Cornwall in Winter

This year, I wanted to get away between Christmas and New Years. I'm soon to be embarking on a project of a life time and renovating a very small and somewhat wonky dilapidated Victorian House, which I'm kind of in denial about because A. I can't really afford to, and B. I know nothing about renovating houses... *ahem*. Because of this, I entered into the post-Christmas stupor, both broke and in need of escapism. I am back now and ready to swap last year's sun-soaked sailing photographs for paint-speckled dungarees and riveting pantone chat (I will try to make this interesting, I promise). 

This mini break in St. Ives was exactly what I needed. 

Flo and I have both written about what St. Ives has to offer in the Summer and Autumn months but there's a whole different feel to the Cornish Coast in Winter. The pubs are cosy and warming, watching the waves batter the coast line is exhilarating, and the walks are more deserted. 

Where to stay: The Queens Hotel St. Ives

The Queens is a lovely Gastro pub with a hotel directly above. The rooms are simple which is reflected in the price, but they are put together with taste and serve their purpose well. The real benefit of staying here is that the food is fantastic. The breakfast, which is included leaves no detail spared - details like home cooked granola and home made bread make all the difference when you stay at a B&B. The hotel is run by a London couple who escaped the smoke permanently to move to Cornwall and run this and a great bar/ restaurant on the harbour, which we will get to in a moment. One day, I want their life.

Book here.

Where to eat (when you're not eating there):

The Loft

The boy and I had arrived in St. Ives on the 27th. Storms were predicted for that night, we had driven for hours and it looked as though most things along the main high street and the harbour were closed for business. Determined to have a proper good feed, we squirrelled away to our room with a bottle of bubbly and Love Actually on the iPad before calling all of the well reviewed restaurants in St. Ives. Finding no luck, we eventually ventured out in the pouring rain. We had passed The Loft earlier in the day and noticed that it was open, but other than that we knew nothing about what kind of food it served or how good it was. 

After walking through a completely deserted harbour (the weather warnings had gone from bad to worse over the afternoon), we stumbled back there and sheltered inside. Usually this is the point in the story where the food is awful or cold or they have run out of everything except for Pot Noodle and some soggy crisps and you just deal with it because the alternative is to go outside again and potentially find nothing. However, this did not happen. We totally lucked out...

Not only was The Loft the cosiest little romantic hideaway, it also served us the most delicious food from a fresh seafood menu. We had the mussles and bacon in a white wine sauce and a seared soy, sesame and beef salad to start, followed by Hake and battered squid in a saffron curry sauce with kale, sprouts fried with flaked almonds and honey roasted butternut squash on the side. Everything was mouthwateringly delicious, the service was perfect and the chef even gave me his recipe for perfectly roasting squash with the skin on. Book here.

The Coldstreamer 

This Gastro Pub is to be found in Gulval, between St. Ives and Penzance. It is a beautiful old building with a roaring fireplace, a great wine selection and a fantastic menu - which has to be a tribute to French management - not what you're expecting when you walk into a pub in a small Cornish Village.

We ordered a mixture of bar snacks and light bites all sea-themed and were very content. A pint of prawns with home made mayonnaise, a crab rarebit, marinaded sardines, a green salad and chips. It was exactly what we needed between two long beach walks. 

 Book here.

The Rum and Crab shack:

This bar and restaurant is owned by the same people as The Queens Hotel St. Ives. It is a lovely little cabin-like bar elevated above the harbour serving a great selection of spiced rums and sea food. I had the 'Corn & Oil' cocktail which consists of aged dark rum and cane sugar syrup - plantation style.

I was a little disappointed to find soft shell crab on their menu, as this is only ever shipped in from California or Japan and when you can literally see and breathe the sea from your seat it feels wrong to be serving seafood from so far away. That aside, the local seafood we ordered was cooked to Caribbean style perfection and made for a lovely and atmospheric evening. Book here.

...and then there were the walks. From Penzance to St. Ives, and little cobbled streets to harboursides, cliff walks and beach walks, it was all breathtakingly beautiful and exactly what we needed post-Christmas. The weather conditions meant that even when it wasn't stormy, the sea was rough and where it met rock, it was sending spray up more than thirty feet into the air creating billowing white clouds of water.

I will be back in the spring or the summer when I need to run away from my new house-related responsibilities. Let me know if there are any great spots that I have missed... 

 Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall  Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall  Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall  Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall  Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall  Flo and Elle St. Ives St. Ives in the winter Penzance in the winter best restaurants in St. Ives places to eat St. Ives Harbour The Queens Hotel St. Ives The Coldstreamer The Rum and Crab Shack Rum and Crab shack The Loft St. Ives Review Cornwall where to go where to stay Cornwall