Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Porthminster Beach, St. Ives, Cornwall TR26 2ED. www.primroseonline.co.uk.
&
01736/794939.
9 units.
£105-£170 double; £199-£240 suite. Rates include breakfast. AE, MC, V. Limited free parking. No children
8 and under.
Amenities:
Bar serving snacks; beauty room.
In room:
TV/DVD, hair dryer, Wi-Fi (free).
ST. AGNES TO PADSTOW
Padstow: 211 miles SW of London, 59 miles NE of Lands End, 50 miles NE of Penzance
The coast from St. Ives to Port Isaac has a drama all its own, encompassing wild and
windy cliff-tops, golden stretches of sand, and fascinating relics of the county's min-
ing heritage. It's a holiday hotspot, and some areas, such as the resort of
Newquay,
get extremely busy in high season. However, there are some fine walks and charming
villages to explore.
Essentials
GETTING THERE
The nearest mainline railway station to Padstow is Bodmin
Parkway, where trains stop on their way from London Paddington down to Penzance.
Sometimes buses connect with train services, but you might need to get a taxi. If
you're driving, the A389 runs from Bodmin to Wadebridge, where you join the A39
going west, then branch off onto the A389 again to reach Padstow.
Newquay airport (
&
01637/860600;
www.newquaycornwallairport.com) is just
3 miles outside Newquay, and receives flights from London Gatwick, the Isles of
Scilly, and other airports in the U.K. Car rental is available here.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Padstow Tourist Information Office,
North
Quay (
&
01841/533449;
www.padstowlive.com), is open summer Monday to Fri-
day 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 4pm. Winter hours are Monday to
Friday 10am to 4pm, Saturday 10am to 2pm. The
Newquay
Tourist Information
Office,
Marcus Hill (
&
01637/854020;
www.visitnewquay.org), is open April to
10
A Heritage of Tin
(
&
01326/573173;
www.poldark-mine.
co.uk; Apr-Oct Sun-Fri 10am-5:30pm,
June-July also Sat 10am-5:30pm;
admission/guided tour £22 adults,
£9.50 children 16 and under, £24 family
ticket; admission/site only £2.50 adults,
free for children 16 and under), an 18th-
century mine that has a superb under-
ground tour (not for the faint-hearted);
and
Geevor
(
&
01736/788662;
www.
geevor.com; Apr-Oct Sun-Fri 9am-5pm
and Nov-Mar 9am-4pm, admission
£9.50 adults, £5 seniors and children
5-16, free children 4 and under, £29
family ticket), a mine that shut in 1990
and reopened as a “time warp”
museum.
Cornwall is rich in metals, particularly
tin, which has been extracted here
since Roman times. Although South
Crofty, the last working tin mine in
Europe, closed in 1998, in 2011 indium,
a metal used in iPhones, was discov-
ered there, leading to speculation that
it might re-open. The county's unique
mining landscapes, dotted with the pic-
turesque ruins of engine houses, have
been declared a UNESCO World Heri-
tage site (www.cornish-mining.org.uk).
Among the sites to visit are
Cornish
Mines and Engines,
a National Trust site
near Redruth, with the last steam-pow-
ered beam engine made in Cornwall;
Poldark Mine,
Wendron, near Helston
