Cornwall, United Kingdom

Trevose Harbour House

Price per night from$174.88

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 (GBP137.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Marine-hued modernism

Setting

Sun-kissed St Ives Bay

Trevose Harbour House steers away from nautical paraphernalia, instead opting for a designer Delftware palette of royal blue and white, echoing the surf and sky colours of St Ives Bay, which can be seen from most windows in this elegant white townhouse. Mid-century Ercol furnishings, work by St Ives’ artists and Fifties Liberty of London-style prints create a classically British beach experience with nary a knotted hanky in sight.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A glass of Prosecco each on arrival, or a bottle of Prosecco for Smiths staying three nights or more

Facilities

Photos Trevose Harbour House facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Six rooms, including one suite.

Check–Out

11am; earliest check-in, 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.

Prices

Double rooms from £165.00, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates include a locally sourced, home-cooked breakfast.

Also

The hotel supports St Ives’ legendary art scene, displaying work by local artists including Emma Williams and Alexandra Dickens (through a collaboration with the New Craftsman Gallery). Trevose Harbour House’s collection includes textured seascapes, faux-naïve still-life paintings, mod-folk art and delicate cobalt blue pottery, all available to buy.

Hotel closed

The hotel will be closed from 3 November 2018 to 21 March 2019.

At the hotel

Sun-trap terrace, snug with fireplace, honesty bar and free newspapers and magazines. In-room: A Samsung Smart TV, iPod dock, Kitsound radios, minibar with fresh milk, free WiFi and Neal’s Yard Remedies bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Room Six (the Harbour View Roof Suite) is a romantic hideaway in the eaves with Fifties-style white and blue decor, twin butcher sinks and views stretching out to Virginia Woolf-inspiring Godrevy lighthouse. Room Four (the Harbour View Petite Superior) is cosy and charming with white slatted-wood decor and a textured glass-block feature wall.

Packing tips

A Barbour waterproof for when brisk sea winds blow and a sturdy pair of boots to tackle hiking trails (you can follow the South West Coast Path all the way to Penzance), alongside some swimwear and sunnies of course.

Also

Owners Olivier and Angela are more than happy to organise Champagne cream teas on the beach, spa days or treatments, and tailor-made outings around St Ives and the local area.

Children

This refined hotel has few family-friendly activities, so it’s best enjoyed with your chosen first mate, without a kiddy crew in tow. Young Smiths aged 12-and-up are welcome.

Sustainability efforts

All breakfast and afternoon tea ingredients are sourced from local suppliers and all packaging is recycled. Most of the furnishings in the house are upcycled or fashioned from recycled materials, any printed material uses eco-ink on recycled paper and all cleaning products and toiletries are eco-friendly.

Food and Drink

Photos Trevose Harbour House food and drink

Top Table

St Ives’ unique light was what first drew the artistic community to the area; be sure to grab a terrace table so you can bask in it.

Dress Code

The hotel’s laid back and low key, but you might fancy paying homage to the vintage decor by donning a flirty floral tea dress (or a light linen shirt for Mr Smith).

Hotel restaurant

Lunch and dinner aren’t available at this classic B&B, but breakfast is a lavish and luxurious affair. Ingredients are sourced from the farmers’ market for a buffet of yoghurt, pastries and home-made breads and a divine à la carte menu featuring potato scones with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (from the Cornish Smoke House), croissants with ham and goat’s cheese (from Tesyn) and Swiss-style Bircher muesli. A different flavour of smoothie is offered daily and if you’re peckish later on in the day, afternoon tea can be taken on the terrace.

Hotel bar

The hotel’s honesty bar has a selection of wines, spirits, local beers and organic soft drinks. The owners also regularly invite guests to join them for an aperitivo in the snug, with a side of Latin jazz.

Last orders

Breakfast is served between 8 and 10am. If guests are up at daybreak to watch the fisherman return to shore, Olivier and Angela can serve it at an earlier time.

Location

Photos Trevose Harbour House location
Address
Trevose Harbour House
22 The Warren
St Ives
TR26 2EA
United Kingdom

Trevose Harbour House faces St Ives Bay, nestled among art galleries and cafes, just a few footfalls from four beaches and within walking distance of the Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Planes

Newquay Airport (www.newquaycornwallairport.com) is an hour’s drive from the hotel, with regular flights to UK cities and to a limited number of European destinations in the summer (including Dusseldorf, Isles of Scilly and Verona) Most international flights to Newquay connect at London Heathrow or Gatwick. Exeter Airport (www.exeter-airport.co.uk) is a two-hour drive away, but offers a wider range of international flights.

Trains

St Ives train station is a handy four-minute walk away from the hotel. First Great Western trains run on the St Ives Bay line and trains from major destinations change at St Erth. From London Paddington the journey takes five-and-a-half hours and Plymouth, Exeter St Davids, Reading and Penzance are some of the notable stops on this line.

