travel info
For some people a holiday involves lounging around on a beach or in a field, not having to worry about anything and just letting the world go by. There’s nothing wrong with this sort of holiday and there are plenty of places that cater to it. However, other people demand more from their holiday. They want to be active in it, they want to be the driving force behind their holiday. Whether that means that they walk or cycle everywhere it does mean that every gorgeous sight they see or exciting location they visit feels more deserved.
Visitors to Cornwall Cottages will find that they have an excellent route to travel down if they’re looking for a cycling adventure. Whilst hose in Devon have the Tarka Trail, holiday makers in Cornwall have access to the Camel Trail.
Just like the Tarka Trail it is a railway line that was closed, had the lines torn up, some gates added and the surface… resurfaced. It is now an absolutely perfect route to take a bike down. The trains couldn’t cope with slopes of too high a gradient, so the route is almost entirely flat. Any uphill or down hill sections are so smooth so as to be barely noticeable. Sharp turns were also a no-no, and so cyclists won’t have to worry about running into each other, or about children going too far ahead and getting out of sight.
A variety of cycle hire places and lunch-serving pubs have also sprung up along the length of the Camel Trail, so you needn’t take your own bikes down there or even prepare a picnic.
Cornwall has a rich and varied music history, much like many places around the world. There are songs which tell of old Cornish folklore and legend, songs which tell of the history of Cornwall, songs about various parts of Cornish culture and heritage, or even songs which are just about a certain type of food. One of the best ways to get in touch with the real Cornwall is to explore the county through its culture, and one of the easiest (and most fun) ways to immerse yourself fully in Cornish culture is to attend one of the music events or festivals that take place in Cornwall year after year.
Whilst staying in cottages in Cornwall, you could do a lot worse than to take a trip to see one of the folk bands in the county, such as Mummers Plays, or visit one of the towns and villages which regularly have folk music nights, such as Helston or Padstow. These evenings will give you a great feel for the ancient Cornish Celtic heritage that the area has, and can provide very effective demonstration of why many Cornish people think that the county deserves to be devolved and classified as its own nation, just like Wales and Scotland.
For more modern (though by no means recent) history, then there are plenty of brass bands that play throughout the summer all over Cornwall, particularly in the many bandstands and village greens that the county has. Brass on the Grass, as it’s known, gives you an excellent idea of what it would have been like to look for entertainment in Cornwall whilst the county was predominantly focussed on mining. Sitting out on a sunny day and watching the brass band play will transport you back to a slower, more relaxed and simpler time in Cornwall’s history, and one which has had a profound effect on the outlook of those in the county today.
Finally, for those staying in holiday cottages in Cornwall, yet more events occur that can entertain and educate you. Whereas the folk music traditions show how Cornwall has grown out of the Celtic culture, there are Celtic festivals which celebrate the root Celtic culture. These showcase things from all of the Celtic countries, as well as exploring the similar themes across all of them. Bands from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany are all in attendance, and it’s not just music that you can enjoy. Arts and crafts, storytelling and much, much more is all available.
Everybody visits Cornwall for its glorious beaches. It has more coastline than any other county in England, so it’s no wonder that the county of Cornwall has a huge number of high quality beaches, as well as beaches of almost every conceivable type. Swimmers, surfers, body boarders, sunbathers and those just interested in building large sandcastle will all be able to find their preferred sort of beach in Cornwall, which is one of the reasons it’s great for family holidays.
Loads of the beaches also have awards for clean water and general beach facilities, so you can go to them safe in the knowledge that you won’t be risking anything by taking a dip. This gives peace of mind to everybody, obviously, but especially so to parents, who won’t have to worry that their children are going to contract something nasty from the water. The helpful lifeguards also make sure to put up flags to show which areas of the beach are safe to swim in and which put you at risk from currents, meaning that even more worry is removed, as you always have an easy to identify signal to where you should be swimming.
Heading inland, Cornwall has plenty of attractions, such as the Eden Project, which can make for a great day out for the whole family. There is a large tourism industry in Cornwall, and so whole Cornwall holidays could be filled just going around to the various attractions and exploring everything that Cornwall has to offer.
Through the middle of Cornwall, heading down from Devon to Land’s End, is a long line of granite formations that cut the south west in two. These have created some spectacular landscapes in Cornwall, including some magnificent standing stones and rolling moor land, and these also prove popular with visitors to Cornwall who find that walking around them and just taking in their impressiveness is enough to fill up a whole day.
This granite line spreads down under the sea bed until it emerges again with the Isles of Scilly, which can be reached by helicopter or boat from Cornwall. The islands themselves are also popular with holiday makers, and have a totally different climate to anywhere else in the UK, enjoying earlier starts to spring and summer which have made them a great location to grow flowers ahead of the British season.
Overall, Cornwall has so much to offer that it’s worth taking even a short trip there to experience just some of it.
