Christmassy Cornwall...

We’re beginning to feel very festive here at The Sail Lofts, our Christmas tree has just arrived and Dave is hunting around the garage looking for the lights. In fact St Ives in general has a very festive feel to the air, the town’s lights have been switched on and many of the local pubs have added mulled wine and mulled cider to their menu’s – some recent guests inform us that the mulled cider is deliciously potent!

Cornwall is a great place to buy unique gifts and recently I went to Trereife House for its annual Christmas Fayre, there was so much on offer from local handmade jewelery to quirky clocks made from slate and yummy Cornish food to glasses made from recycled bottles. I certainly picked up some great stocking fillers that I hope will wow my family and friends.

In the lead up to the festive period there are a number of Christmas Fayres in Cornwall but there’s also lots to do with the family if you’re tired of all that Christmas shopping.

Last weekend my husband and I visited the Eden Project up in St Austell. Eden is currently celebrating its Time of Gifts season and features a host of festive themed treats in the lead-up to Christmas. The ice skating rink is back for another season and is looking stunning. This year they have ‘chilly penguins’ to help young children on the ice, these penguins act as a skating aid and really do help the little ones confidence on the ice.

There really is so much going on in Cornwall over the festive season and if you’re visiting us and you need any recommendations whatsoever on Christmas markets or attractions that are really getting into the festive spirit please don’t hesitate to ask.

Kelly.

St Ives September Festival 10-24 September

Ahh, the St Ives September Festival - one of those special times in St Ives. The school holidays are over, the sun is shining, the sea is at its warmest, a sense of relaxation settles into the town as the season is coming to an end - time to celebrate!

The September Festival is time for locals (and everyone in the know ;-) ) to celebrate the end of another summer with two weeks of live music, arts, poetry, and everything in between. Guests who stay during the festival almost always book for the next year, if you haven't been before - try it!

This years line up is even bigger and better than before, the important thing is to get your tickets early for the main acts...

Here is our pick of the bunch for this years festival:


The Big Chris Barber Band - Saturday 10th September 2011 8pm at the Guildhall
81 year old band leader Chris Barber is world renowned, now with an 11 piece band the combination of blues and jazz make this a must see! Tickets are £25 and we strongly recommend booking these early.

Brodsky Quartet & Jacqui Dankworth - Monday 12th September 2011 8pm at the Guildhall
The Brodsky Quartet are at the forefront of the international chamber-music scene, mastering the string quartet to become very well know for their work with other artists including Elvis Costello, Bjork and Sting. Their skill lies in their diverse performances of complex compositions from the likes of Hayden, Beethoven, Bartok, Britten and more. If you like this type of music it should be an excellent night of music.

Lau & Adrian O'Reilly Wednesday 14th September 2011 8pm at the Guildhall
 A must see if you like folk, winners of Best Group at the Radio 2 Folk Awards for three years in a row (2008, 2009 and 2010) this is the perfect time to see Lau. Three very talented chaps make up the group who are by no means restricted to the 'folk' genre and instead explore across genres to create a fabulously unique sound.


We'll be back with more recommendations as and when the acts are announced. If you still haven't arranged for accommodation in St Ives during the festival we recommend booking early as it is a very popular time.

If you have any other comments or recommendations do feed them back on the blog!

Another award for St Ives? Really?

Yes, St Ives has scooped another award, this time from the coveted Traveller's Choice Awards. We felt this deserved some space on the blog, so we will continue with the events theme next time. So what was this award for?

After winning ‘best UK holiday destination’ in 2010, St Ives has now been awarded ‘best beaches in the UK’ by Tripadvisor users at the Traveller's Choice Awards.

All with naturally soft sand, beach cafes and hire shops, they have something different to offer everyone. Porthmeor (30 metres from The Sail Lofts) is the year-round surfers beach. With the newly refurbished Porthmeor Beach Café, a surf school, chalets that can be pre-booked, and world famous Tate St Ives, Porthmeor faces northwest and is perfect for the Atlantic waves. If you’ve got small children or toddlers, 

Porthgwidden (a minutes walk from the Sail Lofts) is the one to choose. Nestled beneath the slopes of the ‘Island’, with uninterrupted views across St Ives Bay to Godrevy Lighthouse, it’s smaller crescent shape is sheltered and just right for children. There’s also got the wonderful Porthgwidden Beach Café serving food all day, with their own hire shop and beach chalets to pre-book. 

A ten minute walk round the harbour front, past the Lifeboat House and up through the Warren brings you to Porthminster, a traditional family beach with a choice of cafes, shops, and hire facilities. Don’t miss having a meal at the award winning Porthminster Beach Café which is on the sand itself, with fantastic views from the restaurant and their outside terrace across St Ives Bay towards Gwithian and Godrevy. 

Not forgetting the Harbour Beach at low tide and Carbis Bay for a spot of crabbing, St Ives is lucky to have such a selection of beaches. 

If you want to take advantage of all these lovely beaches in this lovely spring weather then we have had two unfortunate cancellations for this Friday 15th April in our Island and Zennor apartments. 

Luxury accomodation offers to celebrate spring

After all the fuss about bad weather over the bank holiday Cornwall has been blessed with some lovely weather at the end of the week. Blue skies, clear blue water and its even warm enough to lose the jumpers!

We have been busy working on our new cottage which is all ready to go for our first guests on Friday, and it looks fantastic, I'll post some pics soon. 

Great opportunity to learn to surf at the moment as well as its not too big and more importantly its warming up as well. For anyone interested in a surf break then please do contact us. 

To celebrate the beginning of Spring we will be offering some April offers in our five star apartments and cottage. We have several last minute offers on our website and for more information on the deals we have at No.5 Bethesda Place please call us on 01736 799 175.

