The Cornwall Blog

There has been a boom in businesses offering cycle hire as more and more people look to healthy options for their holiday entertainment. Ski resorts push mountain biking as soon as the snow starts to trickle away in the swelling streams, and it is not just adrenaline sports fans that take the headlong trip any more. There is an ever increasing number of families looking for excitement in this way. There may not be mountains in the South West, but there are a great number of companies that provide bikes to travel over the largely untamed landscape. A lot of these are based on existing cycle trails such as Trail Bike Hire on the Camel Trail near Padstow, but some now delve into the moors with mountain bike leaders. Coupled with cycle hire, this is a very convenient way to edge out of our individual comfort zones. The very factor that puts many off cycling in South West, the hilly terrain, can be the most attractive reason to make the extra effort. Fitness is not the only concern, there ...

We are very much in the main season here in Cornwall, the beaches are packed and the streets are full of slow moving tourists looking at the view - murder when you are trying to get to work in the morning! My wife gets very angry when it is so busy, as do many locals, but considering the tourist industry is the largest source of income in the South West, I have a more ambivalent view. There are many plus points to such an influx of visitors to a relatively small area, the sudden boost to the local economy not being the least important, but the season has become progressively forced into a tight time period year on year. One factor contributing to this has been the new policy for schools to penalise children that take holidays during term time. This has meant that parents will only go away during the six weeks school break, and are not able to take advantage of, perhaps, a short heat wave. The effect of this reduced season also means ridiculously expensive prices for the two months of h...