The last part of this mini Cornwall series. Whilst staying in the gorgeous Seraphina cottage on the Roseland Peninsula we made the most of the local area. As I said before, in January Cornwall is beautiful but in summer, Cornwall is beautiful beyond what you could ever imagine. It's like you're in Australia or somewhere with insane beaches and little shacks on cliffs serving seafood at sunset. Even in the winter though there was enough for us to do, in fact we had to prioritise fitting as much in as we could over our short stay. The rest of our stay below and some tips too;

After checking out of our cottage in Mousehole, we had a good half a day to fill until we could get into Seraphina so we took a look at the map to work out where to visit. We ended up revisiting an old favourite, Fowey {remember this post?} for a wander around the shops and we'd planned to do the famous Hall walk where you get a ferry over to pretty Polruan fishing village across the water. In the end though it was too cold and a bit rainy so we drove to the next beach down for Sam's on the Beach. A cornish institution! We've been before and they do great seafood and pizzas in a converted lifeguard station on the beach, it's cosy in the winter and beach balmy in the summer.  

After lunch we drove down towards Seraphina stopping at Charlestown, a characterful Georgian port with old ships we've always wanted to stop at. I'd also been tipped off about a new coffee shop called Short & Strong, which on a drizzly January Friday we couldn't wait to hole up in for a while. 

The coconut hot chocolate and scone we shared were SO so good and the cafe itself so lovely in decor.

As a side note if you're self-catering like we were, we found a great Cornish food store within the Waitrose at Truro selling all locally caught fish, meat and it had a bakery etc. We were also recommended Tregairewoon Farm Shop which unfortunately was shut during January but looked amazing and likewise Da Bara Bakery {which I'm soo sad was shut during our stay}, they provide the bread to Jamie's 15 at Watergate Bay restaurant as well as delicious looking pastries and cakes near the cottage. 

We spent both afternoons and evenings in the cottage, one real bonus of when you stay somewhere beautiful in January is having a good excuse to stay 'home' and enjoy it all. But on Saturday morning we got up and headed to St Mawes, an old fishing port harbour town. It's up market with two gorgeous looking hotels and even more gorgeous looking houses. To be honest I expected some more shops there but for that there was the ferry that took us across to Falmouth, home to allll the shops. 

Pink thatched cottage of dreams. We loved walking the pretty streets of St Mawes.

The ferry from St Mawes to Falmouth runs everyday and it was so nice to be out on the water. It was mild during our stay and definitely didn't feel like January zooming across outside on the back of a boat. 

The way that the coastline runs around this part of Cornwall means that ferry crossings save you so much time instead of going by road. And of course it's more fun. We bought our tickets on board. You can see more here at Fal River.

Falmouth itself was amazing. I'd heard the name a lot but never visited before and didn't realise just how much there was to do over there. Along with all the high street shops there were great little independents and SO many eateries. It's become known as a real foodie place in Cornwall and we were spoilt for choice. {Cornwall normally is fairly traditional with pubs/pasty shops and seafood so as Londonder's used to lots of food options it was good to see burrito places and up market burger bars here as a bonus}. In the end, I was really craving a crab sandwich and saw a sign outside a trendy looking Caribbean restaurant of all places. It reminded us of Wahaca in style but with a Caribbean/seafood take! The crab sandwich was the best I've ever had. We shared it along with a mackerel salad and for an unassuming, not knowing where we should have gone for lunch kind of drop in place we loved it all.  

We walked round to a couple of the Falmouth beaches after lunch before getting the ferry back across to St Mawes {and back to the cottage to finish Designated Survivor!}

Before heading home we'd been recommended the walk to the beach from our cottage just fifteen minutes away through the fields. The beach, and walk, were both beautiful and the sun came out for the first time all week just as we were about to get in the car to drive home! 

We stopped in Devon on the way home for lunch with Ben's Mum who was staying there for the week and then headed home, back to reality. Cornwall is SUCH a magical place and one of my favourite places in the UK to escape to. 

A few other places we were recommended/have been to before/would have gone to if we'd had more time/it was summer;

The Eden Project

Jamie Oliver's Watergate Bay restaurant

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

The Hidden Hut at Porthcurnick Beach

Padstow

Fowey

The Minack Theatre

Where are your favourites? 

R <3 xx