but if anyone knows of anywhere not to be missed we'll have a rejig.

Any restaurant recommendations which are nice but not too pricey? Any tips gratefully received.

Thank you 😊

Where are you staying? As those places are not close together! Also, no beach days? The beaches here are awesome.

Whereabouts in Cornwall are you going? It's much bigger than people think and takes ages to get from one end to the other so this will help with suggestions that don't involve you being stuck in the car most of the time

Minack is great.

Lappa valley might be too young for them?

Do they have blue Peter badges? They get free entry into Eden. Alternative all sign up for the sat am parkrun and then you can stay on in there all day.

I know you said not adventurou but Adrenaline Quarry has some great activities including an inflatable water course.

I like paradise park on Hayle.

Kennall Vale is a nice walk.
Highly recommend going to a meadery, Newlyn and Redruth all have banquet hall feel to it where waterside in Penzance is a bit more personal.

Thanks all, we're staying in Porth and we know it's a trek to see everything but we don't get away much and are happy to go home shattered.

We definitely want to see beaches, but we're trying to decide what to knock off the list. I had a half plan of doing a park in the day and then a beach in the evening? Exploring where we end up? Is that optimistic?

We also have an outdoor pool which they'll want to do lots of. I'm going to need more time, aren't I? 🤣

I'm writing all this down. There are so many amazing places to see, I can't narrow it down.

As for Lappa Valley they all really want to play Frisbee golf 🤷😆

Hire bikes at Wadebridge and cycle the Camel Trail to Padstow. The kids might enjoy crabbing in the harbour. Pasty lunch and definitely ice cream!

Many beaches to explore. Daymer is good for rockpooling.

Lunch at The Hidden Hut at Porthcurnick beach

Inkies for food at Golitha Falls. Lovely place to walk along the river.

Regal Cinema at Wadebridge if it rains.

Take the train from Liskeard to Looe. Beautiful branch line, great views. Walk around the seaside town of Looe before returning on train back to Liskeard.

So many places, but depends where you are based and how much driving you want to do. Best to stay local ish to your holiday venue as kids will quickly get bored of long car journeys. As someone has already mentioned, Cornwall is bigger than you think

You can't beat a beach day though, and so many great ones to choose from!

Also Football Golf near St Austell!

A surf lesson on Fistral beach in Newquay
Crabbing (lots of places you can do this depending on where you are staying)

Porth beach is one of my faves for the evening sun. And watergate is just a bit along if they fancy surfing.

If you go to st Ives then park at st erth and get the train in

Geevor tin mine is really good, so so interesting. DP and I were fascinated, and DD 7 really enjoyed it too. There's ex miners from when it was a working mine in the 90s who are tour guides.

If you walk a bit further along the cliff path you come to Levant beam engine (national trust, book a time slot, it's a guided tour) and you get to see a working steam engine and go a little way into a much older mine.

Second this!

I would say Lappa Valley is better suited to 6 years & under - I go quite a lot & can't picture the frisbee golf, but might have missed it!

If you do the Minack there are stunning beaches in that area, Porthcurno itself is beautiful m, but will likely be busy.

Gwithian is a good beach with lots of space & a hut that sells the best hot chocolates in the world.

The Mineral and Mining museum in St Just is just fascinating - if you’re lucky you get the guided tour of the small exhibits by a former miner, then taken out back to pan for gold and minerals. It’s good for an hour or two combined with a stop at the St Just branch of Moomaid of Zennor for ice cream!

Paradise Park https://paradisepark.org.uk/ it's the home of the World Parrot Trust and they have so many beautiful birds and other animals.

Hiring bikes for the Camel trail sounds a good plan, you could combine eith bodmin jail as they are close ish. I've never been to the jail but from what I've heard it isn't terribly exciting.

IMO the Eden project is grossly overpriced, its OK for a wander round but underwhelming for me.

Some nice beaches around Perranporth area.

St Michael's Mount would be a nice day trip, wouldn't bother with lands end!

