Back in July myself and Alex headed down to Cornwall for a week. We had such a wonderful time we really didn't want to leave but we had to get back to working life!

As it's such a long drive we decided to split the journey into two on the way down. First stop was a night in Bath, at 'The Love Hut', yes you read that right. We found this little gem on Air BnB, I think I could have quite happily stayed here for the week! Our little caravan came with a private hot tub and our host left us a some complimentary chocolates, strawberries and croissants for breakfast. As he said, 'The Love Hut' is never without chocolate!

After a dip in the tub and a freshen up we took the scenic route into town to find some food. We ended up at a restaurant called The Ivy, the interiors were just gorgeous. After sharing a starter of warm sourdough bread and zucchini fries, Alex tucked into his ribeye steak and I had the blackened cod cooked in a banana leaf. We shared some sides of tender stem broccoli and olive oil mashed potato and polished the lot off. No complaints there!

We leisurely strolled back to the hut and spent an evening under the stars in the hot tub. Gin and chocolate in hand. What more could we have asked for on our first day!

After another long drive we arrived at Summer Breeze, smack bang in the middle of Newquay, a perfect spot for the next week of exploring. We dumped our stuff and went out to get our bearings and enjoy the sunshine. A walk round the coastline brought us upon some incredible views. I couldn't get over how blue and clear the sea was!

Day three of our travels was a slightly cloudy and cooler day so we decided to head out for a ride to visit St Michael's Mount. The mount is a small tidal island with a walk way connecting it to the mainland. On arrival the tide was out so access was easy. We climbed our way up to the castle, passing the giant's heart on the way up. It's not very big and I'd have missed it completely had Alex not pointed it out! By the time we'd made our way around the castle and headed back down, the path was now submerged in water. Only one thing for it, shoes and socks off and wade our way through!

Another little drive found us at Lands End. We'd both been before but not for quite some time so thought we'd make a visit together. If I'm honest it was probably the most disappointing part of the holiday. It's been very commercialised and you can't even take a picture at the sign now without paying a small fortune. Not what I expected but we made the most of it and had our first cream tea of the holiday!

We pretty much spent the rest of the week on the beach, the weather was too good not to! In between topping up our tans, we kept ourselves entertained with some double kayaking, swimming and surfing. I use the term 'surfing' very loosely, it's incredible hard to master and I found out the hard way when the board bounce back and hit me in the face leaving me with a fat lip. As you can imagine, I called it a day then and let Alex show me how it was done!

We also spent a morning coasteering with Newquay Activity Centre. This was completely new to me (Alex had done it once before) so we booked on to a beginners session. We spent a few hours scaling the coastline, jumping off cliffs and exploring caves. We met a few seals along the way too! I'm not the biggest fan of heights and the last jump was pretty dam high but I took the plunge (literally) and faced my fears. A great way to see some nature, keep active and do something new!

All the activities had us working up an appetite. I won't bore you with a break down of every meal but some of the restaurants we visited and would recommend are:
Little Italy for some epic pizza
Barefoot for fresh fish dishes and a gin list as long as your arm
Pauline's Tearoom for afternoon tea
The Red Lion for good pub food and entertainment, be warned the pub quiz was hard!

I am however, going to go into a little more detail about one particular restaurant, Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, in Watergate Bay. We visited on the Friday night for dinner and couldn't recommend this place more. On arrival we were seated by the open windows overlooking the beach, if you can, ask for one of these tables. After perusing the menu we opted for the 7 course tasting menu with wine pairing, I mean why not? There wasn't a dish we didn't devour and a glass of wine we didn't finish. The service was impeccable too. Our waiter explained every dish to us and the wine sommelier gave us some interesting facts about each wine.
Whilst enjoying dinner we got to watch the most glorious sunset, a perfect end to our holiday and probably our favourite part.

Our menu for the night went as follows:
Dish 1 - Fried courgette stuffed with ricotta, savoury profiteroles, and Talbot skin with a garlic olive oil dip
Dish 2 - Alex had beef crudo, I had slow cooked potatoes with hazelnuts
Dish 3 - Lobster cappelletti
Dish 4 - John Dory with prosciutto and agretti (our favourite dish)
Dish 5 - Cornish duck, smoked peas and baby gem heart
Dish 6 - Alex went for goats milk panna cotta with blueberries and ginger crumb. I had the lemo balm custard with butterville strawberries and almond brittle
Dish 7 - local cheese

Our week away flew by and Sunday rolled around all too quickly. With full bellies, sun kissed skin and all the memories, it was time to say goodbye to Newquay and head back to Norfolk. I have no doubt that we will be back to Cornwall to explore some more. I will never tire of the blue sea and gorgeous beaches. Until next time!

Charles in Cornwall