10 Cornwall Hotels Sorted by Which Coast You Want

Cornwall sits on roughly the same latitude as Newfoundland and it grows tree ferns outdoors. The North Atlantic Drift, the northern arm of the Gulf Stream, carries warm water up from the Caribbean and pushes against the peninsula, and the result is a strip of Britain that rarely freezes.

That is why the great Cornish gardens exist. Heligan, Trebah, Glendurgan and Tresco on the Scillies grow gunnera, palms, echium and camellias that would die in Kent, and several of them were planted in the nineteenth century by families who realised what the current was doing for them.

Two coasts, and they are not the same holiday

Cornwall is a peninsula about 130 kilometres long with sea on both sides, and the difference between them decides the trip.

The north coast faces the open Atlantic. It has the cliffs, the surf, the big sandy beaches at Watergate Bay, Fistral and Perranporth, and weather that arrives without warning. The water is cold and lively. This is the coast for surfing, walking and drama.

The south coast faces the Channel and is sheltered by the landmass behind it. It has drowned river valleys — the Fal, the Helford, the Fowey — which means creeks, wooded estuaries, sailing water and the warmest sea in Britain. This is the coast for boats, gardens and sitting outside.

The far west, around St Ives and Penzance, gets both, plus the light that brought the painters and built the Tate outpost.

The Isles of Scilly, 45 kilometres off Land's End and reached by ferry or a small plane, are frost-free almost entirely. Tresco Abbey Garden grows plants from South Africa and New Zealand outdoors, which on a British island is genuinely strange to stand in.

The ten below are grouped by coast.

The south coast

Estuaries, gardens and the warmest water.

Hotel Tresanton occupies a set of buildings stepping down a hillside at St Mawes with a private cinema, a beach club across the road and a kitchen that has drawn people down from London for twenty-five years. It is the best hotel in Cornwall.

The Idle Rocks sits on the St Mawes waterfront a few doors along, with a terrace almost in the harbour and rooms over the water.

The Nare occupies a headland on the Roseland peninsula above two beaches, with gardens, an indoor and outdoor pool and a formality that its regulars return for annually.

Talland Bay Hotel sits above Talland Bay between Looe and Polperro with a subtropical garden, sculpture through the grounds and a small room count.

St Michaels Resort occupies a position on the Falmouth seafront with a large spa, two pools and full family facilities, near the Fal estuary sailing water.

The north coast

Atlantic surf, cliffs and the big beaches.

The Scarlet occupies a clifftop above Mawgan Porth in a low building designed to sit into the headland, adults-only, with clifftop hot tubs and a natural swimming pool. It is the most architecturally considered hotel in the county.

Bedruthan Hotel & Spa sits on the same stretch of coast under the same ownership, with a serious children's programme, two pools and a beach below. It is the family counterpart.

Watergate Bay Hotel occupies a position directly above Watergate Bay with a surf school on the sand, an ocean-facing pool and two miles of beach at low tide.

St Moritz Hotel sits above the Camel estuary at Rock with a spa, a pool and the sailing water and Padstow across the water by ferry.

The Isles of Scilly

Forty-five kilometres out, and frost-free.

Hell Bay Hotel occupies a position on Bryher, one of the smaller inhabited islands, facing the Atlantic with a pool, an art collection and about eighty people living on the island around it. Getting there takes a flight or a ferry and then a boat.

What we have left off

The self-catering cottages across Cornwall are excluded, and in a county built on the summer holiday let they are the great majority of the beds. They are houses rather than hotels.

What to do

Walk a section of the South West Coast Path, which runs the entire Cornish coastline. The stretch from St Ives to Zennor and the cliffs around the Lizard are the best of it.

See the gardens, and go in spring. Heligan was lost under brambles for seventy years and restored from 1990; Trebah drops through a ravine to its own beach.

Go to Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, which is her studio and garden left as she had them.

Eat the shellfish. Cornwall lands crab, lobster, mussels and scallops, and the good places are harbour-side and unfussy. The pasty is a real thing and the good ones are not sold at stations.

Cross to the Scillies for a few days if you can. It is a different climate and a slower one.

Practical notes

Newquay has an airport with UK connections. The train from London Paddington takes about five hours to Penzance and the overnight sleeper is a genuinely good way to arrive.

May, June and September are ideal. July and August are the peak and the A30 into the county can be slow on changeover Saturdays. Winter is stormy, quiet and atmospheric, and many coastal hotels close in January.

The sea is cold on both coasts. The south is warmer and neither is warm.

Questions people actually ask

Why does it grow palm trees?

The North Atlantic Drift keeps the peninsula frost-free in most winters, which is why the Victorian gardens were planted here.

North coast or south coast?

North for surf, cliffs and big beaches. South for estuaries, gardens, sailing and warmer water.

Are the Isles of Scilly worth it?

For three nights or more, yes. A flight or a ferry each way makes a day trip pointless.

How many nights?

Six. Four on one coast with a garden day and a coast path walk.

If you only book one