Automobiles

The Cornish countryside has plenty of cruise-worthy roads and St Ives can easily be reached via the M5 or M6 by changing onto the A30, so it’s worth travelling by car. The hotel has limited private parking spaces, which can be booked at the station car park – on a first-come first-served basis – at a cost of £7 per day, but be warned, if you enter the hotel postcode into your sat nav, you’ll find yourself on the Warren, a rather steep alleyway where you can’t park.

Worth getting out of bed for

St Ives brings culture and coast together with galleries and museums right up to the beach’s edge. Carbis and St Ives Bays are scenic and surprising with vast stretches of laid-back sands and offshore nature sanctuaries, such as Seal Island (+44 (0) 777 300 8000), a stop-off for many of Cornwall’s doe-eyed sea dwellers; catch a boat out and you might also spot basking sharks, whales, porpoises and dolphins frolicking in the surf. The charming cobblestoned town also retains its timeless traditions, at daybreak you can watch fisherman hauling in their nets and if you’re so inclined you can head out to sea with them to learn an age-old hard-line method of mackerel fishing (+44 (0) 777 300 8000). Cornwall is also the surfing mecca of the UK, with golden sands and a sub-tropical microclimate, which attract beach bunnies from Britain and beyond. Whether you’re floundering in ankle-biter waves or are ready to take on the big surf, you can find a school here to match your ability (+44 (0)1736 793 938). If you fancy more cerebral pursuits, St Ives’ art is world-renowned and there are plenty of places to view the best of it. The Tate St Ives (+44 (0)1736 796 226) is a must-see for art lovers and novices alike, housed in an elegant revamped gas works, just a step from the beach. Tate Britain’s coastal cousin exhibits both traditional and boundary-pushing modern pieces in its revolving programme of exhibitions. It’s worth paying a little extra to get a joint ticket for the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden (+44 (0)1736 796 226), Hepworth’s remarkable sculptures look like curiously eroded pebbles washed up with the tide and their garden setting allows you to truly appreciate the scale of her work. The Leach Pottery Museum (+44 (0)1736 799 703) celebrates St Ives’ strong craft history; founded by master potter, Bernard Leach, this museum showcases his rustic wares with delicate Japanese decorations, which are still fired in the adjacent studio. If you want to explore farther afield, Porthcurno village is a 40-minute drive from St Ives. Once home to a submarine cable station and evacuation tunnels in World War II, these days it’s better known for its Caribbean-coloured waters and cliff-sheltered sands.

Local restaurants

At The Seafood Shack (+44 (0) 1736 794 004) you pick a catch of the day from the fishmonger-style counter, add a selection of tasty crusts, batters and sauces then tuck in to your customised meal. Stick around for dessert too; the sticky toffee pudding is the stuff of local legend. Porthmeor Beach Café (+44 (0)1736 795 352) also serves impressively fresh seafood (being located just feet from the sea you’d expect no less) alongside a long and lip-smacking list of tapas. This is the perfect place to fuel up before hitting the surf or stop off for a light lunch of Spanish-influenced tidbits, such as meatballs, smoked-pimento almonds and harissa-grilled mackerel. The Crab and Rum Shack (+44 (0)1736 796 353) takes an irreverent approach to crustacean dishes, slapping a whole battered soft-shell crab in a bun, with delectable results. Quirky nautical-themed surroundings, a gooey calorie-laden dessert menu and and over 30 types of rum to sample account for its popularity with locals and tourists alike. When you tire of fish, head to Blas Burgerworks (+44 (0)1736 797 272) an environmentally conscious burger joint which uses Cornish meat to make delectable burgers in an imaginative array of flavours: purists can try the burger with salad and for the more adventurous there’s the Kiwi-style burger, with beetroot, pineapple and egg.

Local cafés

Smack bang on the beach you'll find the Porthminster Beach Café (+44 (0)1736 795 352), which serves up sea-fresh fish dishes, such as crispy fried squid with black spices and citrus miso; and hearty country fare with a modern twist, such as the soft-top pork pie with pulled pork and artichokes.

Local bars

The Hub (+44 (0)1736 799 099) is a modern sea-facing gastropub with a good range of wines and craft beers from around the world, and a diner-style menu with precariously stacked burgers and juicy mustard-slathered hotdogs.

