Cornwall - the Cream of the West Country

St Michaels Mount Cornwall

There aren't many places in the UK with more history and more things to see than Cornwall. In fact, it has so much to do and see (and eat!) that the locals still argue that it's really a country all on its own.

I recently took a trip down to Cornwall with my girlfriend (our first trip away together) and we planned out all the things we wanted to see before we went. Usually on a holiday people end up not quite making it to everything they wanted to go to, but we actually ended up seeing more than we thought we'd have time to!

The first thing we saw was St. Michael's Mount, since the place we were camping literally looked onto it across the sea. We chose to camp in Newlyn, Penzance, because it was so close to so many of the attractions. We checked Pitchup.com for camp sites in Cornwall before we went to make sure that there was nothing too far away from us, because Cornwall is surprisingly large, and it can take hours to drive all the way across it.

On our first day we decided to go and see St. Michael's Mount up close, so we took a quick boat ride across the harbour (which was an extra couple of pounds), and gladly paid the entry fee. We spent a little while in the gardens, and looked around all the old rooms in the castle as part of a tour group.

The boat ride was the closest I got to surfing, which is something that I'd hoped to do, but decided against when it came to actually going. We did head over to Cornish surfing capital Newquay though, and spent ages looking around the shops. We also visited the aquarium, which is definitely worth a look round; it's probably the best aquarium I've been to, and if you've got kids you could quite easily make a day of it.

Not so great value was Land's End. Don't get me wrong, we were happy to pay the parking charges, and there's a lot of fun, free things to do there, including some nice beaches, and some pretty epic walks along the cliffs, but the world famous signpost came with its own photographer who was not at all cheap. We just stood near the signpost instead of next to it, and got a free photo. The cream tea is not cheap either, so it might be worth taking a picnic if you choose to visit.

Overall I'd say that my Cornish trip was one of the best I've been on. The food was nice, with seafood and cream tea being particular favourites, and the beer was excellent and also good value. Most importantly, the locals (particularly in Penzance) are extremely friendly, so if you're thinking of spending any time in the pub it can really make your holiday.