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| Perranporth Beach |
Terry, Izzy and I have recently returned from a wonderful family holiday or as they're also known as, a "staycation" in Cornwall. Even though I thoroughly research travel insurance for when we go abroad, it can still be quite costly, so we decided to save our money and explore the beautiful county of Cornwall. We were very fortunate with the weather, although it got hotter as the week got it, it wasn't unbearable. The temperatures were perfect for us, especially having Izzy, we didn't want her getting too hot.
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| Nature Reserve at Golitha Falls |
Both myself and Terry have travelled to Cornwall when we were younger, but we wanted to return and make new memories as a family, meaning our dog, Izzy came along too. We packed up the car, taking my new portable concentrator with us, and got up bright and early. We started the 6 hour drive at 5am and with a couple of pit stops and a few toilet stops for Izzy, we managed to dodge any traffic jams and had a smooth journey.
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| Lappa Valley Steam Train |
As we couldn't get into our lodge before 4pm, we stopped off in Looe. This pretty fishing harbour is the filming location for 'Beyond Paradise' which is the spin-off series to 'Death in Paradise' - yes Terry and I have watched both of these series! It was a really lovely area and after exploring the shops and the beach, we enjoyed fish and chips by the harbour.
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| Looe |
We then continued our journey to our lovely lodge which was situated in a town called Perranporth, just outside of Newquay. This lodge came with it's own private hot tub, which as soon as we arrived, we turned it on, so we could have a dip first thing the next day. As it was a dog friendly accommodation, there was a fence around us, so Izzy could run around on the decking without us worrying about her escaping. That evening, we ordered a Chinese takeaway and had an early night, we were all shattered from the long drive down!
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| Golitha Falls |
Before our holiday arrived, I did some thorough research on disabled friendly and dog friendly activities, restaurants, beaches etc. As we had decided that Izzy was coming with us on our holiday, it was important that everything we had planned, she would be there with us. We wasn't going to leave her alone in the lodge at any time throughout our stay. We were really surprised at how dog friendly Cornwall is and even though Cornwall is at times extremely hilly, we had our car and my blue badge, which helped us to park as close as possible to each location. We also brought along my wheelchair for the difficult hilly terrains
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| Perranporth Beach |
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| Keeping cool at Swanpool Beach |
Perranporth is an extremely dog friendly and disabled friendly town with a huge and beautiful sandy beach. Izzy absolutely loved running around on the beach and brought half of the beach into the car afterwards! Haha! You can also hire wheelchairs to specifically travel on the sand for the beach. The pubs in Perranporth served delicious food and we returned a few times for our evening meals! Just beyond Perranporth, is Newquay and we had a great day exploring the town and having food and drink in their local pubs. One activity that Terry and I always do on holiday is crazy golf. We're very competitive (in a good way!) and I managed to find a dog friendly mini golf course in Newquay - we just had to stop Izzy chasing the golf balls! Haha! Terry obviously won, but only by 4 shots, so the drinks were on me that evening!
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| Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm |
Another two dog friendly activities we did were visiting Lappa Valley and Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm. We wasn't sure what to think of Lappa Valley to start with, but we were pleasantly surprised. It is the perfect place to take children, so definitely check it out, your kids will love it! But we enjoyed the area and there's plenty of fields for dogs to have fun too. Fortunately for us, as we are still in the school term, it wasn't that busy. Izzy loved travelling on the steam train and running around the fields chasing after her ball. There was a little river flowing beside the fields, which meant Izzy could go for a paddle to cool herself down. Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm was great fun, and a definite must visit, if you're in the area. Again disability friendly, lifts available and mainly on one level, except for a few (about 10ish) stairs to the tasting room. We enjoyed the cider tasting (mainly Terry, as I was driving!) and exploring the farm surroundings on a tractor. Dogs are allowed in almost every building except for the production building, which meant we just took it in turns to have a look. We had a super time and came home with a few bottles of cider!
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| Trenance Crazy Golf |
Whilst on holiday, Terry really wanted to do some water-sports with Izzy. After researching dog friendly water sports, we found some in Falmouth. We spent the whole day sunbathing on a lovely small beach in Swanpool. Many of the beaches in Falmouth have a dog ban from May, but fortunately we found out that Swanpool Beach didn't start its dog ban until July. Izzy kept herself cool in her new cool tent, whilst we worked on our tans. In the afternoon we hired a double kayak and Izzy joined us in the boat. I was pretty useless at the paddling, so Terry did all of the work! Haha! The weather was perfect, the sea was calm and we loved exploring coves with hidden beaches and caves.
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| Kayaking at Swanpool Beach |
On our return journey home we decided to stop at Golitha Falls. A stunning nature reserve and a great walk for Izzy. She was going crazy with all the new smells! Golitha Falls is a series of cascades and waterfalls along a section of the River Fowey. The walk was very up and down, so I walked with my oxygen and we took it slow, but it was magnificent when we got to the viewpoint. If you stick to the main footpath, which is shown on the map at the start of the walk to the viewpoint, you can take a wheelchair.
Golitha Falls
The journey home took a lot longer than we expected, but we all had a fantastic time. Everyone who has been to Cornwall say how beautiful it is and what a wonderful place it is to visit. We only had a week in Cornwall and didn't travel around too much, but we definitely agree and we can't wait to return in the future to do some more exploring!
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| Lovin' Life! |
Thanks for reading!