Cornwall - A wonderful stay at Poachers Pocket

Trying to choose accommodation in Cornwall is like trying to decide on a gelato flavour in Rome.

Near on impossible! 

As soon as lockdown was lifted enough to travel, Mr Poachie and I started looking for a place to stay and at that time, for the month we wanted to travel there was a lot of availability. I think we were very lucky as I know a few people we looking at places to stay in Cornwall a few weeks later and most places were then fully booked.

Cornwall is normally very busy; its a popular spot for people who want to staycation and for visitors from overseas. We thought that going in September the crowds might have died down with kids going back to school and travel to the UK being restricted. It was still quite busy, one local shop keeper told us it was quite unusual but I think lots of people had the same idea as us.

As we visited so many different parts of Cornwall I am going to blog about them separately but to start I have to rave about the wonderful Airbnb that you saw on my insta! 

As I mentioned, I found it really difficult to choose where to stay, I thought maybe we should be in St Ives but I was worried about how busy it would be and it was quite far from the other places I wanted to go to. I had heard that Mousehole was meant to be pretty so should we book a multi trip and stay in two places? This took a lot of research and in the end we settled on a week at the gorgeous Poachers Pocket in Helland.

I immediately fell in love with the look of it, I love good interior design and this cottage had so many little details that some places don't bother to include. The location was good for us as most places were within an hours drive and it had parking and some good pubs nearby. Plus it came with two bicycles which sadly we didn't get round to using but it's a definite bonus for those who like to go cycling as there is a trail nearby.

The name was also appropriate as Poachers Pocket is where Mr Poachie should stay! Someone recently asked me why I call him Poachie and we aren't 100% sure where it came from, I think he said it before with reference to breakfast and I liked the word, thought it was cute and there we have it!

The cottage not only was decorated stylishly, the bed linens were high quality and the bed was super comfy. They provided us with White Company dressing gowns and slippers. There was a roll top bath which was heaven after spending the day in the seabreeze and they also left us a welcome gift of local wine, breakfast bits, tea, choccies etc. I would thoroughly recommend it. 

A note on covid cleanliness, we had strict instructions on what to do on departure which made us feel that they were being very thorough and we knew the cottage would have been cleaned within an inch of its life before we arrived which was good to put our minds at rest. They also provided hand sanitiser so we could use it as soon as we returned home each day.

It was a bit on the cosier side so the sofa wasn't very big and the kitchen was small but we weren't there very much and we only used the kitchen to cook breakfast. We were out and about all day, came home late for a cup of tea and soak in the tub and then crashing out in the very comfy bed! So if you were thinking of booking somewhere where you know you might want to spend more time in, then it might not be for you.

They had a record player with some old vinyl's which I thought was marvellous. In this day and age where you have all songs available to you on spotify it seemed so novel to put on a record! I didn't even know that they had a B side so every day is a school day!

Nice bright and airy bedroom. The decor made me want to go to Homesense and spend some serious cash monies. There was plenty of space to put your clothes away and make it feel like home.

I could go on and on about everything I liked about it! The owners obviously put in a lot of love and care into turning this place into a little haven for their guests.

You are out in the sticks here though, so you will need a car. The town Bodmin isn't too far to drive, there were some pubs nearby but they were always fully booked, that was the pain of holidaying during lockdown as you had to book everywhere but we didn't know what time we would want to eat or where? 

We got an indian takeaway the night we arrived as we were tired and really fancied a curry. Each night after that I think we ate out except once when we were too full! 

Home made scones and sour dough on arrival.

Heart eyes!!

During our stay we visited St Ives, Padstow, The Eden Project, Lost gardens of Heligan, Polperro, Helford, Mousehole, Newquay and Looe, which was a lot of places! I will write these as separate blog posts as you will be bored of it in one hit I'm sure!!

Neither of us had visited for many years so we wanted to try and see as much as we could. My regret is not booking a second week to just sit on the beach but now we know for next time where to stay. The other thing we didn't get to do was cycle down to the Camel valley vineyard but we had so much in our itinerary already we just couldn't squeeze it in.

This bath tub was fantastic for a long soak, I really feel the cold and whilst the weather was generally quite good when we were there I still get cold to my core when it is breezy.

Thank goodness for Airbnb, I really think it is such a great idea and I prefer staying here than in hotels. 

So all in all a wonderful and much needed break!!