Sunny St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives Harbour Hotel April 2019 

Mr S managed to escape work for a few days last week, so we decided a little break was in order. Having lived in Devon for the last 18 months and being so close to many stunning places, we decided to discover a little more of Cornwall whilst we had the chance. The search for a two night stay the following week, was on! Availability was not too much of a problem as it was just before the school Easter holidays were due to start. The bigger issue was finding somewhere that we wanted to stay that was accessible…that old chestnut! Lots of the beautiful hotels I was coming across were old Georgian houses and just not set up for wheelchair users. Phone calls were made to various hotels with varying responses...they didn't have a lift/there was a lift but no access to the floor with all the children’s activities/we COULD access the facilities BUT not in the same way as everyone else and a half mile hike around the property was the best chance of access…! Each time I ended one of these conversation with the same ‘ahhhhhh, oh well' slightly deflated feeling, whilst trying to remain positive in finding somewhere suitable!  I found The St Ives Harbour Hotel on our favourite website, Mr and Mrs Smith, with whom we have booked many hotels over the years and initially ruled it out. Mr and Mrs Smith described it as ‘not wheelchair accessible’ and I thought that was it, a done deal, no point trying, until…I called the hotel a few days later and spoke to a lovely lady called Sophie. Sophie was very helpful answering all our questions and explained the hotel had a lift so we could access everywhere and a ramp could be put outside to solve the issue of the steps up to the foyer. She did say the spa may be trickier for using the pool with the kids but based on that chat, we decided we would give it a go. Once we had booked with Mr and Mrs Smith, I spoke to Sophie again to confirm what we had booked, would work. Sophie was very accommodating going through the different rooms available to us, to ensure we got the room that best suited our needs. We were very excited to have booked something for our much needed family break and it was only days away, woohoo! 

Our arrival: 

Our initial observation as we arrived…steps and lack of ramp. Of course we were prepared for the steps, but as requested when I booked, I called prior to our arrival time to give advance warning so the ramp could be ready. We didn’t have to wait too long, so it was no real issue but it appeared the two members of staff who could assist us with this, were busy parking cars as the hotel offers a valet service. We quickly decided we would try and avoid using our car whilst we were staying if we could help it, as the valet service didn't appear to be a particularly smooth operation! We stayed in the hotel that evening to eat so it was the following day we needed to go out and come back in. Both times we needed to wait for the gentleman on duty to finish his parking duties, to put the ramp out for us again, which was slightly frustrating as we just wanted to get in/out like everyone else could! The ramp didn’t sit particularly flush with the steps but did the job...just. Upon our check out after our two night stay, we ended up waiting for our car to be brought back for a good 15 minutes which was frustrating, as we could see the car park across the road and couldn’t understand why it was taking so long! We would have preferred to park our car ourselves as the valet system just doesn’t seem to work too well. 

Our room

Room:

We were shown to our lovely ground floor two-bedroom family suite, which comprised of a HUGE bed for us along with, a sitting area (complete with free gin, sherry and a gorgeous view!), bathroom and through to a separate bedroom for the kids, in which they had a nice big sofa bed set up for them. The hotel staff were accommodating, initially setting up a single bed in our bedroom also, incase we needed separate beds for the kids but as we were happy with the sofa bed (and our own space for when they were asleep), the spare bed was swiftly removed so we had more space and the 

Can you spot the gin&sherry decanters?!

room was more accessible for Miss S. The suite was spacious but the let down was the size of the bathroom. It was adequate for 3 of us but had Miss S needed a bath, it would have been too tight to manoeuvre and certainly would have been no use to a disabled adult. The kids were quite happy in their own room and it gave us some space in the evening, where we didn’t have to sit in the dark but instead, enjoyed the view with some complimentary gin! The television in the kids’ room didn’t work particularly well which was a bit annoying as a lazy lie-in with the kids chilling out to CBeebies, would have been welcomed both mornings! 

Restaurant lounge area

Restaurant / bar: 

We hadn’t realised the restaurant and bar was on the lower ground floor when we had booked, we assumed being ground floor meant we would be on the same level as the facilities! What do they say ‘never assume…’! The restaurant and bar were on the lower ground floor, which I hadn’t realised when we booked. A lift was available it was just very small and very old fashioned with a pull across cage door which scared the life out of Miss S each time we used it, being a bit sensitive to some noises. Her wheelchair managed to fit, as did one of us, but had her wheelchair (or either of us!) been any bigger we wouldn’t have fitted in. There were two steps up to the restaurant area which was just about achievable for Miss S in her current wheelchair but wouldn’t be for an older child or adult, without a ramp.

View from the restaurant

The design of the restaurant and bar itself just oozed cool with its funky art work and bright, colourful furnishings. The views over Porthminster beach were spectacular and could also be enjoyed from their gorgeous terrace which, also having street access, must be rammed in the summer months! There was a good choice on both the all day menus and the children’s menus, with something each of us was keen to try. The food was tasty enough but a bit overpriced for the quality delivered. 

