UK…The best weekend in Cornwall with WMGT!May 10, 2018UK(Featured image photo credits: Lydia Collins) Travelled in: April 2018 A few months ago I stumbled across a facebook group called Where’s Mollie? Global Travellers… The group was set up by Mollie Bylett who is the face of travel blog Where’s Mollie? I have followed Where’s Mollie? for a couple of years now, her blog is my go to for inspiration whenever I am heading to a new destination. Somehow I managed to completely miss the fact that, alongside her blog, Mollie had also created this online platform which bought a community of like minded travellers together in a forum where they could share travel tips, experiences and go on epic adventures. Where’s Mollie? Global Travellers has just celebrated its 1st birthday. So far in the past year Mollie has organised four amazing adventures and bought the community together in Snowdonia, The Lake District and even Australia. I was lucky enough to secure a place on adventure #4 in Cornwall. Places on each of Mollies adventures are limited and sell out pretty quickly. For this particular trip I paid £275 for 4 days and 3 nights which included activities, accommodation, breakfast and dinner. There was also the option to do 3 days, 2 nights, which was slightly cheaper at £235. Adventure #4 took place last weekend… 55 global travellers embarked on the journey down to Treyarnon Bay in Cornwall for a weekend packed full of adventure, views, sunsets, smores, new friends and a whole lot of fun. All organised by Mollie herself! Here is a round up of what we got up too… How we got there… Transport down to Cornwall was organised via the WMGT facebook event page. People were travelling from all over the country to attend, with some even flying in from Ireland and The Netherlands. The most popular transport method was car sharing, but there were a few people who opted for trains and even flights in to Newquay, which was the closest big transport hub. I managed to find a car share with 4 other lovely girls. We met for the first time on the morning of the drive and clicked straight away. It took about 5 hours to drive to Cornwall from just outside of London. Where we stayed… (Photo credits: Lydia Collins) The accommodation for the weekend was the YHA hostel at Treyarnon Bay! Treyarnon Bay is about 5 miles from the well know Cornish town of Padstow. It was such an idyllic location, with the hostel set on a cliff right above the beach! The hostel was great, clean, comfortable, with bunkbed rooms and a nice bar/restaurant area. At the weekends they even host sunset sessions with live music! We were allocated our rooms when we got to the hostel. We had a choice in who we were bunked up with so I stayed in a room with the girls I had travelled in the car with. We shared a 5 bed dorm with an en suite bathroom. What we ate… Breakfast and dinner was provided by the hostel. In the mornings we woke up to a full english and in the evenings we had dinner and dessert waiting for us after a day full of activities. I have to say their lemon merange pie was pretty incredible! I was of course also keen to try all the local delicacies… A Cornish Pasty was a must! There is so much competition in Cornwall with a pasty shop on every corner. I tried a great cheese and onion one from the award winning chain The Cornish Bakery. Being by the coast I obviously had to eat some fresh seafood. I had an amazing plate of mussels at a very cute restaurant in Padstow called The Basement. Highly recommend if in the area, they have a lovely heated outdoor seating area which overlooks the harbour. Not to mention all the Cornish Ice Creams and Fudge I also consumed, which were equally amazing… Our Itinerary… Day One: The majority of the day was spent travelling down to Treyarnon Bay. To break up the five hour drive we had a pit stop at Weston Super Mare, a cute seaside town not far from Bristol. We ate fish and chips and took a strole down the beach to stretch our legs, before completing the final stretch in to Cornwall. (Photo credits: Lydia Collins) When we arrived Mollie and the WMGT team were there to check us in. We got allocated a room then went straight down to the beach for a game of Volleyball. The whole squad got involved, and it was a good ice breaker for everyone to start getting to know each other. This was followed by dinner and a few drinks at the hostel. Everyone was exhausted from the long journeys so the majority of the group had a fairly early night. Day Two: The first activity of the day was a coastal path walk to Trevose Head lighthouse. The weather was drizzly, but that didn’t stop us… We grabbed a hot drink and our rain macs beforing heading out to walk the coastal path from the hostel to the lighthouse. It was a 2 hour round trip which offered some amazing views and beaches along the way. We stopped at the lighthouse for a break and some snacks provided by Mollie. Next stop was Padstow, a really lovely little fishing village where we grabbed some lunch and had a mooch around the super cute shops. There are plenty of fish and chip shops to grab some food from including the famous Rick Stein restaurant. We had already had fish and chips on our drive down the day before so opted for a meal at a lovely restaurant called The Basement as mentioned above! After grabbing a quick drink at Shipwrights after lunch we tried out some afternoon tea at Cherry Trees cafe which is a cute tearoom on the harbour which serves the most amazing cakes! That evening the people that had opted for a 2 night stay arrived. We all gathered together on the beach for a bonfire, drinks and smores. It was an amazing evening with everyone getting to know eachother, sharing stories and playing games, some even bonded over a late night dip in the sea! Day Three: The sun made a welcomed appearance for our adventure to Newquay for the main activity of the weekend – Coasteering! I had never heard of Coasteering before this weekend, and it would have never been something I would have organised to do myself, but I am so glad I had this opportunity to do it as it was SO much fun! Our Coasteering trip was run by Bare Feet Coasteer based on Fistrall Beach. We were split into groups of about 10 and given wetsuits, boyancy aids and helmets to change into. After a quick briefing we were into action jumping off cliffs, swimming in the sea and traversing around rocks from one point of the coast to another. It was exhausting, but amazing! The sea was freezing, but adrenaline and an extra thick wetsuit kept us warm. If you find yourself in Cornwall or anywhere else in the world that offers Coasteering I would highly recommend trying it out! That evening we witnessed the most incredible sunset, we were so lucky as it really topped off the perfect day we had all had together. This was followed by another beach bonfire with of course more smores. When it started to get a bit chilly we went back up to the hostel for a team travel quiz and drinks at the bar. Day Four: After checking out of the hostel we all jumped in cars and drove for 50 minutes up the coast to Tintagel. Tintagel is famed for it’s castle remains, but we unfortunately didn’t have time to check these out. Instead we spent the morning walking the coastal path before gathering in The Wootons Inn, a lovely little pub in Tintagel center, for some cake, WMGT birthday celebrations and goodbyes before sadly making our way back home. 