I’d been to Cornwall many times before but my friend Fiona and I decided we fancied the challenge of visiting it again for our annual cycling tirp. (We may have occasionally regretted that decision, given the sharp inclines we were occasionally faced with).
ITINERARY
We made this up ourselves, based on places we wanted to visit and how far we wanted to cycle in a day. We settled on around 40 miles a day.
Started at Wadebridge.
Day 1: Wadebridge to Veryan.
Day 2: Veryan to Porthleven.
Day 3: Porthleven to St Just.
Day 4. St Just to St Agnes.
Day 5: St Agnes back to Wadebridge.
HOW
We drove down with the cars on Fiona’s car. Parked the car in a residential road (not recommended, better to use parkonmydrive.com). Spent the night at the Molesworth Arms Hotel
(and watched the Lionesses stomp to victory). We each have a carbon fibre sport bike by Trek, so they’re light. Ish. We carried a daypack on our backs (also not recommended – we’re going to research handlebar bags next time) for snacks, money, suncream, waterproofs.
LUGGAGE
We used a luggage transfer company called..funnily enough…Luggage Transfers Ltd. They operate in the West Country and were fantastic. Not a single hitch. You just need to give them a schedule before you go of hotels/B&Bs and postcodes etc. We were allowed one x 20kg bag each but you hardly want to dress up at the end of a tiring day so we each had one around 10kg in the end. That cost £199 for both bags for the 5 days.
FOOD
Sadly many of the B&Bs offered only a continental breakfast and I found my legs just couldn’t function on a bowl of cereal and a bit of toast. We grabbed food when we could (and hid it from the seagulls. – they’re lethal) but found towards the end of the day, we were wilting. We had booked restaurants in advance (only because it was August and Cornwall gets very crowded) so at least we knew food was coming from somewhere. I drank one large glass of wine each night. Don’t know why I need to mention that other than to hint that any of you who might be considering a bike trip, hangovers and hills don’t mix very well.
ACCOMMODATION
We stayed in a mix of B&Bs and AirBnBs and had a twin room to keep the costs down. Fiona sleeps like a log thankfully :). The costs ranged from £85-£120 per room. None of them particularly stood out apart from one in Veryan. We were their very first customers and they were charming. Lovely room (fabulous bedding!) with bathroom and she made a great effort. Treverbyn House, Veryan TR2 5QL. A pub 5 minutes walk away for dinner.
CLOTHING
Padded shorts are vital. Even then your bottom will hurt. We both have clipped in bike shoes, but you don’t have to. I wore my favourite socks from Moggans.com. Merino wool keeps you cool, no idea how but they were perfect. We packed the bare minimum (because we don’t do posh) and depended on shower gel and shampoo from the B&Bs, which wasn’t always forthcoming, would you believe.
TOTAL COST
Haven’t had time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s but it’s around £650 each including petrol there and back, the food, accommodation, drinks, everything. We used an app called Tricount
which allows you to enter your costs and it automatically works out who owes who what at the end of the holiday.
It’s so much fun (and much better value) organising a trip like this yourself rather than booking through a company. Obviously the weather was a big plus!
All the photos and laughs from the trip are stored on highlights on my Instagram page. So many beautiful coves and beaches!
Thank you for reading. Any questions, please do ask.
Annie
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