Reply to: Anyone else live in South West? :)

[d000hg]

Managed to get down to the outskirts of Newquay for a week in September.

It was busier than usual because many like us who had originally booked for June probably shuffled over to the other side of the peak season.

Yeah I definitely heard that once lockdown lifted, English holiday destinations were generally very busy as only idiots like PsychoCandy wanted to holiday overseas

[LondonManc]

I was very jealous not to be there during lockdown. Terrible for tourism of course, but imagine St. Ives or Kynance Cove during the summer, virtually deserted.

Managed to get down to the outskirts of Newquay for a week in September.

It was busier than usual because many like us who had originally booked for June probably shuffled over to the other side of the peak season.

[d000hg]

Love going to Cornwall out of season when the drive is a lot quieter. Nice not having to set an alarm to get on the beach car park that you want to.

I was very jealous not to be there during lockdown. Terrible for tourism of course, but imagine St. Ives or Kynance Cove during the summer, virtually deserted.

[LondonManc]

Love going to Cornwall out of season when the drive is a lot quieter. Nice not having to set an alarm to get on the beach car park that you want to.

[d000hg]

Got to watch out for adders too.

[DoctorStrangelove]

For me, it's the wilder spots that are the most beautiful, the Lizard and the winter storms, not the touristy beaches.

You want to be careful down on the Lizard, m'dear, the Zeitys might be about.

But yes, parts of it are simply staggeringly beautiful and comparatively free of emmets.

Probably because said emmets thought venturing onto The Lizard was A Good Idea.

[malvolio]

Must confess that apart from the odd visit to friends out by Bodmin, we haven't been there for years. Although that's partly because a 7m long motorhome doesn't really work on Cornish lanes (or North Devonian ones, come to that...).

But yes, parts of it are simply staggeringly beautiful and comparatively free of emmets.

[d000hg]

Because Kernow isn't - too many tourists for one thing. You really shouldn't listen to your own publicity blurb - else we'd all be going to Scarborough or Blackpool...

Actually I was basing it on family holidays for my childhood, living there for 10 years and returning to spend time there later in life when I wasn't taking it for granted.
For me, it's the wilder spots that are the most beautiful, the Lizard and the winter storms, not the touristy beaches.

Because Cornwall is remote even by Devon standards. For me, living a few miles north west of Tiverton, a drive to say Truro would take a good two hours!

It is kind of weird that all the tourists can be bothered... we used to get up at 3am to drive down for our holidays as a family.
These days, I refuse to drive. Fly or sleeper train or I'm not going.

[OwlHoot]

Yeah but why settle for Devon or <spit> Somerset when you can have the best?

Because Cornwall is remote even by Devon standards. For me, living a few miles north west of Tiverton, a drive to say Truro would take a good two hours!

OTOH, I can be on the M5 (J27) in 20 minutes and from there cane it up to Bristol in 50 minutes and to London in under 2 hours.

(although the last five miles, from Hammersmith to central London, will probably take another 2 hours! )

[malvolio]

Yeah but why settle for Devon or <spit> Somerset when you can have the best?

Because Kernow isn't - too many tourists for one thing. You really shouldn't listen to your own publicity blurb - else we'd all be going to Scarborough or Blackpool...

[d000hg]

Although it's worth pointing out there's an awful lot of the south West before you get to the Tamar... mostly empty. Moving from a city to a tourist trap seems a bit of an own goal to be honest.

Yeah but why settle for Devon or <spit> Somerset when you can have the best?

[OwlHoot]

We moved here just over 5 years ago ... if I was like Scooty I could claim that I saw all this coming, sold the London flat at a peak and bought the country house that has now grown by a higher %. Of course, truth is it's all luck; we moved here due to wife's health only and not because the tea leaves told us to do it

Ditto, and where I am on the southern part of Exmoor, we aren't even beset by tourists and their traffic!

[malvolio]

Although it's worth pointing out there's an awful lot of the south West before you get to the Tamar... mostly empty. Moving from a city to a tourist trap seems a bit of an own goal to be honest.

[d000hg]

Our family moved from the Midlands to Cornwall, right at the bottom in Penwith. Originally on a tiny track 3 miles from the nearest village, then to the outskirts of Marazion.

If you don't want to get in/out of Cornwall it's fine, if you do it is a PITA. When I had to travel there after my parent's deaths quite a bit I found the sleeper from London a huge plus. Finish work in the NE, get the east-coast mainline to KGX with dinner and a few G&Ts, mooch about the 1st-class waiting room in Paddington enjoying free wine for a bit then depart London at midnight and pull into Penzance about 8am ready to pick up a hire-car (albeit with a slightly fuzzy head).
The return leg gets you into London about 0530 which means I can be back home by about 1000 after a cooked breakfast on the train. In both directions, you travel across London when the tube is pretty quiet which is also great.

Pricey though.

[minsky1]

Aye stay away from the South West it's a right tuliphole.

Crappy narrow B roads that get flooded out of season or flooded with tourists in season ... crappy regional airports to the big smoke if struggle with the fibre broadband speeds to work remotely ... only one main road out of the place (A30 or A38 then M1 or A330) .. only one trainline (via Dawlish that gets washed away every year, and takes the scenic route so qucker by car) ... too many beaches and moors and nowt to do for the city dwellers scared of going outside when the gyms are closed ... milder weather but that just means more rain and wind off the atlantic, and loads of people poncing about on pieces of board as a hobby clogging up the car parks with their vdub tarted up builders vans.

So yes, best avoided. Blackpool, Margate, Yarmouth, Skeggy are 'just as good' so no need to travel all the way down to the South West.

This was actually the reason I legged it from Liskeard quite a number of years ago. Roads mainly in gridlock during the tourist season, frequent accidents on the roads wasting most of the day sitting in traffic.... then when the season ends, you find the shops closing at 4pm and having to travel 18 miles to Plymouth to get the most basic of provisions.

It's fine for a couple of weeks holiday as a townie, but to live there as a local is an acquired taste.

Our neighbours over the other side of the farm I rented were one Mr Edward Woodward and his wife, and further over the village the guy who owned Castle Air.

Interesting times, but not for me.