Happy Easter from TSL

Happy Easter to everyone, we hope you have had an enjoyable weekend wherever you have been. As anyone in Cornwall will know, the season has now begun! Its exciting for us down here at The Sail Lofts as we are very busy and enjoying having a 'full house' again. 

A big congratulations to St Ives, Tate St Ives and Porthminster Cafe (St Ives) for winning the hatrick at the Coast awards! Also congratulations to Surfers Against Sewage who won an award for the Best Marine Green Project, a worthy cause doing many good things around our coasts.

The surf has been mixed as well but Saturday and Monday were both two good days and it looks like it will continue through today on the North Coast and tomorrow on the South Coast. Lots of different spots seem to be working at the moment, and both coasts meaning lots of choice!

For anyone prepared to travel for a meal out whilst in St Ives I had a superb meal at Kota in Porthleven, I had heard about the excellent reviews but was pleasantly surprised when it completely exceeded my expectations!

We have a set of weekend breaks online at the moment at very special prices! A perfect opportunity to come to St Ives and enjoy the quieter period before the summer rush!

A New Cottage

We've been very busy down here at The Sail Lofts, with the preparations for Five Bethesda Place (our new holiday cottage in St Ives) rapidly underway and thankfully all on schedule thanks to Dave. The new cottage is looking great and it seems like we are having deliveries everyday for it, getting ready for its first guests in a couple of weeks.

I found this rather novel the other day when in Falmouth, I had breakfast on Princes Pier at the cafe, and as it was warm and sunny we sat outside. When the breakfast came along the waitress brought a water pistol toscare off the sea gulls, brilliant idea! 

The surf has been good over the last week with a new swell arriving on St Patricks day and we still have waves today. I've also noticed in the past week that it is warm enough to drop the gloves, as the air temperature rises and the water temperature seems to as well. The forecast for the next week is looking OK as well if one can find some shelter from the forecasted Westerlies. 

For all those who live in Cornwall don't forget there is only a week left of free entry at Tate St Ives. 

We are really busy for the next 3 weeks with no availability at all, but if you would like a break in April then give the office a call and see if we can arrange the perfect break in St Ives for you.

Happy St Pirans Day!

Happy St Pirans day to one and all! We all celebrated with pasties today, which went down very well as usual, thank you St Ives Bakery! Only a short post today as it really hectic down here at The Sail Lofts.

Rumours have been flying around St Ives (and much of Cornwall) about Pirates of the Caribbean coming to St Ives, Johnny Depp has even been rumored to be seen around! The Sun and MTV have got the story into the mainstream press but is it true?

We are moving closer to announcing our new ventures, sign up to our newsletter before 4 today for the full low down to find out some of our plans.

On a final note for those who have had the opportunity to be out and about in Cornwall this week, you will know what a superb week of weather it has been, and long may it continue. But a bit of surf would be quite nice too, Monday and Tuesday are looking quite good, so finger crossed.

Have a good week!

Busy week at The Sail Lofts

The Sail Lofts is making the most of the quiet season (although last week wasn't quite so quiet). We are currently fitting out and transforming a fishermans cottage in the heart of St Ives into a beautifully interior designed property which meets the high standards of our Sail Lofts apartments.

The property will be a 3 bedroom property, with 2 double bedrooms, one en suite and further single bedroom. For anyone who is interested in a fabulous holiday cottage tucked away in a beautiful part of St Ives please contact our office on 01736 799 175.

The Sail Lofts also has another piece of news, but we're keeping this hush hush for the moment, so watch this space in the coming weeks to find out more!

There has been lots of news flitting about for the St Ives Festival in September a full line up (so far) is here.

Rumours have also been flying around as to who will be taking over Woolworths on Fore Street, apparently Pizza Express has submitted a planning application, but who are the other takers and what are your thoughts?

Other news is that we are still offering a fantastic 25% off late availability breaks in St Ives in a selection of our wonderful apartments.

Half term in St Ives and Cornwall

Half term has arrived and St Ives is busy again after a 6 week break from Christmas. The weekend saw great weather, in particular in Sunday, when there was a number of people out and about enjoying Valentines day and their holidays.

With no surf this weekend I was a little stuck of what to do, so I spent a lot of the weekend delving into parts of Cornwall I hadn't been to for a while. The highlight of the week was certainly lunch on Sunday at the Victoria Inn in Perranuthnoe, with great food and a lovely atmosphere, a real hidden gem I would recommend to anyone.

A pleasant walk along the coastal path on the South Coast is always nice, the water was glassy flat (looks nice but not much fun for the surfers amongst us!), the picture on here is of the view from Perranuthnoe towards Mounts Bay with Mousehole in the distance.

We have a couple of apartments left for next week but these are booking quickly, for more information visit us here. Also we have just added an a listing onto a new website for St Ives which I came across recently: LoveStIves which has all types of interesting information on the area.

Feasting, surfing and a round of golf!

St Ives began the week in style as the annual Feast Day kicked off, with the youth of the town scrabbling around for a silver ball, which then led to a cold swim for two brave souls! To see the action and read a bit more about it this blog has a great perspective on the day.

Philip down here at The Sail Lofts celebrated his Birthday in style by winning a competitive game of golf over the weekend at Tehidy Park Golf Club. His family and friends lucked into some glorious weather for the game as well, good timing!

The surf was on fire over the weekend as well, the south coast was great on Saturday and was well overhead, with some sneaky barrels. With the sun shining I'm sure there will be some great photos floating around, but check this video of Porthleven, looks nice!

On Sunday the North Coast decided to turned really clean and Porthtowan was really good fun with long long lefts and some really fun walls. Its been a while but what a weekend! 

Here at The Sail Lofts we are fully booked for half term week but we do have some great offers on holidays in st ives coming up soon, so keep your eyes on the website.