Padstow is a town around a 30-minute drive from us, with a charming working fishing port and Rick Stein’s empire of shops, restaurants and Cafes. Padstow’s popularity seems to be forever growing. With its natural beauty made up of rugged coastlines, quiet coves and fabulous walks, it’s easy to see why our guests like to spend the day there.
Padstow is packed full of pubs, restaurants and cafés, so you won’t be short of options when looking for lunch and dinner.
The Cherry Tree’s Coffee House, right by the harbour do the most divine pancakes ever and if you want a Cornish cream tea then this is the place to go. The scones are airy on the inside, golden on the outside and have plenty of height and if you want to enjoy it the correct way, make sure to follow the Cornish tradition and spread the jam first, followed by the cream! Let us know how you do it by voting in our Poll on Instagram!
If like many of our guests you are looking for something a bit fancier or are celebrating a special event, then fear not as Padstow has some of the best restaurants in the South West. Rick Stein and Paul Ainsworth both offer a variety of restaurants including The Seafood Restaurant, the Rick Stein Cafe, Rick Stein Fish and Chip Shop, No 6 and Rojanos. Each of them offers a different dining experience with many different cuisines and all are just as popular as each other with many great reviews.
We are lucky enough to welcome guests from all over the world and one of the things that is becoming more and more popular is to take a cookery course at Rick Stein’s Cookery School. They offer a variety of courses starting from half a day up to four days long and cover a range of different topics like seafood, meat, vegetarian and game. We have attended the cookery school twice, once as a gift on a full day course and the other as a gift for family on the half day course. On both occasions we had a brilliant time and we learnt so much preparing around 5 different dishes. If we had to pick two of our favourite dishes, Dom would definitely pick the Nasi Goreng he loved it and gets this regularly at Rick Stein’s Fistral Cafe. I would choose the John Dory with olives capers and rosemary it was so good and one I really need to recreate at home. The food paired with the wine and good company makes for a truly enjoyable day out.
Although Padstow is famous for its food scene, there is still plenty of other things to fill your day with. You can hire some bikes and head down the Camel Trail, a flat cycleway that runs from Padstow to Wenford Bridge via Wadebridge and Bodmin. The Camel Trail is perfect on a sunny day with its beautiful views, you can go as far as you’re comfortable with and then settle down somewhere for a picnic before heading back. If hiring a bike isn’t on your agenda you can spend your day wandering around the numerous independent shops, playing mini-golf or heading down to the beach or rock pools.
The Black Tor ferry operates throughout the year and provides a scenic ride from Padstow to Rock over the River Camel. The pedestrian ferry takes around 5-10 minutes and runs every 20 minutes making it quick and convenient as opposed to the 30 minute car journey. The beaches on Rock are beautiful with miles and miles of coves and inlets to be discovered, although it is not suitable for surfing due to it being sheltered from the winds there are plenty of other water activities.