St Ives - anyone stayed there?

[katiekittlemouse]

thinking of going there at Easter, self catering in cottage/style accommodation if we can find something reasonable.

Has anyone stayed there and have any recommendations. We would like to stay near the beach if poss... don't know the area really and not been to cornwall for yonks.

We go every couple of years and really love it - there's loads of lovely cottages. The big problem if you stay in the town itself is parking, which is an absolute nightmare!
I found some good ones here this time, some of which have a parking spot attached; last time we stayed here, which is out of town, up the hill (we only had one 2-year-old at that time and it was great for her with farm animals and a toddler play area and a playground) - but a trek to the beach.

thanks boogeek - your first link didn't work (or maybe it's prob with website)... canyou let me know which website it was. The holiday farm cottagges look lovely, shame they are all booked up - must be a sign they are good!!!

if you stay outside of the town, ie. have to drive into St. ives, where do you park? would ideally like to not have to drive everywhere.

Oh sorry! It is Aspects Holidays www.aspects-holidays.co.uk/ - they have loads of cottages in loads of locations, which vary from teeny quaint fishermen's cottages to modern flats.
If I stay outside town and drive in, I park at my granny's house ;) I realise this doesn't help you very much! There are plenty of carparks but they get really full in the holidays: your best bet would probably be the park and ride at the top of the town. (If you stay somewhere up towards Halsetown and probably other places you could be on a bus route into St Ives - that would depend what age your children are, whether it is feasible).

You can park at Lelant railway station and get the little train into St.Ives - I grew up in St.Agnes (about 8 miles up the coast) and whenever we went to St.Ives this is where we parked.
It makes arriving in St.Ives much more of an "event" but I think the ease of doing this depends on the age of your DC's??
Any particular reason why St.Ives? It will be heaving at Easter?!

We have stayed at a cottage owned by the Carbis Bay Hotel here.
It is right on a lovely beach just up the road from St Ives. There is a train into St Ives that stops at a little train station at Carbis Bay too.

We had a lovely time.

St Ives is lovely - my parents always used to take me there for family holidays when I was little. If you can, stay right in the centre and then you won't need your car in any case! http://www.stivesholidays.com/These guys usually have lots of lovely cottages and flats.

These guys oops

We go every year and use Aspects or St Ives Holidays.

Carbis Bay is not the centre of St Ives. We tend to stay right in St Ives.

We like being near Porthmeor beach, the big one with The Tate on it, fantastic apartments called Piazza or Barnaloft, but so hard to get into, they just get rebooked year after year.

Porthgwidden beach is for little childre, slightly more sheltered and has a lovely cafe.

Porthminster is on the other side of town with huge beach, the station is there too.

Sometimes you get a parking space with your cottage, but it is rare. There are several car parks in St Ives, and you can buy weekly tickets. We tend to leave our car there and never leave St Ives!

We walked part of the Coastal Path last Easter, now that our youngest is 9 and has good walking legs! It was fantastic. Turquoise seas and stunning views.