A night at The Polurrian Bay Hotel...and a dose of reality!

The Polurrian Bay Hotel 

On Friday 20th July, just as the schools had broken up for summer, we decided to be a bit spontaneous and book a very last minute weekend away. We could only go for one night and didn't want to travel too far, so Cornwall seemed the perfect option. An hour and lots of searching later, we found that the Polurrian Bay Hotel near Helston had a room available. Having got a bit over excited I almost forgot to check whether the hotel was accessible. Bad news, no lift, and the only room available was on at least the first floor, if not the second. I immediately felt defeated as I couldn't see how we could do it. After talking it through with Mr S, speaking to a helpful lady on reception who had advised we could leave Miss S's wheelchair wherever convenient downstairs, and the fact there was a disabled parking bay right outside the hotel reception,  we decided to go for it and MAKE it work. This perhaps should have been our first clue that our gut feeling was right and it wasn't going to be the most suitable hotel for our needs. 

Play area in the Vista Lounge

We set off by 7.30am on the Saturday morning to make the most of our weekend. With a stop off at a questionable roadside 'American' Diner, some bacon, pancakes and many miles later, we arrived at the beautiful Polurrian Bay Hotel just before midday. The stunning Edwardian hotel, originally a railway hotel back in 1890, has changed shape over the years and has seen Winston Churchill and Clark Gable as guests. We were a couple of hours early for check-in but were told we could use all the facilities straight away.  We took the opportunity to relax in the hotel's Vista Lounge for a while, enjoying a drink and chill out whilst the children raided the large play area. The views from the Vista lounge out to sea were stunning, even though it was a bit overcast in true British summer style! It was a nice way to pass the time and get a feel for the hotel before our room was ready. 

Twin bedroom 

Double bedroom

Room:
Our Superior Sea View Family room was absolutely ideal for a family of four. In fact, the set up of the room is what we often dream of finding, but usually don't! We had a double bedroom along with a SEPARATE twin room and our bathroom in between. Not interconnecting, but an actual two bedroom suite. Being able to settle the children in their OWN bedroom and have our own space was just perfect. It meant also, that I could admire the stunning sun set in our room, while Mr S got the kids to bed in theirs! We could see that staying for a period of a week for instance, could be nice and relaxed, each having our own space. The furnishings were pretty standard but modern and clean and we weren’t expecting anything overly extravagant based on their target market being young families.

View from our double room

Accessibility - 
Our suite was so large, if Miss S had been able to have her wheelchair with her (we were on the first floor), she would have had lots of space to move around, no problem. We had a nice, big bathroom with a bath and shower also. The hotel offers pretty much any extra bits you need for children, from non-slip bath mats to bed bumpers and baby monitors, you name it, they've got it. The hotel doesn't have any family rooms such as the one we stayed in on ground floor, but they do offer interconnecting rooms and one of the superior rooms has a wet room. Villas are on offer a short walk from the hotel but being over two floors, not as ideal for us. 

Facilities: 

The Blue Room

Children are so well catered for at the Polurrian and the parents certainly aren't forgotten either! 
For the adults there is a gym and spa but also indoor and outdoor pools, plus tennis courts which can be enjoyed as a family.
For the kids there is...
The Den -  an Ofsted registered crèche which offers TWO FREE hours of childcare per day (children ages 3 months to 8 years) and the invaluable offer of a Sunday morning lie in for the parents. 
The Blue room (games room) - you'll find a football table, pool table, Xbox and Wii as well as traditional games on offer in a 'family box' (available at reception) or board games in the library.
Vista Lounge play area - dolls houses, train tracks...what more could you want!?
The 'Playzone' - an outdoor area with a giant chess board, snakes and ladders and hop scotch. 

Shortly after we arrived in our room, a lady from The Den came up to give Master and Miss S presents. They each received a bucket and spade, all the details of the kids activities and a ‘pet’ pebble from the hotel's beach. Master and Miss S were able to make key rings and have glitter tattoos whilst we were in the Vista Lounge and we noticed other activities included, making biscuits and having a campfire. Master and Miss S enjoyed also going on a hunt around the hotel looking for miniature versions of the hotel's staff made in to Lego figures and also spotting jellyfish dotted around. 

