A Great Day Out ... The Lost Gardens of Heligan

With the Lost Valley, Ancient Woodlands, Victorian Productive Gardens, Pleasure Gardens, Jungle,  Poultry Orchard, Tea-room, Shop, Plant Centre and more besides Heligan is so much more than simply a restored garden.

Ideally you should set aside a whole day to see as much as possible and don’t expect to see absolutely everything in just one visit!

Take a look around the gardens here http://heligan.com/explore

To be honest you could spend a happy hour just on the website itself ... listening to birdsong, or viewing pictures and videos.  The green-fingered amongst you can even read the gardeners Blog

The Apple Arches in the Northern Gardens

Chusan Palm Avenue in the Jungle

The Mud Maid on Woodland Walk (my personal favourite!!)

The Giants Head on the Woodland Walk

Admission charges do apply to the Gardens themselves with Free Parking and Free Entry to the Heligan Shop, Plant Sales and Tearoom for everyone to enjoy.

Situated near to St. Austell and only about an hours’ drive from Fairway House a visit to The Lost Gardens provides a truly memorable day out.

Open all year (except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)

Pictures and information from http://heligan.com/

Our first Reviews for 2014 are in .....

We are very fortunate that so many of our visitors kindly go on to leave us positive reviews on the Trip Advisor website when they return home after their stay.  It really does help give confidence to people may be thinking of booking accommodation with us and we do appreciate it. 
We were especially pleased that having only re-opened at the beginning of March this year we've already had two brand new and very positive reviews posted. 

When time permits we will try and replicate some of them on here for you to read. 

Here are the two most recent reviews …

“Perfect B&B”

Well home again after spending a lovely few days at the Fairway Guest House, as always a warm welcome awaited us.  This will be the sixth year visiting this beautiful B&B (we try to get 2 visits a year if we can!!) I think this just speaks for itself, a huge thank you to Karen and Mike for your outstanding hospitality (not forgetting Emily who keeps our Room Spic and Span during our stay)

Truly home from home, and spotlessly clean, I think they’ve just about thought of everything you may need for your stay.

Seriously comfy beds, you just won’t want to get out of, but once up and showered you have a delicious breakfast to look forward to which will set you up for the day!! Lovely selection, well thought out Menu, nothing too much trouble, if they’ve got it you can have it!!!

Which is why this B&B has a AA Gold Star Award (Highly Commended)  Truly well deserved

What we like least of all is having to say goodbye at the end of our stay!

Room Tip: All Rooms are excellent, but our favourite is Room 3 (lovely views over Golf Course)

(review posted by Sue W)


“Excellent Guest House”

Stayed here for 3 nights in this beautifully kept guest house, only mistake on our part not staying longer, really nice people, breakfast was fantastic loads of choice, great way to start the day.  The room was to a very high standard, lovely views over the golf course.  This was by far the best guest house we have stayed in, only a short walk to Bude town centre and the beach. We would like to thank Karen and Mike for making our stay an enjoyable one

(review posted by florida757)

Read more reviews for Fairway House on Trip Advisor

Wild weather, high tides and river surfing in Bude ... officially the warmest place in January 2014!!

Heavens! What a wet and wild start to 2014 we’ve endured weather wise. 

As reports of chaos across the West Country hit the headlines many of our lovely regular guests contacted us to check how we were doing in light of the storms. I was relieved to be able to tell them each time that we were fine and that fortunately Bude hadn’t been too badly hit.

Our hearts go out to those whose homes, businesses and lives in general were so dreadfully shaken by storm damage and winter flooding.  With the much needed dry spell we’ve all enjoyed in the last week or so we hope that life for everyone is starting to get a little more back to normal.

For those who know Bude, the extremely high tides and strong winds in January did cause the River Neet to overflow its wall slightly along The Strand and the lovely little shops down there were saved by their sandbags on more than one occasion.  With sea conditions being unsafe for surfers at the height of the storms some locals were actually filmed surfing the waves in the river where it approaches the town centre itself … this was quite a sight to see and was caught on camera (and YouTube) here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTBz8g7c9Hc

The winds and high water levels resulted in a large amount of debris being washed ashore onto our beaches and some of the beach huts were sadly damaged beyond repair.  Across the county a call went out to help with a clean-up operation and on a sunny Sunday in mid February  50 people volunteered at Summerleaze Beach to assist with helping to clear the debris scattered during the extended period of stormy weather.  The local community well understand the importance of tourism to the area and wanted to reassure visitors that Cornwall is still very much open for business.    

The Met Office confirmed what everyone suspected all along, we had just endured the wettest January in one hundred years.  No great surprise there then, however they also revealed the maximum temperature during January was actually recorded on the 5^th …. at 14.1 C …. in Cornwall …. right here .... in Bude!!!!