If you like gardens then heligan or trelissik are both better than the Eden project imo.

If you like walks as a way of exploring then there is a great app called iwalk cornwall. Highly recommend, it gives step by step directions on your phone and would be a good way to explore around the moors or coast path with low effort planning.

I've never been yet but would love to go to the Minnack at some point

I love all of this, thank you all! Already sold on the foot golf, it's on the list, and means we don't need to do Lappa Valley. We are the sort of idiot family who would be quite happy riding small trains around though, even the 15 year old!

Jubilee Pool in Penzance - spectacular 1930s open-air pool. Fabulous!

Go to crantock bay in Newquay and do some paddle boarding on the tidal river thingy while the tide is in. It's a great beach! You can hire the stuff there, there's a food and coffee van usually too.

Wouldn't recommend the Eden project, way to expensive for what it is.

If you like the view from the Minack Theatre / Porthcurno, I would highly recommend the Coastal walk from St Ives to Zennor. Absolutely stunning, best views I have ever seen in this country in my opinion anyway. It's quite a challenging walk but if you like that kind of thing and your kids like the outdoors, it's excellent, and you can always do part of it and turn back. If the kids aren't into walking though, make time to go on your own!

Lost gardens of Heligan are lovely.

The Camel Trail - visit the vineyard halfway along!!

Thats all I can think for now but I may be back! When I was younger my best memories of Cornwall as a kid are all spending most of my time at the beach with a body board, catching the waves - never learnt to surf properly but body boarding is easy and just as exhilarating!

Just to warn you - it's been raining for about the last two years straight here. Bring wet weather gear, a sense of humour and have some alternative plans depending on the day.

We loved Geevor (spelling?) tin mine but not sure if they would be too old to love it?

Ah yes, Cornwall got very expensive for us to spend one day on the beach and the rest hiding from the rain, wasting gardens or balconies that came with the places we were staying at. Best place ever in good weather though.

I love Lizard Point. Also Land's End just to say you've been (and spectacular views). I think they also do fireworks there in the summer.

Highly recommend Hidden Valley Puzzle Park if you all like puzzles. There's an easier puzzle trail and a harder one and the harder one is challenging even for adults (you can always ask for help at reception if you get too stuck).

It's definitely a full day out, it took us from opening to closing time to do everything so that feels really good value, even the cafe is very reasonable.

They change the puzzles every year so we're thinking of going back again.

Agree the Eden Project is so so overpriced and overrated, and seeing everything only fills a couple of hours, unless you are all especially fascinated by plants I would skip it.

Also it's not clear if you realise from your OP but Tintagel Castle is a complete ruin and isn't really there IYSWIM, only very few walls/artifacts remain but the scenery from there is stunning. If you might visit it is cheaper to buy a Cornwall Heritage Trust pass (gives free entry to all English Heritage sites in Cornwall for a year plus other discounts) than just the day entry to Tintagel so definitely get that in advance instead of buying entry on the day.

There's football golf in Porth just by Porth Headland, no idea if it's any good as I've never been to it though.

TBH I would worry with all those different activities you'll be spending a lot of your time in the car, which I think is a shame when the North Cornwall coastline 10-15 miles from Porth either way is beautiful, and has so many amazing beaches and dramatic coastal walks.

When I was young I just wanted to spend all day every day on the beach. The only exception to this was horse riding - there's a stables at the back of Trenance Gardens in Newquay that does rides down the Gannel estuary onto the beach.
Years later we bought my DS a bodyboard and he just wanted to spend all day every day bodyboarding on Fistral.

Of course the weather can be less than ideal though, and IMO that's when these activities come into their own.

If you want to do evening walks along the beach check the tide tables first to make sure there will actually be some beach in the evening - I've been going to Cornwall for over 50 years and still manage to forget this occasionally! If not, the tide doesn't come right in at Fistral, or there are some lovely little harbours on the South Coast of Cornwall, and of course Padstow is only about 10 miles up the coast from Porth.

Whatever you do, have a lovely holiday.