A Guide to St Ives Beaches: Part 1...

When staying in our beautiful self catering apartments you are absolutely spoilt for choice with some of the most breathtaking beaches in the country. There’s something for everyone, with surfing coves, dog walking spots, and family friendly beaches safe for children. Why not make the most of your holiday by taking in the best beaches we have to offer? Here’s part one of our guide to the St Ives beaches. 

Porthmeor

Just a stones throw away from The Sail Lofts you will find Porthmeor, one of Cornwall’s most beautiful beaches. This Atlantic facing beach is a surfers paradise. It’s not particularly sheltered on a windy day, so make use of the Sail Loft’s wind breaks. It has all the facilities you could need with the Porthmeor Beach Café serving beautiful food to eat in or takeaway. If you’re interested in dabbling in some water sports Porthmeor also boasts the St Ives Surf School which offers lessons, board hire, kayaking and coasteering. 

Awards: Blue Flag & Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence.

Lifeguard Service: Cover during weekends in April, daily from 5th May to 30th September and weekends in October.

Parking: No Designated Parking.

Dogs: Seasonal ban from Easter to the 1^st October.

Toilets: Yes.

Porthminster

Only a 15 minute walk from our holiday cottages this sheltered, family friendly beach has easy access with great facilities. The award winning seafood restaurant, The Porthminster Café, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as having a takeaway service right on the beach, perfect if you forgot to pack a picnic!

Awards: Blue Flag & Trip Advisor Travellers Choice.

Lifeguard Service: Daily from 19 May to 30 September.

Parking: Parking close to the beach (Warning: it fills up quick)

Dogs: Seasonal ban from Easter to the 1^st October.

Toilets: Yes. 

Porthgwidden

This small, hidden beach is a real Cornish gem. Lying in the nook of the Island this beach is just a few minutes away from our luxury apartments. It’s extremely sheltered, great for kids and has plenty of facilities including beach huts that are available to rent from the council. The wonderful Porthgwidden Café also over looks the beach with a kiosk for coffee and snacks.

Awards: Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence.

Lifeguard Service: No Lifeguard Cover.

Parking: Parking in the Island car park. (Warning: it fills up quick)

Dogs: Seasonal ban from Easter to the 1^st October.

Toilets: Yes.

Beach towels and wind breaks are provided in every apartment and buckets and spades are available from our wet room. If you need directions to any beaches don’t be afraid to ask, we’re here to help. Stay tuned till next week for part two of our St Ives beach guide.

Onna x  

Fuel for the day...

Early mornings have never been my thing but thanks to the arrival of our beautiful baby girl I have a newfound appreciation of early starts and I’ve fallen in love with St Ives all over again.

Now, don’t get me wrong a lie in would be nice from time to time but I’ve decided to embrace the dark circles, get out nice and early and sample what St Ives’ breakfast menu’s have to offer.

Porthminster Beach Café

Topping my list has to be this beautiful little beach café that you usually have to book weeks in advance. At sunrise however it’s a different story. We arrived at 9.30am on a Saturday morning and had our choice of tables and it really was perfect in every way – the weather, the view, the food and the sleeping baby! I plumped for the free-range poached eggs with a cheeky side order of local sausage and bacon and it was divine. The other half of course went for the full fry-up and without even a smidge of brown sauce left on the plate I’d say it was a winner. Washed down with locally sourced apple juice and freshly squeezed orange juice, it really couldn’t have been better.

Porthmeor Beach Café

Continuing the beach theme (well we are in Cornwall!) we headed to Porthmeor Beach Café. This is somewhere I’ve always wanted to eat but until now simply haven’t gotten around to and breakfast seemed a great place to start. It did not disappoint. Being a sucker for granola, yoghurt and compote I couldn’t resist this when I saw it on the menu and I must say it was one of the best. Hubby built his own brekkie and ordered most items on the menu despite my encouragement to try something a bit different. Again we managed to dine alfresco and the view really is one of my favourites in St Ives and despite the baby being far from asleep she was impeccably behaved and charmed the other diners with her cuteness.

Hub, St Ives

Being massive fans of The Hub for lunchtime and evening food we decided to give this harbour front hang-out a go for breakfast. The breakfast menu itself is fairly simple but what they do, they do well. This time around we decided to share a stack of pancakes with summer berries & maple syrup and a ‘Pig me up’. Both delicious but the pancakes were a definite hit for me. Whilst the weather wasn’t quite so kind on this breakfast outing the cosy booths and décor create an American style diner feel which is a refreshing change for St Ives.

There are a few more breakfast outings planned this summer so if I come across any other gems I’ll let you know.

Kelly x

St Ives Food and Drink Festival

As promised here is the second installment of our pick of the best events happening in St Ives. This week we are featuring the St Ives Food and Drink Festival, a relatively new festival to the town, but one of our favourites.

Starting on Monday 16th May for six days the festival promises to highlight the culinary delights of St Ives and the local area amongst a host of cooking demonstrations, foraging, walks and wine. 

Here is a pick of some of the events we are looking forward to most:

Tuesday 17th May - Coastal forage and beach barbecue with Porthminster Cafe

A foraging walk along the coast with one of St Ives' most renowned restaurants to forage for food to cook later at the beach. We think this sounds great, there are so many hidden treasures along our coasts, with the help of some experts this should be a great day out. It is limited to 15 people and tickets cost £20 - make sure you book in advance with Porthminster Cafe on 01736 795352. 

Thursday 19th May - South African Wine Evening with Scarlet Wines in Lelant

A sharing of tables in a relaxed setting - guests will be provided with six wines to taste served with South African inspired dishes. A great way to try new wines from a very knowledgeable team, with a growing reputation for the quality of food this should be a great sociable evening. 

Friday 20th May - Wine and Cornish cheese evening with Mark Elwood at Cornish Deli 

Sample some of the best Cornish cheese with Mark, its a great place to eat at any time, but this should be even more special! 

Sunday 22nd May - Cooking Demonstrations

There are going to be several cooking demonstrations on the Sunday, our favourites would be at the Porthminster Cafe, Porthgwidden Cafe and the Seafood Cafe. These should be great and we look forward to seeing you there! 

Next time we will be looking at the big one, the St Ives September Festival.

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. 

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!