Cruising the British roads to the Land’s End
2 people, 606 miles, 5 days
My fiancée, Jessica, and I decided to do a last minute, five-day trip over the holiday break and finish 2016 in style. Despite having found many great flight deals from our home base of London, we decided to do a road trip around the UK.
Luckily, Adnan’s Mercedes was available and he was accommodating enough to quickly accept our request. We had an amazing time on British roads and drove about 600 miles from London to the westernmost point of England, Land’s End, in Cornwall. We saw some gorgeous landscapes, comparable to what you might find in other European coastal highlights, such as Côte D’Azur and Costeria Almalfitana.
The car was delivered to us at Heathrow airport, since we wanted to avoid the Central London traffic. The process went smoothly and after a few minutes we were on our way to Fowey.
We arrived at the Fowey Hotel after a four-hour drive. The hotel is advertised as “Cornwall’s hidden treasure”, which proved to be a fair statement. It’s a renewed four-star hotel that was built in 1882, so it still keeps its Victorian charm while offering all the comfort you would expect from a modern hotel. The views from the bar and the drawing room are amazing, and make the perfect setting for a romantic afternoon tea.
Fowey is a small town located at the Cornish coast. It’s super quaint and full of small streets, art galleries, Cornish bakeries, and restaurants. We enjoyed daily loads of Cornish pasties and cream tea, and tried to hit the good restaurants in the region. We had our New Year’s dinner at the Q Restaurant, located at Old Quay Hotel. Strongly recommended!
The next morning we drove 64 miles to Sennen, at the western tip of the Penwith peninsula. It’s a nice beach town and was full of surfers, despite the British winter. From there we hiked a mile to Land’s End, the westernmost point of the British island. The short hike is full of spectacular cliff views and is totally worth it.
The weather, a bit rainy, couldn’t prevent us from exploring the region on our fourth day. We took the ferry across the Fowey River to Polruan, which is even smaller than Fowey. We zig-zagged through the pedestrian-only streets all the way to the top of the hill, from where we had great views of the bay.
The next morning it was time to say goodbye. We drove the 250-mile way to London taking local roads, such as A38 and A30. This was a super fun drive on roads full of turns that let us enjoy the awesome Mercedes that we rented. We drove through many small towns, all of which were as charming as Fowey.
Overall, it was a great road trip and I’m glad we got to know England a little better!