Spa: 

We had been warned by Sophie that the Spa would not be particularly accessible but, that there was also an outside entrance. We accepted that we would just see for ourselves when we arrived, whether it would be doable or not. When we had settled in our room I had a little explore to suss out the accessibility. I found that it wasn’t going to be doable in Miss S’s wheelchair as it was a maze of corridors and various flights of stairs to get down to the spa and even the outside entrance involved coming down a flight of stairs!  Our little fish Master S, was super keen to go swimming and show Daddy just how well he could now swim, which made Miss S more excited too, so we really just needed to make it work. Mr S carried little Miss S through the maze and negotiated all the steps but we agreed that when she grows even a little bigger, we wouldn’t be able to manage it. We were glad we had made it work this time, as we had great fun splashing around with the lovely pool all to ourselves (and probably irritating the adults relaxing whilst we were at it...it was the kids session after all!) and could see it would be a nice spa to relax in and use the jacquzzi, sauna, steam room, maybe a treatment or two…minus the kids!!   

St Ives:

Beautiful view from the Tate

Much like our current home town but on a bigger scale, St Ives is picturesque, postcard-perfect with its pretty harbour and its little cobbled streets filled with interesting, individual shops. It’s not a particularly wheelchair friendly town as it was quite a bumpy ride for Miss S, but we managed. Over looking the stunning Porthmoer beach is the Tate St Ives. Mr S and I were keen to visit the Tate as we knew we would enjoy it and hoped the kids would too. We spent the whole morning wandering around the gallery admiring all the amazing art work and allowing the kids to come up with their own interpretations of what they could see! The kids were also given a great I-Spy activity which they loved. Each picture on their sheet, had a small part of one of the works of art and they had to try and find which art work it belonged to. Master S's favourite was the fish eye from the 'Mackerel on a Plate' painting! Entrance for the children was free and they gave me free admittance as a Carer, so it cost us just £9.50. We agreed however that we had, had such a great time there exceeding all our expectations of just how much we would all enjoy it, that had we had to pay the full entrance fee we would’ve been more than happy. The gallery was completely accessible to Miss S and although they do not currently have a Changing Places facility (I hear this may be on the cards), a volunteer had mentioned to us that there was a room with almost a private little changing room that could be used. We also enjoyed a delicious cake and coffee in the gallery’s café, before heading out to explore more of St Ives.

Miss S and her favourite piece of art

The rest of our day was enjoyed wandering the town’s streets browsing in all those individual shops I mentioned and purchasing a few items along the way. A highlight for the children (and us!) was spotting the RNLI lifeboat being deployed out on a mission as we walked along the harbour. Later that day we enjoyed dinner at Pizza Express, a find the kids were very happy about not having a pizza place to visit back home in Dartmouth! 

Pizza for tea!

Surrounding area:

About to explore the biomes!

On our journey from Dartmouth to St Ives, we took a little detour and headed to Land’s End first. We didn’t realize it was an ‘attraction’ with shops and various shows to watch, we thought it was just a quick stop and a photo in front of the famous signs. The complex was pretty dead being a Thursday lunchtime during term time but it was all a bit dated anyway. A few photos, a play in the park and a quick pasty and chips satisfied us before heading on to our final destination, 40 minutes away. The reduced parking rate for blue badge holders was a bonus (£2 instead of £6)! On our way home we decided we’d make the most of passing by the Eden Project. We had been meaning to go again, having previously visited as a couple some 11/12 years ago and Master S enjoyed his school trip there last year. We had booked to go in March ’18 and stay in one of the YHA transformed shipping containers but the weather had other ideas when a crazy, unheard of, amount of snow hit the region then and our stay was cancelled! The Eden project was just as fantastic as we had remembered, we loved exploring the biomes which instantly made us want to travel to far flung places in the rainforest biome and relive our Italian adventure in the Meditterrean biome! The children’s Easter activities were brilliant! They included ‘welly wanging’, rounding up farm yard ‘animals’, racing to collect vegetables and many more. I’m not sure who had more fun, us or the kids! Master S and Miss S enjoyed their prizes for completing all the activities, which consisted of cool rainbow erasers and a sweet treat each. We scoured the place to try and find a painted Easter egg too, to swap for the real thing but sadly that one defeated us! We had such a great day at the Eden Project and were really well looked after. Miss S had free entrance as she is still only 3 and as her carer, I was admitted free also. We just paid entrance for Mr and Master S and can return as much as we like in the next year. The Eden Project also had Changing Places facilities which always makes such a huge difference to us.  A great find on our travels was also Cornwall Services. We didn't expect to find such great services in the region and the best part was they had Changing Places facilities too. 

Conclusion: 

Over all, we had a lovely stay in St Ives and the St Ives Harbour Hotel. We liked the hotel, the location and we were able to enjoy our stay as we were willing to give it a go and make do in some respects of accessibility. Mr and Mrs Smith were right however, it’s not a wheelchair accessible hotel. As Miss S grows even a little bigger, we wouldn’t be able to return as we wouldn’t be able to do all the things we’d like to as a family. It’s a nice hotel and great location, so for families that do not have accessibility worries it’s pretty good. The rooms are a great set up, allowing the adults a little escape having their own room...the free gin and view certainly helps too! 

Now have a read of our trip to the Polurrian Bay, also in beautiful Cornwall.