Staying near Kilkhampton (not that far from Bude, I think) for a week in May but I’ve never been to this neck of the woods before. Anyone got any tips, recommendations, warnings etc? I’d really like to do some swimming/snorkelling and maybe surfing while I’m there, plus the odd pint/meal out and maybe a bit of culture. Walks too. I’m guessing it takes ages to get anywhere by car and everything costs a bomb? All info gratefully received. Cheers.

Sea will still be coldish in May but starting to warm up.

Not a great of culture in kilkampton, in fact there isn’t a great deal there at all. bude is as good as it gets locally.

That bit of cornwall/Devon isnt to hard to get around but it’s a long way if you wanted to go to Eden and places like that.

jam bo – cheers for this. Can you recommend any good beaches, or rocky coves to fool around and snorkel in? Quite fancy a stab at surfing, too. Being in the water will be my priority in terms of activities. Not bothered about the cold – I’ll either dip for just a few mins or take a wetsuit. Oh yes, any decent campsites or wild camp spots, too? We’re in a house for most of the week, but might want to escape into a tent for a night.

North Cornwall is great – have had many good hols there. Listen to the advice about rips / tides etc but if you do that you should have a great time. Coast path (might sound boring) but is really good walking. Cream teas in Boscastle:-)

In May?

Take waterproofs and thermals. 😀

Otherwise just work your way along the coast – some lovely places to explore, you really can’t go wrong. Won’t be too busy that time of year either.

I stayed at Kilkhampton a couple of years ago – South Forda? I think. Clovelly is good, not far from Bude for pubs, Widemouth bay, Crackington Haven, Boscastle all worth a touristy visit.

I’d say surfing was your best bet – snorkelling may be limited by tides / rips etc.

There was a cracking little pizza place in Kilkhampton – mostly does takeways but had a tiny restaurant – like 2 tables – which was great!

deffo take a wetsuit

Cheers all – keep them coming. See my above post re sea and swimming etc.

That stretch of coast is pretty exposed with very little shelter. There aren’t really any sheltered spots until you go round hartland point or down towards boscastle etc.

Things to do:

Avoid any pretty little fishing villages, expecialy ones linked to TV programs, they’re rammed and don’t actualy have anything to do other than eat Fish and Chips and Ice Cream.

Go surfing, it’s like riding a bike, standing up is easy in a 2 hour group lesson, actualy getting good at it takes years.

Eating out in Falmouth was fairly painless when the bill arrived, no worse than anywhere else in the country and I don’t think we found any bad restaurants.

Take tourist information websites with a big pinch of salt, I’m not convinced half of them have actualy been to Cornwall, we went in search of an “Amimal Sanctuary”, which turned out to be just a farm, they’d obviously just stuck a pin in yellow pages for the name of a farm and written up a fake ’10 things to do arround……..’ type article.