Accessibility - 
There was a small lift down to access the bottom of the Vista lounge and the outside seating areas. What we could not do sadly, was access most of the children’s activities. The Den was down stairs with no lift. Had we been able to access The Den there would still have been the issue of Miss S requiring 1-1 support and the correct equipment in order to enable her to play. The outdoor playground was down several steep steps and we couldn't see any wheelchair access round to the outside ‘Playzone’. We used the indoor pool during our stay which was great but we did have to carry Miss S upstairs to access that also. 

Dining: 

The food at The Polurrian was absolutely incredible. We ate in the restaurant with the children, although baby monitors were available or a babysitter could have been arranged had we wanted it. To start, the scallops were delicious and the smoked salmon macrons (!) were like nothing I had tasted before. The combination of flavours were fantastic. Both Mr S and I had the curried monkfish to follow, every single morsel of which, was again, incredible! Both children decided upon the burger of which was seasoned and cooked to perfection. All in all we had a fabulous meal. The following morning breakfast lived up to the high expectation we had from the previous night. There were a La Carte options available such as Eggs Benedict, waffles etc. but the hot and cold buffets and the selection on offer, were perfect for us.  

Accessibility - 

The dining area of the Vista lounge and the hotel's 2AA Rosette restaurant were both on the ground floor so easily accessible with Miss S's wheelchair and staff were accommodating with us moving chairs for Miss S to sit at the table in her wheelchair and swapping the grown up cutlery for plastic. 

Surrounding area:

The hotel provided lots of information in our room of the local area, beach information, ideas of walks etc. As we were only there for one night and for us it was all about relaxing, we didn't venture too far. The hotel's beach, Polurrian Cove, is a very steep walk down lots of VERY uneven steps. We tried carrying Miss S and managed it...just, but it wasn’t particularly safe and not something we would attempt again. 

Polurrian Cove

The Polurrian Bay Hotel is in a tiny town called Mullion. Driving around the town's one way system on the Saturday, we hadn't realised we had pretty much seen what the town had to offer. We ventured back to the town on the Sunday and found a pub, Boots, shop selling buckets/spades etc and wet suit hire but most of the town was closed. We tried venturing out to one of the closest beaches, Poldhu, on the Sunday. We soon realised we had no chance of us getting on the beach with Miss S in her regular wheelchair, even if we had found somewhere to park. It was very busy! 

This has been quite a difficult post to write. Staying positive and making things work for Miss S is what we are striving for every day. Whether it be helping her to play football with her big brother, padding out a swing in the park with blankets so she can remain semi-upright or trying to figure out the logistics of getting on a plane and travelling abroad. Sometimes however, reality gives you a big smack in the face and you realise you just can’t ‘fix’ everything, no matter how hard you try. Our weekend in Cornwall was just that, a big, fat dose of reality. In order to give you a true account of our experiences, I do feel it is important to write about the good, the bad and the ugly! The Polurrian Bay was certainly neither bad or ugly and in fact, it was very good in many respects. If it's an uber-family-friendly hotel you are after, that is EXACTLY what you'll get...and some! I do hope I have done the hotel justice with my review, as it is a great place and a fantastic concept, it was just not accessible enough for us. 

So what have we learnt through this trip? 

1)The Luxury Family Hotels group have come up with an amazing concept. Sadly we will probably not be able to return to the Polurrian Bay as it's not fully suited to our needs but we would be interested to see if one of their other hotels would be better suited to us. 

2) Spontaneous, very last minute bookings, probably are now a thing for the past for us. Had we been looking a few weeks or months out, we could have looked at a downstairs room at the Polurrian which would have least made that aspect of our stay easier. 

3) Family-friendly and accessible do not go hand in hand. 

4) There will at times be some things that are just very difficult or simply impossible for Miss S to access...i.e. the beach. We can however try to find alternatives to keep everything we do as inclusive as possible. For example, I have since found out about an amazing all terrain wheelchair which can cope with sand/water/mud! 

You can also read all about our experience at the St Ives Harbour Hotel in our St Ives post.