The Padstow double holiday

Every year, we go on holiday to Padstow in Cornwall. It’s a real home from home for us. And every year, my husband says he wishes we could stay for two weeks and have the second week as a working week. My husband works on holiday a bit anyway. It’s his own business and he can’t just stop everything for a week. We’re used to it and know how important it is for him to keep going.

Last year, my husband and I had a slightly longer holiday to coincide with our silver wedding anniversary.

This year, we finally had our double Padstow holiday, with our younger son and daughter. It was a very last minute decision!

We went on holiday in early June because my son needed to be back at university for his fifth and final year on 29th June. We were due to travel back on my husband’s birthday – a Friday this year. Understandably, he didn’t want to spend a big chunk of his birthday travelling. In addition, we really wanted to do two parkruns in Cornwall. So a couple of weeks before we were due to go, we booked a fully refundable extra night in a dog friendly hotel.

After the heatwave at the end of May, the forecast for early June wasn’t good – cold, wet and windy. Nobody really wants 14 degrees and rainy on their holiday. Typically, the forecast for the week after was much better – sunny and temperatures in the 20s.

On the Tuesday before we were due to set off, we discussed booking another week. On the Wednesday evening, just 36 hours before departure, we booked it!

After three years at Sailmakers and four years at One High Street, we book a different self-catering holiday house every year, usually through Harbour Holidays. Sometimes we’d like to go back to them, but we often find they are no longer available to book.

This year, we started at 42 Dennis Road. Dennis Road runs parallel to the estuary with stunning views and is less than a 10 minute walk to the town centre and harbour. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small lounge and a large kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. The top floor was a much larger lounge and another bathroom. But the best thing was the balcony looking out on the Camel Estuary. The main bedroom and small lounge also had the same view.

Importantly, it also had two parking spaces and a small garden. We find that most dog friendly holiday houses don’t have parking.

I loved it there. It wasn’t perfect. The furniture was a bit of a mish-mash. But it felt warm and comfortable and the views were incredible. I also slept really well all week. I was certain we would go back next year.

As we got to the end of the first week, I felt so relaxed, although sad to be leaving such a lovely house. Normally, I start feeling stressed towards the end of a holiday. But we weren’t at the end of our holiday. I felt like I was just living in Padstow permanently!

And then we moved to 8 New Street. The house, right next to Rick Stein’s St Petroc’s Bistro, is the closest we’ve ever stayed to the centre of Padstow – and we’ve stayed pretty close many times. And it was a very high specification. It still smelled of paint – I think we were the first people to stay there after refurbishment.

Incredibly, it was a lot cheaper for the week than 42 Dennis Road. It didn’t have any parking spaces and we ended up parking quite a long way away. And the back yard was so small that Hetty was confused about where she should do a wee – she likes to wee on either grass or gravel. It didn’t have either.

The furniture was high quality and definitely not a mish-mash. The downstairs was open plan and also had a bathroom. There were two bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. Our bedroom was on the second floor, at the top of the steepest stairs I’ve ever come across in my life. It was exhausting walking up there! But it had windows to the front and the back. At the front, we had an expansive view of the estuary and at the back we had a view over the roofs of the Padstow old town. It was stunning!

But the ensuite had a bath, not a shower (I don’t do baths), so I had to remember to take everything downstairs to the shower. And I slept terribly! The bed was small and the seagulls were noisy all night.

As for the weather – it wasn’t quite as cold and wet as forecast in the first week and it wasn’t quite as warm and sunny in the second week. In fact, the only two really good days – when it was sunny all day and temperatures reached 19 degrees were the second Saturday and Sunday.

The kids left in the middle of the second week, as they had things they needed to do at university and at home. But they enjoyed their break and we loved having them around.

While the kids were here, we did lots of walking and some running, we played with Hetty on the beach (it wasn’t warm enough to sit on the beach), we had trips out to Newquay and St Ives, we went out for lots of meals, we did a pub quiz and we went to the Cornwall Giant Slip and Slide.

The good news is, I really enjoyed working on holiday. I know we’re very lucky to be able to do it and it’s not an option for a lot of people, but it’s a nice way to ease yourself back into normal life.

I was genuinely sad to leave at the end of the two weeks. It felt like my old life at home was a distant memory. I really hope to do a double Padstow holiday again in future.