Places to stay in Cornwall, England?

August 1, 2006 12:46 PM

Does anyone know any nice places to stay in Cornwall, England? Preferable B&Bs, but hotels OK. Up to £100 per double room per night is probably the limit, but we're getting desperate, so..
posted by ascullion to travel & transportation (13 comments total)

the nytimes had an article on cornwall in the travel section today, actually. they list some hotels.
posted by illegiblemess at 1:22 PM on August 1, 2006

Can you narrow it down a bit? Any particular area of Cornwall you're looking to stay? For a place near Falmouth, you could try here, which is a lovely B&B in a beautiful village nearby. (My in-laws live in the same village so I know that bit of Cornwall quite well - other bits, less so).
posted by greycap at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2006

I assume you've tried the Cornwall Tourist Board hotel site? Did you decide on an area in which you wish to stay - that may make it easier to decide.

I would recommend you check out the Eden Project and this site lists various B&Bs in the vicinity. I've stayed at the Sleepy Hollow B&B which is literally a few minutes' walk from Eden and was perfectly acceptable.
posted by skylar at 1:37 PM on August 1, 2006

My fiance stayed at Malston Mill and said it was amazing.

You don't say how long you're planning to go for, but they only let places out for a week minimum. Definitely worth looking at though, if you are looking to stay that long.

Also worth checking out the British Tourist Board's website - we've found some amazing B&Bs through this website.
posted by ingridm at 1:40 PM on August 1, 2006

Oh - and I once stayed at Menabilly Barton which is a little further away from Eden but has access to a beautiful beach, five minutes' walk down a bridleway. As this Guardian article states, the B&B has a fine literary history. Again I can recommend the place.
posted by skylar at 1:44 PM on August 1, 2006

I'm just back from two nights at a B&B in Lostwithiel - Penrose. It was comfortable and clean and I think meets your price restriction. It really does depend what you want to see though, and whether you will have a car available - distances in Cornwall can be lengthy and public transport doesn't cover everywhere. Also, if you are booking near the time you want to go, you may have significant problems finding anywhere with vacancies. We had real problems, though we needed two rooms, so if you only want one you may have better luck.
posted by paduasoy at 1:49 PM on August 1, 2006

Tripadvisor never lets me down. www.tripadvisor.com - yes, it even works for places like Cornwall!
posted by jamescridland at 1:50 PM on August 1, 2006

My wife and I had an amazingly good time in the little fishing village Polperro. There are still some cottages available. Here is another available there.

Here are some pictures of the town and the area.
posted by visual mechanic at 2:10 PM on August 1, 2006

prussia cove
posted by londongeezer at 2:11 PM on August 1, 2006

Prussia Cove is beautiful - in fact I'm staying there in a week's time!
posted by greycap at 10:34 PM on August 1, 2006

If you can get your hands on a Landmark Trust, they have a number of locations in the Cornwall region. We stayed in Egyptian House a couple of months ago in the centre of Penzance, which has three fantastically furnished two-bedroom flats (stay on the top floor if you get choice: more stairs (obv) but a brilliant view of St Michael's Mount). I think it cost us £360ish and I'd highly recommend it.
posted by Hartster at 1:17 AM on August 2, 2006

A recent family wedding was in Cornwall, and a bunch of us stayed in Sennen Cove (Photo of the cove) at the Old Success Inn. This is a fairly ancient Inn which I think meets your criteria. Sennen Cove is lovely, and right near Lands End.
posted by handee at 1:36 AM on August 2, 2006

ascullion: If you add where in Cornwall you are planning/hoping to stay then I may be able to make some recommendations. Have you also considered getting a holiday home to use as a permanent base rather than a B&B? It may work out cheaper but breakfast would be up to you. How long are you planning on staying.
The Driftwood Spars at St Agnes is good, attached to a really nice pub, <2 00 yards from a good surf beach.st agnes is of the prettiest towns the north coast and very handy for the cornish mining heritage sites (now a world heritage site). the south coast we put people up at the a href="http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/grovehotel/">Grove Hotel in Falmouth, which we came up with after an exhaustive search by a disgruntled guest. Falmouth is also one of the bigger towns in Cornwall and has quite a few decent pubs with some nightclubs also.

When you do book something bear in mind that postal districts down here are large, for example, pretty much everything on the Lizard will have Helston as a postal district even if its 20 miles of winding tracks away. So greycap's recommended B&B is a few miles away from Falmouth but listed as Mylor Bridge, Falmouth, your best bet is to get the postcode for a hotel and check multimap or streetmap before you book. Mylor Bridge is lovely by the way.
Another thing to watch out for is that the rivers/bays can take a while to get around so don't base yourself in a corner if you want to move around a lot, so the Roseland is worth a visit but if you base yourself in St Mawes you will have to drive all around the Carrick roads every time you go anywhere.

In general, stick to the coasts, a fair amount of the middle of the county is post-industrial, though this lessens the further west you go.
Don't go to Land's End, its crap, and if you still go then park somewhere else and walk up the coast path, apparently that gets you in free.

If you're going to be driving then consider joining the National Trust, they have car parks at nearly every beach in Cornwall and they're free with membership, £2-3 otherwise, plus you can then also get into all the NT gardens that are in the county.
posted by biffa at 3:34 AM on August 2, 2006