Cornwall has always been a big part of my life. When Mr VIB and I got together his parents retired there so it has been somewhere we have visited many times – and more often than not we have made the family visit into a holiday too.
When the lovely Amanda Selby from St Mawes Retreats got in touch and offered us a stay in one of the five luxury holiday houses in her portfolio we figured this was a great way to mix holiday and grandparent family time. Multi-generation holidays can be tricky but a large house seemed the ideal solution.
With all houses located in St Mawes, Cornwall we decided we could drive from our home in Surrey and pick up our parents along the way. We picked up my mum from Wiltshire and then the in-laws from Cornwall and drove on down to St Mawes.
We stayed in Stargazers a luxury home with amazing views that can sleep up to 14 people. So, plenty of space for us, the grandparents and Miss M. All the houses are within 5-10 minutes walking distance of St Mawes harbour, the beaches, village shops and restaurants so this made Stargazers the perfect base to explore more of the Cornish coast and countryside especially the places we hadn’t visited over the years (you can see my top places to visit here and here.)
My Reasons to Stay with St Mawes Retreats
- St Mawes Retreats are privately owned and managed by Amanda Selby – a mother who cares about each and every one of her guests and their children – meaning she tailor makes each holiday to suit the individual requirements, offering a 5-star holiday experience in the privacy of their luxury holiday house without the restrictions of a hotel and worrying about upsetting other hotel guests! A warm welcome is just part of the service. We arrived to home-made scones with jam and clotted cream, milk, tea, coffee and even a bottle of bubbly.
- Each home has comfortable, contemporary interiors with space, privacy, beautiful gardens for children to play in and parents to sunbathe and barbecue in! This made our stay at Stargazers ideal for the mix of ages as everyone had somewhere they could retreat to read, nap or just relax. The large living area, the en-suite bedrooms and the open plan kitchen meant we were never under each others feet!
- Children are definitely a big part of the plan at St Mawes Retreats as the house has a second living area (as well as kids bedrooms with bunk beds) which houses a play tent, cupboards filled with both indoor and outdoor games, a games console, and the icing on the cake a magical dressing up wardrobe that Miss M was obsessed with. She loved having an area that was ‘her own’ she could play with her toys and leave them out overnight – and this also meant it was out of sight for us grown-ups.
- With family needs at the heart of St Mawes Retreats – there is a bespoke concierge service where nothing is too much trouble is available from organising private chef for adults and children meals, ready made meals on arrival, in-house spa treatments, babysitters with DBS, daily housekeeping, laundry, ironing, shopping and even local restaurant bookings. Both Mr VIB and I had massages and one morning we had Anne and Penny from local farm Tregairewoon Farm Kitchen come and cook us all a full Cornish Breakfast which was a lovely treat – they even loaded the dishwasher. Breakfast was all set up on the table with home-made preserves and bread and served to us like being in a restaurant but without the hassle – you know when you have kids and grandparents to please/entertain!
- The magnificent sea views – nothing tops that. It rained a little when we went – but it didn’t spoil our time it just meant we didn’t get to use the beautiful garden and sunbathing deck as much as we would have liked.
** We stayed at St Mawes Retreats in order to write this review – but all opinions are of course mine. To book a stay visit here and Amanda will guide you through the houses and ensure you have the perfect stay in Cornwall.
