At As You Like It Tours (AYLIT), we embrace the philosophy of “slow travel”—taking time to deeply savor the journey at a pace that restores rather than exhausts. And we’ve found that Cornwall is the ideal place to practice this philosophy.
Situated in the Southwest corner of England, Cornwall is remote, several hours by train from London. Paddington Station, Reading, Taunton, Plymouth, and suddenly you cross the Tamar River from Devon into Cornwall.
Beyond the Tamar, cities become towns, towns become villages. And while these villages and towns appear close to one another on a map, the narrow roads and hedgerows of Cornwall make it a slow journey. As the crow flies, the charming fishing village of Porthleven is just over ten miles from Falmouth, a bustling seaport and home to the world’s third largest natural harbor. But by car, the journey takes nearly forty minutes.
No, in Cornwall you can’t get anywhere in a hurry. But why would you want to? Along the way, you can see teeming estuaries, sandy beaches, steep cliffs, churning seas, wild moors, placid fields—beauty everywhere you turn.
Traveling by car affords a leisurely look at this captivating terrain, but the best way to experience the glory of Cornwall—especially the Cornish coast—is on foot. The South West Coast Path, which begins in Devon, meanders along the coast of Cornwall for 300 miles, and travelers could (and many do) hike their way from Tintagel in the north of Cornwall to The Lizard in the south. On one of our trips to Cornwall, several AYLIT sojourners and I stepped on the South West Coast Path just outside our holiday home in Porthleven and ambled along sea, pastures, and cliffs to the tiny village of Gunwalloe, where we stopped at The Halzephron Inn, a quaint 15th-century pub well worth a visit. Following our repast and a pint, we made the 3-mile trek back to Porthleven, enjoying the variations in sea and sky at an unhurried pace. And travelers can enjoy this experience from almost any village along the coast!
At 1,326 square miles, Cornwall is rife with opportunities for adventure and exploration and entertainment, resplendent with historic homes and estates and gardens, art and literature, natural beauty. Over the course of a week, your days could easily be filled from sunup to sundown with a typical sightseeing itinerary that aims at seeing as much as possible as quickly as possible. Or you could slow down to notice the details of this beautiful corner of the world—simply relaxing by the sea, watching afternoon melt into evening as the sun sets behind Mounts Bay.