Cornish Coast Calling: Campervan Road Trip to Mother Ivey's Bay & Beyond

[@se3059]

I love your mantra: Making the best of everything without blowing £££. Having an adventure/experience without needing a flight to Patagonia. There's so much for everyone to learn from this aproach to life...... Yeah and great to see "The jumper" on the beach! ❤

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

We love having the van as it gives us our freedom to travel extensively while still keeping pretty much to our budget. I do love my jumper - I am getting my moneys worth 🤣

[@motorroamingaround]

Loved the video guys. Those beaches in Cornwall are just stunning. £850 for a 3 week trip is definitely decent up we agree with you that £62 per night in the Summer is just a ridiculous price for a campsite no matter what location it has. We also like to make up our own picnic lunches etc and that does help save a bit of money and you get exactly what you want. Keep safe. Irvine & Karen.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

The biggest cost by far was diesel for the return trip from Yorkshire and most campsites were fairly reasonable - I think £30 - £35 is becoming the new normal for campsites We kept costs down a lot by not having EHU most of the time 🚐 it was certainly a beautiful area to visit.

[@anthony5351]

Really glad you went to Lantic bay - we’re off to Northern Spain in our van next month and will be taking some of your top tips and locations 👊🏼

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Hope you enjoy it! We really enjoyed our time in Northern Spain - especially the Picos de Europa. The beaches and coves reminded us of Cornwall, the land scape was still very green and lush. The Lantic Bay Area was lovely.

[@phil3600]

It looks like you’ll have to come back! The North Devon/Cornwall border is a real gem that is fairly untouched. Some good quiet park ups near the coast (Morewenston, Brownsham to get to Mouthmill (amazing secret place, Greencliff to mention a few). Also check an OS map for around Hartland peninsula. Some great sites (Stoke Barton, Welcombe Campers). Welcombe Mouth itself is stunning. NT quite hot on staying overnight but a great place to spend the day.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Definitely- we want to take up from Tintagel next time and keep going into north Devon. We also want to spend some time on Bodmin moor and exmoor so we will be back 🚐

[@KathrynBowdler-jf8cg]

We have been watching your videos for a while and find them so interesting. We are in our early fifties too and ‘semi-retired’. Looking forward to when we can fully retire. Seeing Cornwall has put us in the holiday mood, we will be taking our touring caravan down soon. We also go to St Ives (Polmanter touring park which we love, and is just a walk down to St Ives). Our other site is near Porscatho on the Roseland Peninsula. We love the peace and quiet of the area, with another scenic walk down to the beach. Thank you for sharing your travels and the informative videos about early retirement. Your views and ideas really resonate with us. We love walking and getting outdoors, and we value the simple things in life like you do. Look forward to seeing you next adventures.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you so much for your lovely comment 😊 We really enjoyed the tour of the south west coast and found some fantastic places. St Ives was lovely and I think we caught it at a good time as it was pretty quiet. We also really enjoyed the different segments of the coastal path that we hiked and some of the historical places. I am glad you enjoy the videos - we are realising there are a lot of like minded people out there in a similar position to us. Have a great summer🚐

[@christineomara4787]

We always travel on a budget, rarely eat out in restaurants, love to take a picnic on our walks, and of course it saves money, you seem to think like us, we have just been to Dorset on a budget, stayed at a temporary site. We must get down to Cornwall, the biggest cost is the fuel, we live in Derbyshire, always enjoy your vlogs, 😊

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Yes it is amazing how much the diesel costs add up travelling from Yorkshire - we had not really been to Dorset apart from to catch a ferry - it was lovely. We just keep thinking - the more we can do things on a budget the longer we can stay out travelling but we have noticed campsite fees have gone up considerably since we started out with the van 7 summers ago. Cornwall Is beautiful 🚐

[@wessexevents]

Glad my tips for places helped you. I have spent a fair bit of time in Cornwall over the years walking the coast path and rock climb there and on the Dorset coast so know a few good spots I can highly recommend the West Wales Coast too around Cardigan Bay and up to Barmouth enjoy your travels

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Yes we followed a couple of your suggestions - I think that is how you find some of these gems - by recommendations from fellow travellers. We did a 2 week trip to the Gower and Pembrokeshire when we first retired 2 summers ago and had a great time - one of our favourite campsites that we have stayed at is Cae Du below the Barmouth estuary. We also love the Llyn Peninsula and the beaches on the north coast.

[@WilliamMillar-g2w]

Thank you. Another great video and ideas for when we are in the area in our van. Completely agree we will only travel outside peak times for the reasons you have given.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

The main bonus was quiet beaches and campsites pretty much to ourselves! We have loved the whole coastal trip and Dartmoor and found so many new places 🚐

[@FrugalMrB]

Good to see THE jumper making a guest appearance 😉

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

😂 well it is my favourite jumper and it’s was warm on those cold Cornish beaches 😍

[@janehutchinson9999]

Really enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing so much info on Cornwall. Makes me smile when I see you in the Jumper Jackie, it looks very comfy 😀

[@annenyatanga6432]

I so like your style - striped tops are my stable with jeans. Could you tell me the brand of your jumper - a good investment !

