[Closed] Weekend in Newquay area - advice

Don't travel when everyone else is and you'll be fine, a long weekend in June will be not a problem at all.

Some random suggestions: the coast path is an obvious good walk.  The Perranporth / St Agnes / Porthtowan bit is pretty good and close to Newquay. This is Chapel Porth at high tide in March:

The building on the distance are the mine Wheal Coates so you can go all Poldark there too.  Expect it to be a bit busier in June though!

Cardinham woods is close and has nice walks/riding and an excellent cafe.  Newquay has water sports, coasteering and so on but I can't recommend anything.

Oh, something I've been meaning to do for ages: there's a paragliding/hanggliding company that does taster sessions  https://www.flycloud9.co.uk.  A morning spent paragliding around the coast sounds like a great thing to do.

Thanks for the reply Ross. Paragliding sounds interesting, will have a look at the website.

Travelling from Manchester, hoping to stay in Bristol area on the Thursday night before travelling onwards early on the Friday morning.

newquay is on the north coast of cornwall. not the south. its a fairly tacky tourist town with some really nice beaches. they've been trying to shed the hen/stag do image for a while but it's still got that vibe.

st ives is not as tacky, a bit more culture and still has some really nice beaches.

roads can be bad on changeover days etc but the a30 has got loads better since they dualled over bodmin moor.

can't say I've ever seen anywhere down here offering jetski'ing. millions of places offering surf/SUP lessons etc.

padstein is another option worth considering.

tbh in June I'd be avoiding St Ives/Padstow 😉

If you want to try stand-up paddleboarding the south coast is generally calmer, I know Loe Beach (near Truro, not Looe) and Maenporth (near Falmouth) both offer it.

tbh in June I’d be avoiding St Ives/Padstow

best avoid cornwall full stop then. busy all year round now and goes mental in the school holidays.

half term is last week of may & first couple of days of june. avoid that and it'll be ok.

fwiw I live in Cornwall, there's definitely an art to knowing e.g. what beach you can go to in mid-July and still have half a beach to yourself.

Perranporth in July:

Compare with one of my favourite beaches for a winter walk, also in July:

We fly from Gatwick . It's cheap and takes 50 minutes.

Just north of Newquay is one of my favourite beaches - Watergate bay.

There is a lovely sandy beach with the usual waterspouts on offer - surfing mainly - not sure about motorised ones.

There is a Hotel or holiday apartments for accommodation or camping sites depending on your tastes.

The beach hut has good beer and food or if you are feeling fancy there is a Jamie Olvier 15 restaurant.

You can experience Newquay and then go back to the beach - best of both worlds!

I've never found Cornwall too bad in June, outside of where late May BH impinges at any rate. Travelling down Friday morning will be OK. I'd definitely give it a swerve in school hols though.

fwiw I live in Cornwall, there’s definitely an art to knowing e.g. what beach you can go to in mid-July and still have half a beach to yourself.

before 9, after 6...

and penhale in the background is probably deserted in that perranporth pic you posted...

Thanks for all the replies, appreciate it. We're looking at the 15th-17th June at the moment.

jambo: we went to Perranporth as family were down and they explicitly wanted to go there.  No idea why, we went to Porthtowan the day before which was far quieter!

How old are you? If you're young & like to party then Newquay is good, if you're a bit older then I'd look at St Agnes, Falmouth, St Ives, even St Austell  or Wadebridge.

Jet Skis can be hired from Swanpool beach near Falmouth I think. SUP also at Gylly, there's loads of places doing surfing, there's also BF Adventure, Kernow Wake Park, the Wave (a static wave at a hotel, can't remember the name) & Adrenaline Quarry.

As far as walks go, there's about 300 miles of coast path, pick a bit, it's practically impossible to go wrong.

& top tip - if you go to Land's End, go to Sennen Cove & walk across.

Wadebridge is a good shout actually. My fave place is trebarwith strand on the north coast, look up smugglers cottage. It may be waaaay to quiet for what you'e after tho.