You can read more about this in the Met Office Blog here

http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/january-weather-summary/

 

As we moved into March many pretty yellow daffodils popped up in our front garden and in the last week or so we’ve had a lot of lovely warm sunshine …. all day long … no rain at all. We noticed our Agapanthus plants (who've looked very sorry for themselves throughout the winter) are starting to push new green shoots up through the soil outside the breakfast room bay window and the shrubs we cut right back in the Autumn are all showing new growth.  At last there's a definite feeling of Spring in the air.

After a winter of re-decoration and refurbishment (and you thought we did nothing from December to March!) the AA have confirmed our "4 Star Gold Award" status for another year and we're keen to get going again with our 2014 season. To coincide with this our Spring Short Break offer is up and running again where 2 people can enjoy 3 nights bed and breakfast in a Superior Double or Twin En-suite Room for £150.00 until early May.  Please follow the” Spring Break 2014” buttons on our website below to locate full details and terms and conditions of this popular offer.

http://www.fairwayguesthouse.co.uk/index.htm

So, if you are thinking of visiting Cornwall for a few days but were at all concerned that that the county is still suffering the effects of this winters’ bad weather please be reassured …. it’s very much “Business as Usual” in Bude and we would all very much love to see you here.

 

Chrismas Day Swim, Bude, 2013

Remember, remember .... visit Bude in November!

The clocks change this weekend and there's no denying it .... December
and the colder, dark Wintery days are on their way.
 
So ... once the half term holidays are finished
(and before you're all busy scraping frost from the car)
we're are running a 2 night November Short Breaks Offer

*****
 

 2 Night November Offer 

       

Superior Double or Twin En-suite Rooms (with 2 people sharing)
4th- 25th November (minimum 2 night stay)
                 

£50 per room per night

 Bed & Breakfast

Our short break offers are for Direct Bookings only and cannot be applied in retrospect.
Please mention the offer when you book

*****

 

Just call or email us to discuss your individual room requirements.
Please visit our website for contact details

 

www.fairwayguesthouse.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember to bring those Walking Boots!

The area surrounding the lovely seaside town of Bude is renowned for some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the British Isles.  There are some stunning circular walks from which to enjoy not only some superb coastal views, but also shady woodland areas and some beautiful open countryside.

With many steep gradients along the way and several stretches of the South West Coast Path officially classified as "strenuous" some of these will tax even the most experienced of walkers.  One German visitor arrived here after a long days walk from Hartland to Bude totally exhausted and declared there to have been "many valleys" along the way.

For the less experienced walker there are fortunately many user-friendly circular walks in the area with a classification of "easy" or "moderate" which still provide some amazingly beautiful photo opportunities along the route.

http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk is a super website with some excellent examples of local Circular walks in our local area and is definitely worth checking out if you're thinking of doing some relaxed walking during your holiday or short break in Bude.

The site is free to use with route maps available for each walk, information on places of interest along the way and advice on where to park to help you plan for your day out.

The walks are graded as "Easy" "Easy/Moderate" "Moderate" and for the more adventurous among you ..... "Strenuous"

The page for our area is here http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walks/near/bude

Here are the "Easy" "Easy/Moderate" and "Moderate" walks in our locality

Poundstock to Penfound 3.2 Miles/5.1kms "Easy"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/poundstock_to_penfound

Week St Mary to Penhallam 2.9 Miles/4.7kms "Easy/Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/week_st_mary_to_penhallam

Jacobstow to Poulza 3.4 Miles/5.5kms "Easy/Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/jacobstow_to_poulza

Widemouth to Bude 6.2 Miles/10kms  "Easy/Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/widemouth_to_bude

Millook to Trebarfoote 3 Miles/4.8kms "Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/millook_to_trebarfoote

Sandymouth to Coombe Valley 4.4 Miles/7.1kms "Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/sandymouth_to_coombe_valley

Bude to Sandymouth 6.2 Miles/10kms "Moderate"
http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/bude_to_sandymouth

We'll leave you to explore the more "Strenuous" options at your leisure!

Images included in this "Walking Boots" blog have all been sourced from the individual pages of the featured walks on http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk
With 93 walks in North Cornwall, ranging from 2 to 10 miles in distance and totalling 417 miles overall http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/ is an excellent source of information to help with planning a great day out in North Cornwall ..... and one of the best we have found.

NEWSFLASH!! BBC proclaim Bude as sunniest place in the UK

At last! After the last few years of dreadfully wet weather during July and August we finally managed a wonderfully warm and sunny summer in 2013. 

After the incredibly long winter and the record breaking cold spring we'd all endured the lovely beaches in Bude were buzzing this summer as everyone made the most of the opportunity to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine.

How wonderful for us all, and perhaps not a great surprise then that last month the BBC announced Bude to have been the No 1 Sunniest Place in the UK this summer!!

As we head into October and the evenings are already starting to pull in, there's a definite feel of Autumn in the air but to remind yourself of the fabulous summer we had this year you can read the online article here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23970253