[@cedarcanoe]

I really enjoyed your video 🙏

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

@cedarcanoe thank you 😊

[@SharonMcMillan]

The cost of this awesome coastal trip has me so excited as that would fit very nicely into our retirement budget.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It is definitely do able travelling around the UK on a budget - every time I hanker after a meal out or an extra coffee and cake stop I remind myself that if we want long trips we need to just make our own. Of course we also appreciate that we own the van outright so no costs there apart from petrol and insurances.

[@denisescally7090]

That looked brill. I think your budget is great and I am particularly frugal! I’m glad you don’t film everything, it’s nice to just get a gist of how you are doing your retirement. I have wondered though how much of your budget is allocated to travel, say percentage wise-will it taper off as you get older? that could make for an interesting video?

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you - we really enjoyed the south coast - there are some truly stunning places! Good question on the budget, if we are in the UK pottering around we try and keep as much as we can to our normal £200 a week budget inc petrol and campsites. This was harder on the south coast as there were very few free park ups in the locations we wanted to be near so I think we did pretty well. We put any freelance writing and KZbin earnings in a savings pot to pay for ferries and flights and other big travel expenses when needed. We intend to travel pretty extensively for the next few years as much as our finances allow! I am taking a leaf out of mums book - she didn't start travelling as much until she was in her 60's!

[@denisescally7090]

@@earlyretirementwanderlust I see another you tube retirement couple who have their frugal monthly budget and then a massive separate pot for travel. It’s interesting to see the different ways people organise these things. Thank you! Ps your Mum is brill maybe she should be on YT too!

[@sharonmayer7572]

So glad u had a lovely time 👍🏼☺️

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

We truly did - it was such a lovely area to explore. We can't wait to return next year and explore the Northern Devon coast and maybe Bodmin moor.

[@allisonbennett641]

Lovely video, just wondering but when you were walking the coast path did you come across many cows or ponies grazing ? I know in some areas the path cuts across their space . 😊

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you ☺️ the ponies were all on the moorland away from the coast and from memory we didn’t come across any cows on the coastal path but we did cut across some fields where there were lots!

[@allisonbennett641]

Thank you, yes I can imagine. 8 live the coast path but terrified of cows 😂

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Ah that is tough. My family were dairy farmers so I am used to them - pretty sure most paths had a fence between the sea and the fields

[@johnristheanswer]

You can be caught out bigtime with the 'private' car parking . Some are notorious re fines.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Yes we noticed most car parks had ANPR cameras and non were particularly cheap 😬

[@dalesdreamer1274]

We watched this video in our campervan whilst staying at Mother Ivey’s Bay! Nearly 20 years since we were last here. This is definitely the time to come, not busy at all. Had a lovely walk along the coastal path. Your videos have been so useful when planning our next stop, possibly St Ives next.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

How funny! WE do love it at Mother Iveys and the variety of beaches that are all with in walking distance. Did you get to St Ives? Another place that we enjoyed - I can see why it is such a big tourist destination. I think April/May is probably the best time to visit Cornwall before the crowds and the price hikes for peak season! Glad you have found some of the videos of use 😊

[@dalesdreamer1274]

@@earlyretirementwanderlust we did get to St Ives and down to Sennen too. It’s been beautiful. Currently at Tintagel before heading home to Yorkshire in a couple of days.

[@janetbowen7854]

Stunning coastal path and beaches, and so quiet out of season. £62 for one night in summer is ridiculous, I hope people don't pay this and the campsite has to rethink. It's a pity prices can't be regulated, but it's a free market, they can charge what they like. Looking forward to watching your next adventure. It was fantastic weather in Sussex last weekend, we had a great camp in our campervan at Witterings. 😄🚐❤️

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

We absolutely loved all our travels around the south west coast and will hopefully go back again next year at some point. Sadly the summer prices for many of the Cornish campsites are similar. One person I follow on instagram was outraged as she was quoted £87 a night in Port Isaac (with 2 children) which is outrageous. We certainly can't afford those prices but luckily can avoid it now we are no longer teachers 😊! Glad you had a great weekend - did you get to see the Northern Lights?

[@turt0n]

We live in Embsay near Skipton and as a result of your video want to do a Cornwall trip in September. Just to pick your brains, did you stop off en route, if so can you recommend anywhere to break the drive up. Thanks

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Cornwall was great and I think/hope you will have warmer weather than us. We always stop in Sandbach because our family live there and then just keep driving but we do like it around Monmouth and Ross on Wye as a place to visit. We just drive and arrive late if the traffic is bad 🚐

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Nice part of the dales by the way - we did look there when we were relocating - we love staying up on Barden moor 🚐

[@alanbenham4139]

What a super trip

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you - we absolutely loved it. There are some gorgeous places in the UK to explore!

[@rostaylor7723]

You’ve visited some of my favourite places in the world in this video- my cousin lives in Newquay and I visit often, so have been to those places many times!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

I love the beaches on the north Cornish coast and there are still some we have not explored like Perranporth and Polzeath - we will have to return 🚐 but the Bays around Constantine and Harlyn are still some of our favourites