We're 35/30, so almost still young enough to like a party 😉

Nah, we're happy with somewhere a bit quieter though. Will look at the suggestions.

Bare in mind then that Newquay is full of kids from about 16-28 who really like to party...

June will be prime time for end of GCSEs as well, won't it? Newquay is where they all go and get drunk and sometimes fall off cliffs (though not recently, thankfully).

I grew up in Hayle (don't go there). Newquay was where we'd go in a minibus for someone's birthday night out. My mate ended up on the bonnet of a police car outside Burger King one night (by accident). Ah the memories!

I'd second the Wadebridge recommendation. Enough going on for a quick wander round the shops before heading to the coast for activity, then some nice pubs for the evening.

If I wanted some isolation I'd head to Zennor/Towednack/Gurnard's Head for rugged coastal path walks and quiet pubs.

I'd 3rd Wadebridge area. We have stayed in and around there in recent years. Used to do Newquay every year, but it's gone downhill over the last 15years or so, so avoid the place these days - maybe just pop in one day if the weather is bad. St Ives is really nice too. But in the popular weeks and summer weeks Cornwall is rammed full stop. When we travel down we'll drive on a Thursday night, Premier Inn it for one night south of Bristol, then complete the journey early on Friday am. Traffic is usually not too bad doing it that way. Last time we went we just headed down one day and it took about 8 hours. Picked up traffic at Gloucester and crawled all the way through Bristol and beyond. One of the worst car journeys of my life. And no traffic jams or crashes causing it, just sheer weight of traffic.

Cornwall is a spread out, awfully varied place, and there are loads of options which hit a broad brief like “fairly active, bit of walking, some watersports”. I’m in the far west, so not best placed to comment on the North East (eg Newquay!), so apologies if this isn't really what you were asking about...:

There are loads of good beaches out west if you want old-school watersports (i.e. swimming), and the surf school at Sennen is about as well placed for waves as it’s possible to get in southern Britain. I think you can SUP in St Ives and there’s kite surfing in Mount’s Bay (Long Rock), if that’s more your thing ( http://www.oceanhigh.co.uk)

Don’t be put off by talk of the crowds if you’re coming in June. Yes, it can get busy, but it won’t be like the underground at rush hour. It’s not impossible to escape the crowds (even on a sunny afternoon in August) if you don’t follow the “must see” lists. For example, the Coast Path is great, but if you try it on a nice weekend in June it’ll be an awful lot busier than, say, the Tinner’s Way (west Penwith – near Towednack, Zennor, etc. as mentioned above). And for me the Penwith moors are as gorgeous as anywhere in Cornwall (they’re my go-to place when I want to just gently sink into the landscape, so please don’t all go there).

Oh, and my tip if you want to go to Land’s End is don’t. Porthcurno, for example, has a lot more to recommend it and is only a couple of miles away. If you do want coast path, I’d say walk north from Porthgwarra or anywhere between Sennen and St Ives.

The only downside to all of this is if you’re looking for nightlife too. West Cornwall really isn’t the place for it.

The Lizard is also great for some space and outdoorsiness, and is somehow very different from everywhere else in Cornwall. But although it’s a bit further east, it’s even more of a mission to get to than the far west. And again, you’ll meet more crowds somewhere well-known like Kynance than, say, walking over Goonhilly Downs.

Hope this helps, and have a great break wherever you go.

Steve I used to live just outside Nancledra up on those moors - absolute heaven!

Porthcurno, for example, has a lot more to recommend it and is only a couple of miles away.

I'm calling foul on Steve. Vested Interest!

It is lovely though. You should go to the Telegraph museum and the Minack Theatre. The staff there are especially nice people 😉

Finally got something booked, nice little Air BnB apartment just outside Wadebridge. The guy that owns it is a keen biker and happy to show us some local trails.

Now, let's hope for some decent weather!

Mevagissey and the Roseland Coast is very nice.  Can recommend the Kings Arms in Meva, independently owned and run with great food and drink.