EXCLUSIVE I quit city life for Cornwall and DON'T regret it! Here's why people moaning about tourists and lack of oat milk and nearby Zaras are wrong

Daily Mail​

4 hours ago

Gazing across the Fal estuary from the footpath we had paused on during a post-lunch walk, my husband and I were having the same conversation we'd had countless times during holidays to Cornwall.
'Wouldn't it be great to live here', one of us would say, usually prompting something like, 'one day we will.'
Except this time it didn't stop there. 'Perhaps we should just give it a go,' he said. 'We could make it work.'
Less than a year later and here we are.
That conversation sparked a rollercoaster that saw us sell our house, find the perfect new home for us in one of our favourite parts of Cornwall, and move five hours from the Midlands - a place we'd both called home our whole lives.
We moved house at the end of October, and while relocating to an entirely different part of the country hasn't been without its challenges, I don't have a single regret and wouldn't change it for the world.
It's not that we hated the Midlands. In fact, I've always championed it as a great place to live - somewhere that's never given the credit it's due for being a vibrant place that offers big cities like Birmingham along with rural areas like Warwickshire, where we lived together happily for years.
But after falling in love with Cornwall on numerous camping holidays, it always felt like the place we wanted to be.
The sea is an obvious draw, and we're far from the first landlocked Midlanders to crave being able to get to the beach without it taking hours.
But as we've got older - we're both 42 now - we found ourselves yearning for more space, more calm and more quiet.
Where busy streets and nights out might have once been our bag, now we're more about long walks with our two dogs, country pubs, fresh air and a slower pace of life.
Every time we holidayed in Cornwall in our campervan, we felt ourselves exhaling and unwinding - a feeling we wanted to bottle up and turn into normal life.
That's not to say we don't love a nice meal and a few drinks, but again that's something Cornwall does so very well.
Places like Padstow, Port Isaac and St Ives have attracted us over the years thanks to their big-name restaurants and boujee food and drink scene, but we found ourselves actively seeking out less well-known spots that serve up the freshest fish caught that same day, cooked by people passionate about the ingredients right on their doorstep, from land or sea.
The Roseland Peninsula became a favourite for us over the years, but across the estuary we discovered Falmouth, with its bustling student population and plenty of shops, bars and restaurants.
Yet on a Friday or Saturday night it still felt safer than some of the places we were used to.
Every town and city has its problems, of course, but Cornwall somehow felt calmer and removed from some of the tension and aggression that we'd seen on nights out elsewhere, and that my husband experiences first hand as a firefighter in Northampton.
While the stars aligned to help our move happen quite quickly, it wasn't quite as impetuous as it may have seemed to some.
As much as we loved the isolation of some parts of Cornwall, there's a difference between living somewhere and escaping from reality on holiday - and it seems to me that the people who regret their move have perhaps forgotten to factor in practicality when they up sticks to move somewhere like Cornwall.
Common complaints seem to be that you have to do a fair bit of driving to get places, and supermarkets and shops might be hard to come by - but that's a bit of a generalisation and probably down to those people not quite thinking through where they decided to move to.
The Roseland Peninsula is one of our favourite spots to have a campervan break, but when we were deciding where to live, we acknowledged that it might be better to be somewhere with supermarkets and shops a bit closer, hence moving to a village between Falmouth and Truro.
It has the beauty of a tight-knit community, where people say good morning to each other and help each other out, but we've got a train station that allows us to get to both Falmouth and Truro, bus routes, two pubs within walking distance, and even a village shop run by the community.
There are about three supermarkets within 15 minutes of our house, and a Spar in the next village that has pretty much everything you could possibly want - even oat milk (which, by the way, my village shop also stocks so the idea you can't get alternative foods is a bit of a myth).
Yes, it might be harder to get a taxi or takeaway, but these are all things that are manageable - and part of the package if you decide you want to move somewhere more rural. You can't, after all, have your cake and eat it.
The same goes for wanting high street shops. Perhaps if you're a Zara addict you should prioritise that when you choose where to move to, instead of taking the plunge then complaining.
Plus, it's not like plenty of major brands don't do online ordering.
And yes, we even have Amazon Prime in Cornwall so the suggestion that you're somehow cut off from civilization is a bit of a stretch.
Of course, it's a far cry from London, but if you want that kind of always-on culture, perhaps you should stay in the city instead of swapping it for the coast.
Like any newcomer to Cornwall, we're eager to be accepted. And I can safely say I've been made to feel nothing but welcome by everyone I've met.
Given the issues of second homes in Cornwall and the impact it has on property prices for people who grew up here, I honestly can't blame some for being wary of yet another couple arriving from 'up country'.
But if they are, I've never seen it, and we've found ourselves being welcomed wholeheartedly to our new community - something we've embraced by getting involved, chatting to people, supporting local businesses where we can, and showing that we're here to stay and be a part of Cornwall life, not just grabbing what we can before we run off back to the bright lights and big city.
Getting involved comes with benefits that rubbish some people's criticisms that it's hard to find tradespeople or services, because the more you talk to people, the more you get personal recommendations.
So if you're not managing to do that, perhaps you need to start engaging with your new home a bit more.
The irony of someone who has moved to an area moaning about tourists doesn't escape me, that's for sure.
While it might be tempting for me to voice my trepidation at how Cornwall will feel different in the coming months compared to the quiet winter haven we've just enjoyed, I fell in love with this area as a tourist myself, so who am I to poo-poo those who want to make the same special memories I did in this glorious place.
Yes, I'm sure it's frustrating for people who are Cornish born and bred, and I completely understand, but I for one as a newcomer really can't justify moaning.
Plus, when you live here, you can time your visits to tourist hotspots carefully to avoid high season, and one of the many reasons that drew us to the village we chose to live in was the fact that it isn't somewhere tourists are like to flock to, so we can enjoy its calm all year round, even during the holiday season.
Six months into our new life, we don't regret a single thing.
Things aren't entirely as we want them to be just yet - my husband is still waiting for a transfer to become a firefighter in Cornwall, which leaves us spending more time apart than we have in the 18 years we've been together.
But even despite that, we wouldn't change our new home for the world. It's everything we dreamed of, and more, and I don't recognise some of the gripes some people have about living in this glorious part of the world.
Is it the same as living in a big town or city? Of course not, but that's the beauty of it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.