Cornwall, United Kingdom

Padstow Harbour Hotel

Price per night from$189.74

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP137.14), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Padstow Harbour Hotel Photos

Style

Grande Cornish dame

Setting

Estuary edge

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In its namesake Cornish town, boutique stay Padstow Harbour Hotel has transformed an imposing Gothic edifice into a colourful and cosy estuary-edge sanctuary. The Victorian exterior may make you think otherwise, but there’s no chintz here: instead, rooms have colourful cushions, patterned headboards and occasional views of the water. This is a bit of a theme around here, with maritime artworks, a whole wall of windows dedicated to showing off the sea at the Harbour Kitchen restaurant and, obviously, something fishy going on with the menu. The town’s foodie-approved favourites are within strolling distance, as are a clutch of charming rock and postcard shops.

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Facilities

Photos Padstow Harbour Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

58, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £144.00, including tax at 5 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include full-English and Continental breakfasts.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: free gin and sherry, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water and the White Company bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Not all of the rooms overlook the water, so if that’s a dealbreaker (it probably should be), avoid the inland-facing options. Families will enjoy the extra space (and the views) in the Estuary View Suites.

Poolside

There’s a heated outdoor pool that’s open for bracing dips between April and October (but dates are subject to the good-old British weather). Please note that due to Covid-19 precautions, the pool will remain closed throughout 2020.

Packing tips

This is the good old British seaside: grab those buckets and spades.

Also

The hotel is not easily accessible for wheelchair users.

Pet‐friendly

Canine companions can stay in some of the rooms for £15 a night. See more pet-friendly hotels in Cornwall.

Children

All ages are welcome, and there’s a kids’ menu and highchairs at the restaurant. Extra beds and baby cots can be added to rooms, and there are some interconnecting options available.

Food and Drink

Photos Padstow Harbour Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Get up close and personal with the windows to watch the boats chug into the harbour.

Dress Code

Boat shoes or brogues – Captain Bird’s Eye, but make it fashion.

Hotel restaurant

The Harbour Kitchen may not have a TV chef manning its ovens nor a load of Internet hype, but it does do a fine line in fishy dishes nonetheless, all the while showing off the estuary views through an entire wall of windows. Come along for seafood burgers (made with crab, prawn and scallops) and bouillabaisse with saffron and fennel; or tuck into non-pescatarian options like Wagyu beef with baby beets and horseradish cream, and burrata with blood orange, oregano and pine nuts. You can go full English at breakfast, or just enjoy a classic Continental spread.

Hotel bar

Settle in for a Padstow Spritz (gin, Aperol, grapefruit and lemon juice) in one of the bar’s cosy corners – or pull up one of the bright-yellow bar stools to watch the wizards at work. Snacks and light bites are served here, too.

Last orders

Breakfast hours are 7.30am to 10am. An all-day menu is served from noon to 9pm.

Room service

A shortened version of the menu can be served in-room on request.

Location

Photos Padstow Harbour Hotel location
Address
Padstow Harbour Hotel
Station Rd
Padstow
PL28 8DB
United Kingdom

Padstow is a north-Cornish coastal town deep in Britain’s west country, just past Port Isaac but before Newquay and St Ives.

Planes

The hotel is a 30-minute drive from Newquay’s airport, where flights from London and other parts of the UK (including Newcastle, Manchester and Jersey) land. Exeter Airport is a two-hour, Dartmoor-skirting drive away. It’s over four hours by car from London Heathrow, but you do get a fair few Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty thrown in along the way.

Trains

Hop on a South Western Railway service from London or Exeter to Bodmin Parkway Station, and you’ll be a 40-minute cab ride away from the hotel.

Automobiles

The nearest big town is Bodmin, a 40-minute drive away. There’s a free on-site car park, but spaces are limited so try to nab one early. Otherwise, there’s paid-for parking nearby.

Worth getting out of bed for

This is the great British seaside at its very best, and you can see all of the harbour action from the hotel windows – order a bottle of Cornish fizz and watch the boats moving up and down the estuary. If you’re brave (and it’s open/not freezing outside), take a dip in the outdoor pool. And on the off chance that you haven’t over-indulged elsewhere, take afternoon tea at the Harbour Kitchen. If contemplating life as an 18th-century prisoner isn’t going to put too much of a downer on your holiday, call in at Bodmin Jail; join one of the late-night ghost walks if you’re not prone to the willies. It’s due to reopen after a refurb in May 2020. Reclaim the Lost Gardens of Heligan with a trip to the formerly bramble-shrouded estate, or take little Smiths along to Blue Reef Aquarium down the coast in Newquay. You won’t be short of gorgeous golden sands in this part of the world, but move the dune-backed Harbour Cove to the top of your list: at low tide, you’ll be able to walk along this shipwreck-causing stretch of shore for a mile and a half. Trainspotters will love tracing the route of the Camel Trail, which follows the erstwhile tracks of a disused railway that once ran between Wenfordbridge, Bodmin, Wadebridge and Padstow.

Local restaurants

If you want to know whether it’s a good idea to fry fish and chips in beef dripping (spoiler: it definitely is), head to Stein’s chippy along the quay. See what all the fuss is about by trying to snatch one of the 24 covers at the Prawn on the Lawn, the sister restaurant of which can lay claim to having once been London’s top-rated restaurant despite basically being a tiny fishmonger. The menu changes daily (depending on what the fishermen bring in, natch), but you can expect tantalising tapas-style plates and, of course, super-fresh seafood. Fans of TV chefs who’ve already completed the Stein circuit will enjoy Paul Ainsworth’s Padstow offerings: try his namesake No 6 for something special, or head to The Mariners for some posh pub grub.

Local bars

Combining two of life’s great uppers, Bin Two is the place for you if you enjoy mainlining both coffee and great wine. Sit out on the harbour-facing terrace and nibble on lobster rolls, dressed crab and Cornish coppa ham.

Reviews

Photos Padstow Harbour Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this coastal hotel in Cornwall and unpacked their buckets and spades, a full account of their coastal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Padstow Harbour Hotel…

Rick Stein may have colonised Padstow (there’s a reason it’s nicknamed Padstein), but after a visit to this classic Cornish town, you’ll probably want to follow suit. Within an easy stroll of all local rock and fudge shops, Padstow Harbour Hotel is a breezy break from the chintz ’n’ mad carpet look so many other seaside British stays tend to favour. Those have (thankfully) been swapped out for patterned headboards, pops of colour and the occasional neon or seafaring artwork. The water-facing Harbour Kitchen doesn’t try to compete with the town’s superstar seafood restaurants, but we can think of worse places to sit and enjoy some pescatarian fare with a view. The exterior may shout ‘haughty Victorian grande dame’, but inside, it doesn’t get cosier than this.

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