Before we had Alfred, we had many fantastic beach holidays at Hayle. Alfred is heading there soon! Why is Hayle so great? Let me explain.
Hayle is a small, 'work a day' Cornish village. Nothing in Cornwall is ever ordinary though, and Hayle is a great little spot if you're in the know.
First of all, Hayle sits in St Ives Bay. This is a beautiful bay, with sheltered beaches, and of course, the fantastic old-world port town of St Ives. Why stay at Hayle, when St Ives is just across the bay? Well, St Ives does not have 3 miles of golden sand for a start. The cosy cove beaches of St Ives are nothing like the fantastic wide and shallow beach at Hayle. In our experience, there is always space. The beach is great for walking, kite flying, sand castles, beach cricket and of course, swimming and surfing. Remember to take notice of currents and take the advice of the RNLI life guards. Only swim where and when they say. With the health and safety out of the way, the shallow slope of the beach means that it is easy to stand far out into the water, making it fun to swim or just wade in the water. It is a good beach for surfing as well. Although I've never got past body boarding, I've watched surf schools teaching the basics, and with a trusty wetsuit, I've spent hours in the water, becoming a part time surfer over a week's holiday. Hayle's other big advantage is price. Staying in St Ives is normally very costly. Hayle is not as pretty, but if you're in the dunes, you'd never know that town exists. Hayle has a series of camp grounds in the dunes that over look the beach. You can camp in the dunes, and then walk down to the beach. 'Beachside' is our favourite, having a heated outdoor pool to warn up the kids, and wash out the sand. There's a shop and bar on site, as well as good showers and toilets. We like the dune camping spots, a little further away from everything, but away from the busy bar and the "caravan lawn" camping area. Breeze, sunshine and good views can be had in abundance between the grass hillocks in Beachside's dunes.
Secondly, Hayle is also an ancient port town. Hayle was part of the early industrial revolution. Ross Poldark would have felt at home. Copper that probably plated the hulls of Royal Navy ships was smelted in Hayle. The waste from this was used to make black 'slag' bricks, which can be found in the walls of houses all over town. The river was deeper, and behind Hayle's dunes, there was a long quay, where wooden sailing ships brought in coal and other necessary things, and early steam engines from Hayle were exported to the world. In the middle of the town, on the seafront, there is a copper clad Asda. It was designed to hark back to past, sitting on the Copperhouse Pool quayside, standing on the stone harbour where the world changed forever. I know most people won't find this interesting, but I like to imagine the old tall-ships pulled up next to the supermarket when I'm picking up the milk and burgers. The town is a great little town for shopping. There's Asda and other supermarkets as well as traditional shops such as hardware. There's a fantastic ice cream shop in Mr B's Ice cream Parlour and other cafes. Mr. B's ice cream is hand made on site every day, with many constantly changing flavours. We'd recommend the traditional steak pasties from Philps on the Copperhouse East Quay. And of course, there's places to buy sandcastle buckets and spades and others to by local art, depending on your family needs. Oh yes, some of the fish and chips are superb.
Thirdly, Hayle is a really great base from which to visit many other places at the end of the Cornish Peninsula. We've already mentioned St Ives, but then there are other destination attractions such as Land's End, Mousehole, the Minack Theatre, St Michael's Mount and the Seal Sanctuary at Gweek, which are all relatively nearby. There are also interesting towns and areas, such as the Helford River, Truro, Just-in-Roseland, St Mawes and Falmouth on the Carrick Roads. These can all be reached from St Ives of course, but there's a long winding road from the main roads to St Ives, which is often very slow in summer. Hayle on the other hand, is on the A30, so it is much easier to go places, although I would suggest going early to beat the crowds!
So, there you have it. Hayle is a great place to stay. I often find that after setting up in the dunes, I don't want to go anywhere else. The sunshine, the beach, and the barbeque are more than enough, and I can relax!
Alfred, our van, would like to go there on an adventure with you.
Tell us where you like to go, and we'll try it out...
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