Holiday rentals in Watergate Bay

Located on the north coast of Cornwall, Watergate Bay offers the sandy pleasures of a two-mile-long beach filled with surfers riding wild Atlantic waves. Locals come to frolic in the bay’s shallow waters year-round, while yogis stretch out on mats as brightly coloured as the beach umbrellas that dot the coastline. Come dusk, cars line up to watch the sunset from the clifftop before catching a film at the outdoor cinema. Most eateries offer ocean views, seasonal menus, and locally sourced ingredients. Pasties and other Cornwall classics, traditional English breakfasts, cream teas, and cocktails are widely available in Watergate Bay. And you’re within an hour of major attractions, such as the National Maritime Museum Cornwall and the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre.

Though winters can be wet in Watergate Bay, surfers come for the low winds and clean swells. The weather is relatively mild year-round, but the water is usually too cold for swimming without a wetsuit. Gearheads will want to attend Newquay’s March event, Run to the Sun, a show with custom cars and camper vans featuring live music and comedy. The best time to rent apartments at Watergate Bay is summer, when the weather is warm and breezy. In May, one of the oldest festivals in England, Obby Oss, happens just 20 minutes away at Padstow. Believed to have originated with pagan fertility rites, the folk festival and parade draws thousands to the harbour’s narrow streets decorated with a colourful maypole, flags, and flowers.

Coastal Walking Trails

The South West Coast Path offers hikes for walkers of all skill levels in this scenic area. A two-mile hike along the coast to Mawgan Porth gives sweeping views of the Atlantic, with Saxon ruins and a Tudor estate to spot along the way. You can also follow a 3.5-mile walk from Watergate Bay to Newquay that takes you past the blowhole at Porth Island and the beaches of Lusty Glaze and Tolcarne.

Wheal Coates

A half-hour drive south along the coast brings you to an iconic Cornish view — azure waters, frothy waves, and the stone ruins of a tin mine. The rounded chimney stack of Wheal Coates climbs high over the gorse and heather, where paths wind down to Chapel Porth and around the former mine buildings, which date back to 1802.

The Camel Trail

The Camel Trail is a 17-mile surfaced path, suitable for hikers, wheelchair users, and cyclists, which runs along a disused railway line from nearby Padstow to Wenford Bridge along woodlands and moors. Take in a section of the walk and you might spot a National Trust Victorian estate, Lanhydrock House and Gardens; a first-century Roman fort; and an award-winning vineyard, where you can sit and sip while admiring the rolling Cornwall countryside.