Message Forums

all i can say is be very careful!!,its well known down here that the parking is a complete and utter rip off,they see you as a cash cow and you will pay through the nose to park!! also do not take any chances with the car parks,because you will get a ticket!, sites on beaches are rare,theres one at pentewan sands,near meva, but it is really expensive,and as you are coming at peak time most will be booked up, i would say dont try to enter st ives at all,park at the top either in the council car park,or try the rugby ground ....padstows the same,looe,you can park at the millpool i think its called..polperro is a complete rip off dont bother,newquay? july/aug?  no way thanks,penzance,not too bad,..remember the roads down here are tight and narrow,so make sure your reversing skills are spot on...one of the best schemes is in dartmouth ,i know its devon but it has a great campsite (little cotton) right next to the park n ride and is excellent value for money!

anyway dont wanna spoil it for you,it will be busy but you should have a good time as long as you plan your destinations...me? im staying indoors for the whole 6 weeks,wake me up on sept 1st.....

So far we have found:

Penzance area -  head for Marazion.  There is a car park right opposite St Michael's Mount (with manned kiosk for payment) right on the sea front.  Plenty of room and popular with motorhomers.  All day parking is £4.00 which is not bad considering a car is £3.00.  We stayed there all day last week, had lunch, went on the beach, did a bit of shopping (mainly for pasties!) and then went home about 8pm.  Kiosk closed around 5pm so if you get there after that time, no charge and car park gates close at 9pm.

Looe - go into Looe and across the bridge, just after the bridge there is large car park on right hand side (easy access and ok for parking).  Do not attempt to park in Looe's small harbour car park.

Tintagel - there are 2 car parks in Tintagel that will accommodate motorhomes.  One is the council run one (I think it's called King Arthurs)  also in Tintagel there is a car park where you can overnight for a few pounds.

To be honest we avoid the real tourist hotspots (St Ives being one of them).  Do not rely on your sat nav to take you everywhere.  If you have chosen your sites, make sure you follow the directions the campsites have given you, otherwise you may end up down some very narrow lanes.  We are used to narrow lanes living in Devon - but to some it may be a bit of a shock.  If you can plan ahead and maybe email the council run car parks of the areas you wish to visit that may be a good idea so they can advise what spaces to use and if their car parks have overhead barriers.

A lot of  campsites have bus stops nearby, so if you can book the sites with a bus stop outside & use the buses it will allow you to see so much more.   We don't go to Cornwall for the touristy things, so prefer off the beaten track but if you want to see all the little fishing villages like Mousehole, Mevagissey etc you're best bet is public transport.

Here's a link to some motorhome parking info, it takes some reading but will give you a general idea.  Try the motorhome forums aswell.

http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/conw.htm

Porth Beach Tourist Park is one of the closest sites I can think of to a beach

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/reviews.asp?revid=2775

In St Ives itself - Ayr Holiday Park & Polmanter both accommodate motorhomes and have access into St Ives itself if you particularly want to stay in that area.

Forgot to say google earth is a very valuable tool.  Always use it, we use it to research campsite locations, then google streetview to check the roads and access!  Plus gives a good idea on access to car parks too. 

Sorry for waffling on.

If you only want to park in St. Ives then you might consider the Rugby Club car park who charge £5 for full day and a bus operates every few minutes down the hill and back again(£1 each way for adults, 50p for kids). Suggest walk down and bus back! There is also a caravan and camping club Rally(no electric) on the Rugby Club Last week in July and 1st three weeks of august they charge about £11 per night.If you go outside these dates, the Rugby Club will let you stay on carpark overnight for a small charge (pay in club bar).The other advantage to parking/camping on this site is you avoid driving thro' the narrow St Ives streets.

Can't really help with any motorhome parking out and about tbh BUT can at least let you know of one campsite that is right on the beach, well, it has it's own.

Now, it's a very popular site and we used to go there allll the time until the year we couldn't get a pitch and went elsewhere and we've never gone back coz we now take the pooch with us and they're not allowed on this particular site.

It's Pentewan Sands just outside of Mevagissey near St. Austell and having just had a quick squiz on their availability for early July they DO still have some pitches, (I'm assuming you'd want an EHU?), available for the week from the 7th but then it seems to be hard to find a single pitch thereonin.

One thing you may not like about this site, it gets quite noisy having a clubhouse and the youngsters that it attracts but it does have security folk wandering around at night and security barriers going in and out and in all honesty, it IS lovely to be so close to the beach. I do miss not being able to just wander down onto the rocks for my spot of early morning fishing while hubby was still sound o in the tin tent and would have a cuppa all ready for me coming back. They do seem to have crammed more pitches in since we were last there though.

Oh and it is quite handy for getting into Mevagissey without having to take your motorhome in, (DON'T even think about trying that coz they are very narrow roads where you're also battling with pedestrians in the middle of them, (I'm quite often one of those pedestrians), and there's one overhanging bit where a couple of houses hang over the very skinny bit of road where you'd have to go in the one way system and I've seen a few going very carefully along by those. dependant on height of the unit), coz there's a bus stop outside the campsite and also a cliff path from the site to the village BUT I'm not sure if that cliff path is back in use since it was having some reinforcing stuff done years back?

Hope this has been sort of helpful? If not, I apologize and I do know of one other site that's right on the beach in Cornwall but....blowed if I can remember the flippin' name of it or even where it is!!!!!!Hope you'll have a great time anyhoo. Beautiful county Cornwall. We're also there in July this year. Making a change from the overpacked month of August we usually do. Sad thing is that we'll miss the St. Ewe Country Fayre this year though with us going earlier.

Hippy

You could consider joining the National Trust before you go - free parking for members and there are some lovely coves (amongst other things) to visit. My membership paid for itself in just the week we spent in Cornwall but then there are all the other camping trips too.

Quote: Originally posted by kar.en on 27/6/2012

---

You could consider joining the National Trust before you go - free parking for members and there are some lovely coves (amongst other things) to visit. My membership paid for itself in just the week we spent in Cornwall but then there are all the other camping trips too.

---