We recently escaped London for our summer holiday – hurrah! However, we decided to keep it British and opted for a ‘staycation’, heading down to Cornwall for a few nights’ camping near Padstow. I’d been before, but he hadn’t – and it was so lovely to be able to introduce some of my favourite places in the UK.

We were staying at the lovely Old Macdonald’s Farm campsite, where we were made welcome. Although I’ve camped at places with more glamorous washing facilities, the best thing about this campsite is the open farm on site where both children and adults (as I proved!) can stroke the animals [someone was a little excited about the rabbits] and have breakfast. The highlight was an extremely cute bunny which I *may* have attempted to take home!

In the evenings, we had some delicious meals at some of Padstow’s many restaurants. We tried the new Burgers and Fish, where the food was pretty good – better than the service, at least! Then we wandered around the harbour and watched the boats…

By day, we checked out the shops and watched the many dogs parading around the harbour! We took a speedboat ride around the bay, which was exhilarating (if damp!), and had a fair few ice creams, despite the not-always-this-sunny weather.

Naturally, we sampled Rick Stein’s fish and chips. Excellent as always, I’d never ‘eaten in’ before and it was a little stressful in terms of service!

We walked along the stunning coastal path around Bedruthan Steps and down to the beach (175 steps). It’s not a swimming beach but beautiful to walk along and check out the wildlife. This was taken back up on the cliff:

Looking in the opposite direction, over nearby Mawgan Porth Bay:

The last day we were in Padstow (and I can’t believe I’m writing this), we rented a tandem and cycled 20 miles along the Camel Trail! We rented it from Padstow Cycle Hire, who weren’t brilliantly helpful as my seat was too high, wedged on the pannier rack, which led to a rather uncomfortable ride back! [If you’re looking to do something similar, it might be worth checking out Trail Bike Hire, which is also at the start of the Camel Trail in Padstow, but quite a bit cheaper!] However, learning to navigate the tandem was an interesting challenge and certainly improved our skills of communication…

Midway back, we stopped at an inventive bicycle-based refreshment stand called ‘Treats on Trikes’ for a quick cup of tea and cake!

It was a wonderful few days and we felt thoroughly relaxed. However, our trip wasn’t at an end…