🙁 My weekend in Cornwall with WMGT was absolutely incredible! It was a weekend full of good vibes, great views and amazing company. 55 people came together as strangers and left as friends. It reminded me so much of travelling and that environment where everyone is open to having fun, meeting new people and trying new things. Mollie encourages the group to disconnect from the online world we live in today and make connections in the real world and that is exactly what we did. It was the best experience I have had this year and I could not recommend a WMGT adventure more! I came away from Cornwall feeling refreshed, with a bunch of new friends and so many amazing memories! (Photo credits: Lydia Collins) You can read more about our Cornwall adventure on Wheres Mollie? If you want to join in the fun and be part of the WMGT community check out the Facebook page here! Adventure #5 in Croatia is coming soon… Make sure to sign yourself up! 🙂... Read more...Bank holiday getaway in The Cotswolds…June 4, 2017UKTravelled in: May 2017 Sadly us Brits don’t do a lot of exploring of our own country, mainly due to the fact we are cursed with bad weather 90% of the year! On the odd occasion the sun does make an appearance it’s worth seeing what good old england has to offer, so this past bank holiday I spent some time in The Cotswolds, this is what I got up too… Arriving and travelling around The Cotswold… The best way to get around the Cotswolds is by car. “The Cotswolds” covers such a huge area, if you truly want to explore then a car in a necessity, especially if you just want to come across cute views like this… I did also see quite a few tour buses in some of the more popular towns, but generally these were just full of overseas tourists. Staying in The Cotswolds… The whole purpose of my Cotswolds visit was for a SPA break I had booked for my boyfriends birthday. I found and booked the SPA hotel we stayed at on offpeakluxury.com, where I got an amazing deal! I booked The Greenway Spa Hotel for a one night stay, dinner, breakfast and full use of SPA facilities for £100, much cheaper than anything else I had seen online for the same kind of experience! The The Greenway Spa Hotel is located just outside of Cheltenham and in a convenient location to get around other areas of The Cotswolds. The rooms at the hotel were huge, traditional, but felt quite luxurious, the food was brilliant and the service was exceptional. I would definitely recommend a stay at this hotel, I found it to be really great value for money. As we wanted to make a weekend of going to The Cotswolds we decided to book another nights’ accommodation in a different area so we could explore. I scoured AIRBNB and found the cutest little shepherds hut called RONALD. Based on an equestrian center RONALD was perfect, he was small, but warm, clean, cosy, comfortable and had everything you would need for a short stay plus you got to wake up to the view of horses and chickens outside your window which was pretty special. If you are only staying for a couple of nights in The Cotswolds he is the perfect accommodation and something abit different to your usual hotel or bnb. Eating in The Cotswolds… As we had a couple of our meals included in our SPA break we didn’t get chance to try too many of the culinary delights The Cotswolds had to offer, but there sure wasn’t a lack of places to try (especially if you love a bit of pub grub)! Some of the places we did get to were… The Kingham Plough, Kingham – We stopped off at The Kingham Plough as it had been recommended to me… The pub is located in a really cute little town called Kingham, which wasn’t far from RONALD. We sat eating pulled pork burgers and sipping on eldeflower lemonade in a cute dining room. Upon further inspection of said dining room we noticed we were dining in the company of the one and only David Cameron, it was quite hilarious to watch the faces of our fellow diners as one by one they realised we were sat among the former PM. Lucys Teas Room, Stow on the Wold – We stumbled upon this cute little place as we wandered the streets of market town Stow on the Wold. You must stop off here if you want some good old traditional english afternoon tea or scones! Things to do in The Cotswolds… Broadway Tower – A great place to take in and admire some panoramic views of The Cotswolds… Not only does it have a tower you can go up, but it is also the site of a ROC nuclear bunker, which makes for a very interesting viewing. For a small fee of £4.50 you can go down and have a tour of the bunker and get an insight in what it would have been like for the workers here during the cold war. Cleeve Hill – This is the highest point in The Cotswolds, so another great place to go and take in the beautiful greenery and views. If you make your way through the fields of sheep you will be greeted with these amazing views over Cheltenham race course and there is also a golf course at the top. The Cotswolds way walking path also passes through here. Blenheim Palace – The birthplace of William Churchill is well worth a visit during your time in The Cotswolds. Not only a really impressive historical building to explore, but the vast ground are fantastic for a strole around and there is generally some kind of event on to enjoy such as a food festival or in particular on the day I was there – a jousting tournament. The entrance fee is about £25 but once you have this ticket you are then able to re-enter the palace all year round. Places to visit in The Cotswolds… Bourton on the Water – A picturesque river side town lined with pubs, cafes and village shops. The town also is home to a few gimmicky tourist attractions such as birdworld and the dragonfly maze. Stow on the Wold – This is a lovely little market town, a great place for some afternoon tea or a rummage through the many flea markets or antique shops to see what kind of bargain you can pick yourself up! Bibury – Home to the national trust site Arlington Row, Bibury is one of the most popular and picture postcard places you will visit in The Cotswolds. There is not a lot there, but it is worth a visit – especially if you are in to trout as there is a trout farm in the center of the village! ... Read more...
