Innis Inn and Campsite

Innis Inn and Campsite is perfectly placed to see the best of Cornwall, with hundreds of miles’ worth of hike and bike paths in the surrounding countryside, seaside towns and villages, family days out and heritage highlights including old houses, clay pits and tin mines.

St Austell has a Clay Trail starting from Tremana Gardens and running along the Bodmin Road to connect with the Wheal Martyn China Clay Country Park, a 26-acre park with woodland walks, adventure playground and the biggest working waterwheel in Cornwall. (Stick around Snozzle for a bit to also browse around Cornish World, which has an award-winning play centre, Kidzworld, and the biggest indoor market in the south-west.)

To take a look at tin mining and its history in Cornwall, Poldark Mine in the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site at Wendron near Helston is the only complete underground tin mine in the county, and has mine and ghost tours, a museum, exhibitions and activities including gold panning and circus skills. More Cornish history and heritage are on show at the Charlestown Shipwreck and Heritage Centre less than five miles from Innis Inn, and at the three-floor Mevagissey Museum a few miles south.

Anglers can go on the hunt for mackerel or sharks on a sea fishing trip from Mevagissey where there’s a shark angling centre on the quay; boats can also be hired from the village to go out into the waters and look for seals and dolphins. There are opps for beach, sea and coarse fishing all over south Cornwall including at Fowey, Looe, Falmouth, along the River Tamar and at commercial fishing lakes.

After a day (each) at the Eden Project and equally famous Lost Gardens of Heligan, there are several more gardens in the area: the National Trust’s Lanhydrock at Bodmin (which also has a secondhand bookshop); the coastal Caerhays Castle and Gardens with National Magnolia Collection, and the valley garden and laurel maze of Glendurgan Garden near Falmouth.

All sounding too sedate for the kids? Family-friendly activities and centres abound around St Austell and south Cornwall, including the Crealy Great Adventure Park, the World of Model Railways at Mevagissey and the Tortoise Garden of St Austell. Heading north, sprogs of all ages should like Newquay Zoo and the Blue Reef Aquarium, the indoor play barn at the Springfields Fun Park and Pony Centre, or the biggest go-karting centre in the south-west, Wadebridge’s St Eval Kart Circuit.