Over the Easter holidays we spent a lovely week in Marazion in Cornwall, which is a small town on the shore of Mount’s Bay in West Cornwall, opposite St Michael’s Mount. It’s within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with lovely long sandy beaches and lots to do and see, not to mention some really great places to eat.
I thought I would share what we got up to, it really is a beautiful place and I would highly recommend staying there if you’re looking to head to Cornwall.
We drove from my parents’ house in Surrey which took us about 5 hours. Getting out of the car and seeing the view from the garden of our rental house was amazing.
After unpacking, our first stop was the beach, about a 5 minute walk from the house and we enjoyed a leisurely walk before the rest of my family arrived.
We then headed out for dinner at the Fire Engine Inn, where we really enjoyed the food and I gulped down my goblet of gin after a long day of travelling. If you’re a gin fan, you should definitely try this pub with their extensive gin offerings.
I just love this photo of St Michael’s Mount at dusk. St Michael’s Mount is a small tidal island and a civil parish which is managed by the National Trust. The castle and chapel have been home to the St Aubyn Family since around 1650, but the earliest buildings date to the 12th century.
We spent a lovely morning at the Minack Theatre, which is an extremely unique open-air theatre perched on the edge of the cliffs at Sennen Cove, with the most beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. They have various different performances, but we watched a children’s show for my nieces and nephews, and even us adults enjoyed it!
We went for a quick walk along the coastal path to take in the views, and then headed back to Marazion Beach to spend some time with some of my family who were staying nearby. We were so lucky with the weather, as most people know springtime in the UK is notoriously temperamental. The beach in Marazion is lovely and it’s so easy to while away an afternoon playing in the sand and traversing the rocks.
As a family we sure do enjoy some good long walks through the countryside, so the next morning a few of us walked about 5 miles to Porthleven along some beautiful coastline.
Porthleven is a lovely little picturesque fishing village, and apparently the most storm-battered town in Britain!
We had lunch at The Ship Inn, a super quaint and cosy 17th century pub with amazing food – I had the best fish pie ever! This was one of my favourite pubs that we visited.
After a little meander round the village and stopping to get some ice cream (a must-do in Cornwall), we headed back to the beach for a bit of afternoon posing!
I was really looking forward to visiting Penzance, which is a historic port town just along the coast from Marazion, where you get the beautiful view of St Michael’s Mount and there are palm trees and sub-tropical plants everywhere. We walked there from Marazion and had a well-deserved lunch at The Turk’s Head. I got my ice cream fix at Willy Wallers.
The next day was spent in one of my favourite places, St Ives, a beautiful old seaside town with a lovely beach and lots of quaint cobbled streets to explore. We had lunch at our favourite restaurant there, The Rum & Crab Shack, where I always enjoy a rum cocktail or two 🙂
We had an incredible seafood dinner in Penzance at The Shore Restaurant, which is owned and run by chef Bruce Rennie, who has worked in some fab restaurants including the Michelin starred Martin Wishart and Shanks, and Gary Rhodes and Rick Stein. The food was amazing, we opted for the seven course tasting menu with wine pairing. If you like seafood, you should definitely try this restaurant; the produce was so fresh and the flavours were delicious. My favourite course was the monkfish cheek with Indian spices, lentils, carrot and mango.
In the morning we walked across the causeway to St Michael’s Mount where we had a wonder and joined in with the rock pooling lessons with my nieces and nephews. I found it quite fascinating learning about the many different sea species there!
We also explored the gorgeous little fishing village of Mousehole and had a lovely lunch at the Old Coast Guard hotel, which has gorgeous views from its garden.
To work off our yummy pasta food babies, we went for a coastal walk to Lamorna, where we saw the most stunning views of the ocean.
To celebrate (and commiserate) our last evening in beautiful Marazion, we had a couple of drinks at the Godolphin Arms which has a gorgeous terrace overlooking the sea. We didn’t try the food but I would definitely go back there to try it, and I would also love to try the food at Ben’s Cornish Kitchen which has great reviews.
There’s so much to do in and around Marazion, it’s the perfect holiday destination if you’re looking for some beach time in the UK. It’s a very family-friendly place and there are lots of things for children to do, and some really lovely pubs and restaurants for the adults. It definitely helps to have a car as there are tons of lovely nearby towns and villages to explore, but there are lots of walks you can do on Marazion’s doorstep, not to mention exploring the beautiful St. Michael’s Mount.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @beautyurges to see what else I get up to!
Beauty Urges 