by Edward James

Created on: October 04, 2010

Prior to my visit to Cornwall I was warned of the amount of tourists and traffic by many people. Since my visit was planned for the end of September, i.e. well out of high season and also during school term time, the warnings were dismissed. What a mistake this was. I can confirm that Cornwall is just as busy as everyone says it is. The high season and summer months sees the invasion of families with children of school age, whereas the low season sees the invasion of childless couples, couples with very young children and the middle aged.

There’s no doubt about it, parking in all popular Cornish towns (St Ives, Falmouth, Newquay, Bude, Padstow etc. etc.) is often a nasty experience, although it is something you must conquer if you are going to visit these ‘must see’ destinations of Cornwall. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to make the parking saga a bit more palatable. 

In order to avoid the crowds getting to the car park early is necessary. Early isn’t nine or ten o’clock in the morning, it is seven or eight o’clock. Getting to the desired town early is likely to give the pick of the car parks, even those that are considered to be prime car parks. Whilst this may seem a good idea all is not as it seems. The spaces in these prime car parks are often very tight and getting in and out of your vehicle may be a challenge. You can be as careful as you like, however there is no guarantee the person parked next to you is so considerate and there is always the chance they could simply slam there door open in to the side of your car. Worse still, a young child may simply throw their door open in a bid to get out of their car without so much of a though there may be contact with your car.

In addition to the above many tourists continue to seek parking places in these car parks regardless of the time of day and with so many vehicles shunting around the car park looking for that elusive space there is a greater chance your car, which is often many people’s pride and joy, will endure a bit of a dink, or a scrape.

Rather than seeking out the prime car parks it is much better to go for one a little further out of town. The car parks out of town often have larger spaces (reducing the chance of contact with another car), and are easier to find (there’s nothing worse than wandering around an unfamiliar town doing battle with narrow streets, one way systems, other cars and pedestrians whilst looking for an ideal car

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