Reviews

Photos Trevose Harbour House reviews
Anna Smith

Anonymous review

By Anna Smith, Film critic

There’s blue and white and then there’s Blue and White. Trevose Harbour House makes an art of it. Sheltered in a cobblestone alleyway, just a pebble’s throw from Porthminster and Harbour beaches, the whitewashed townhouse is adorned with a stylish turquoise sign, prompting many a passing tourist to speculate – loudly – on what charms might await inside. Royal-blue wallpaper and blue-and-white art give the lounge area soul, while a large bookcase houses artfully placed books (blue), handcrafted vases (also blue) and home-made strawberry jam (not blue). After arriving early on the sleeper train, we are generously invited to breakfast by photogenic owners Angela and Olivier. Friendly in a polite, discreet sort of a way, they’re a walking embodiment of this small hotel’s values: chatty but softly spoken, working a relaxed, immaculate and faintly nautical chic.

We wolf down Olivier’s homemade honey-soaked granola with a side of fruit before trying the full English and the veggie alternative (all made using farmers’ market finds): the focus on goat’s cheese is almost delicious enough to lure this dedicated meat-eater to the Other Side. Tea and coffee are free flowing – on learning that I drink neither, our hosts are full of alternatives rather than the usual astonishment. Gradually, fellow guests wind their way downstairs to breakfast in open-plan reception room: mostly smart international couples.

With time to kill before check-in, we explore St Ives with a map marked up by Angela. The world famous Tate St Ives is closed for a grand refurbishment so we trot along to the Barbara Hepworth Museum, housed in the studios of the late great sculptor. The gallery’s sculpture gardens are a highlight, not least because we encounter one of St Ives’ famous friendly cats, now apparently significantly outnumbered by dogs. A visit to the characterful and slightly ramshackle St Ives Museum gives us the lowdown on said felines, as well as the many fishing dramas in the town’s past.

Eventually, it’s midday, so we are officially allowed to have a pint at the Sloop Inn, St Ives’ ancient harbourside pub with a good selection of ales and ciders, if not reasonably priced sandwiches. We are rescued from premature inebriation by a phone call from Angela offering an early check-in. Our room is number two of six, a spacious bedroom overlooking the Warren's pretty band of lanes. It’s tastefully decorated in, you guessed it, blue and white – though there’s a bold and very successful dash of brown in the designer wicker lamps hanging over the bed. Ercol benches, Designers’ Guild floral prints, vintage trunk nightstands, upcycled filament lighting are among the unique touches such as the Moroccan-door headboard in Room One and the glass-block feature wall in Room Four. The bathroom is, as Mr Smith puts it, the largest he’s ever seen without an actual bath in it. But there are double sinks and the power shower is alluring and it is stocked up with Neal’s Yard products – and their salubrious organic scent lingers in the room. Quirky visual touches include a white sheepskin rug thrown over the chair in the bathroom, and an adorable blue and white china kettle – appropriate in a town that has a Cath Kidston rather than an Argos.

After advising us that restaurants get very booked up, Angela has printed out an itinerary: first up she’s wangled us a table at Blas Burgerworks down the road for their chargrilled delights. A bustling, jolly place with big shared tables, it delivers a special which is exactly that (yes – more Cornish goat’s cheese) and a fun retro soundtrack (Galore: The Singles from the Cure does not go unappreciated by these Smiths). We share a table with a lively group of ladies but still have a corner for a nostalgic romantic chat – Close to Me was our wedding dance, after all.

Back at Trevose, we grab a couple of whiskies from the honesty bar and hit our cute room. The only immediately motivating factor to leave the blissfully comfortable bed in the morning is the quality of the breakfast. (Potato scones with scrambled egg and salmon? Bircher muesli or a full fry up?) We take Oli and Angela’s advice for a 90-minute coastal walk which proves breathtaking on an obligingly sunny day. There’s just time to pop into Scarlet Wines deli before jumping back on the train at Lelant Saltings to St Ives. Waiting for us is a crammed hamper we’ve pre-ordered from the hotel. Taking it to the top of a hill, we manage to deter a peckish gull for long enough to devour a basket of salmon sandwiches, cucumber and brie sandwiches, posh crisps, and what my partner declares to be the best pork pie he’s ever had. Oh, and champagne, obviously. As Trevose Harbour House doesn’t have a restaurant, this is a decidedly pleasant lunch solution.

Somehow, we have room for dinner at the much-fêted Porthminster Cafe, clearly a destination restaurant for well-heeled tourists and residents of the surrounding area. Cheerfully busy staff offer a seafood-dominated menu: the crab chowder is a delight, although the beef fillet steak comes a close second.

May Day arrives and our hosts kindly offer us a late checkout so that we can witness the ceremony: a cheerfully earnest, slightly chaotic affair staffed by dignitaries of the ilk to hold microphones at arms’ length. As a result, we’re not quite sure exactly what went down, but we do know a juvenile May Queen and King were crowned, and we do know the Sloop is a great place to watch the parade. Oh, and it’s also the spot to get roped into being extras on a pilot for a local TV show. But that’s another story. Most of all we know that this is a weekend we will always remember. And, should we return to St Ives, we can be sure Trevose Harbour House is where we will stay.

 

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Price per night from $174.88