Destination...: ...St Ives

St Ives. One of those destinations everyone seems to have been to. Well, so it seems in my experience. But I’m not sure why.

We only stayed for one night and quite frankly, that is probably enough unless you’re using it as a base to explore Cornwall from. The cobbled streets have a great array of shops and there are of course, plenty of galleries. There are also plenty of places to take some wonderful photos. Do take a camera. Something which may have been quite fun, but was closed was a shop where you could decorate your own pottery. May have a been a quirky way to spend the afternoon. This place can be found if you take a walk down towards the sea wall, away from the harbour. Quite reasonably priced is a boat trip, where you can view sea lions, whales etc. Again not running out of season but we would have liked to have done it.

The harbour area has some lovely views and places to perch whilst eating some chips or having a drink. I fully recommend taking a blanket so you can enjoy a snooze on the beach which seemed like a very popular past time with the locals.

One word of warning beware the sea gulls! They are an absolute menace in every way you can imagine.

We went in early March and I must say, it wasn't very busy as it seems St Ives closes down until Easter, when it springs back to life. I’m not sure it’s really big enough to handle hundreds more people but it must get very busy because many of the restaurants on the harbour could cater for large amounts of people.

Where to stay:

View from the Deluxe Sea View room

We stayed in a lovely and well placed B&B called 27 the Terrace. I would recommend paying for one of the less expensive rooms. the deluxe sea view we paid for was unfortunately on the ground floor, by a road, opposite the dining room and adjacent to the reception. Noisy, overlooked from the road and not very intimate. The quality and standard of the rooms is faultless.

The staff were very helpful and friendly and the breakfast was good for £85 but maybe not for £100. Another positive factor for this B&B is that they do one night bookings which not all places in St Ives do.

Where to eat:

Porthminster Cafe has a lovely beach location and serves up reasonably high end food. We perhaps were a little unfortunate in that all our dishes seemed to have a slight imbalance to them. Either too salty in the case of the pork belly starter or or too much lime in the monk fish curry.

There are some nice touches to the decor here and the white wine is served in an ice bucket. A child's bucket that you find on the beach. Cute. I can recommend the Picpoul if you’re going for white.

The atmosphere is spot on at the Porthminster and I would certainly return again. Later that evening we walked along the harbour and saw that the other restaurants we had considered were pretty empty. So if you are going out of season, then walk along the path to the Porthminster as you won’t be disappointed. Walking past the empty restaurants we had the impression that we would have been disappointed by the offering at the harbour. If the locals are eating there on a Friday night, then something’s amiss.

I wouldn't normally do a review on a chip shop but I feel compelled to do so in this case. If you’re after proper chip shop chips to enjoy by the sea. You won’t get them here. The chippie in question is located under the Beach restaurant on the harbour front. A great location for a chip shop. I wasn't sure if it was a part of the Beach restaurant or not. If so, i would be worried about the quality of food at what is supposed to be a highly recommended eatery. The quality of the chip was poor. The battered fish needed longer cooking and the fact they gave me cod instead of haddock really irked me. There are a couple of other chippies on the front. Try them. Oh and watch out for the sea gulls!