The Royal family is right, this truly is Britain's loveliest seaside village
St Mawes is no secret, but unlike Padstow and St Ives, it has retained a sense of class and mystique without being overrun or homogenised by tourism. It's probably down to the geography.
Found at the far tip of the Roseland Peninsula on Cornwall's south coast, you need to catch a car ferry or embark on a 40-minute drive from Truro or St Austell to get here.
The ferry is an apt way of arriving, given the boating heritage of St Mawes. The village is set around a sheltered harbour on the eastern side of the Fal Estuary, one of the best places in the country for sailing.
The village's high-end waterfront hotels have a toe in the water, too – Idle Rocks offers sailing lessons, and the Hotel Tresanton even has its own yacht, Pinuccia, available for hire.
The result is a pleasing boat-bobbing mildness to the place. If you don't believe me, ask the royals. King Charles III and Queen Camilla often visited during their annual visit to the county as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall.
It was a favourite stop-off for Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother during trips on the Royal Yacht Britannia, and more recently Prince William and Princess Kate have brought their family this way.
What's it really like?
Clean, classy, cool. Sub-tropical. Quasi-Mediterranean? I have seen comparisons drawn with St Tropez, which isn't a million miles off, but the pace is slower and the scale is smaller. More Amalfi Coast, if we must identify a similar European destination.
As you enter the village from the west, Marine Parade is lined with thatched houses and white-washed fisherman's cottages (most of which, alas, are second homes these days).
You could easily spend a morning dipping in and out of the shops and galleries along the waterfront, like the Waterside Gallery or Bridie and Bert, which sells high-quality retro beachwear. The small village deli is stocked with Cornish spirits, crab baguettes and jams.
Another bonus, and not always a given in a Cornish harbour town, is that you can go for a swim in St Mawes. Summers Beach, a sheltered spot to the east of the village, is suitable, as is Tavern Beach, towards the castle, which also has good rock-pooling. Right in the centre, Harbour Beach, only accessible during low tide, is suitable for dogs year-round. Beware, though, there are no lifeguards on duty in St Mawes.
What's not to like?
There's no avoiding the fact that St Mawes is incredibly wealthy. House prices can reach £5m (you'll be able to identify the prime properties, on the hill overlooking the harbour), and the sorts of yachts anchored in the waters have got bigger and shinier in recent years. Depending on your disposition, you might find it all a bit snobbish. But then again, you might find the yacht-y, refined shtick to be an entertaining escape from reality.
If you are looking for a convenient base to explore the big-hitting sights across Cornwall, St Mawes might not be the best choice. You're here for the unique cut-off spirit of the place, not for its connections.
Do this
High on your St Mawes to-do list should be a visit to the intact, clover leaf-shaped St Mawes Castle (adults £10.40, children £6.30), which was built by Henry VIII. Kids will love all of the cannons lined up on the tiered lawns overlooking the bay.
After, walk up the road to Lamorran House Gardens (£14 entry), an Italianate garden filled with tumbling waterways and little bridges. Just about every local I spoke to implored me to walk the Cornish coastal path from the village to the church in St Just in Roseland (approx 1hr each way), which has one of the prettiest churchyards in England.
In the summer, you can catch the 10-minute ferry across the bay (£8.50 return) to Place Creek. Here you can walk to St Anthony's Lighthouse or embark on an adventurous five-mile hike to get some fresh seafood at the laid-back Hidden Hut, overlooking Porthcurnick Beach.
Eat this
For such a tiny village, with a population of 700 or so, the dining options in St Mawes are wide-ranging and of a very high calibre. For lunch, take your pick from St Mawes Bakery down on the quay, which runs occasional pasty-crimping sessions, or the neighbouring St Mawes Seafood Bar, which serves super platters and has an oyster shucking station.
For an afternoon tipple, take your pick from The Rising Sun, with St Austell beers on tap and a big terrace at the front, or the more traditional Victory Inn on a narrow street sloping down to the quay.
For a cocktail, Hotel Tresanton has a breezy Mediterranean-style Beach Club overlooking the bay.
Come evening, for a sit-down meal, take your pick from the St Mawes Hotel, Idle Rocks, the highly acclaimed Watch House or Hotel Tresanton. The geranium-peppered terrace at Tresanton is as pleasant a dining spot as you'll find anywhere in Cornwall. The menu rotates based on the season: on my visit I opted for scallops to start, bass for main and a chocolate fondant to round it off. Sublime.
But don't do this
Try to avoid the peak months of late July and August, if you can. Inevitably, things do get busy when schools are off. St Mawes also welcomes cruise passengers from ships that dock in the port of Falmouth in high season. Come in the shoulder season, when locals say you are more likely to get pleasant weather, and you won't have to queue up for your pasty.
From locals
I asked Liz Branson, who has lived in St Mawes for 29 years, what makes St Mawes special. 'The community,' she said. 'It's very strong. Everyone looks after everybody else. The air, the sea... it's so beautiful here. But most of all, it's the people who live here.
'No matter how cold it is, get in the sea, even if you quickly plunge in. In the village there are loads of places to eat, to shop, to watch the world go by.'
Miles Carden, CEO of Falmouth Harbour, added: 'I live here because there are great people here. The community is about sailing, boating, yachting, and the sea. That's what makes this place really lovely.
'But if we don't have local services, we lose our community, and then the heart of the village is gone.'
From the tourists
Gary, visiting with his wife Jo for the day, said: 'It's a lovely spot, nearly as nice as Fowey. It's a shame the village loses the sun in the evening, though.' The village is south-facing and the hinterland is steeply hilly, meaning that after a certain hour of the day the sun disappears and the mercury drops a degree or two.
Down on the harbour-front, I asked a couple from Winchester if they were enjoying their stay. 'It's nice, but I'd like to come back when there aren't all these bloody cars clogging up the village,' said the gentleman, referencing the St Mawes Classic Car Festival that was taking place that week.
Stay here
Surely nowhere else on the planet has three hotels ranked 9/10 by Telegraph Travel's hotel experts within 600m of each other. You have the Edwardian Idle Rocks and the village hub at St Mawes Hotel. The Hotel Tresanton – where I stayed – is up there with the very best in the country.
Tresanton, a former yacht club, is part of the Polizzi Collection (the Hotel Endsleigh in Devon and The Star in Alfriston make up the rest of the group). Each of the 30 rooms at Tresanton has a sea view, and has been personally designed by Olga Polizzi (Rocco Forte's design director) with a combination of locally sourced antiques and artworks.
The layout of the hotel, set across multiple buildings interconnected by zig-zagging steps stooped by aromatic plants, feels idiosyncratic, and distinctly un-British.
For bigger groups, Room 22 offers two double rooms and bunk beds for little ones, while the hotel also has plenty of doubles starting from £270. There are some special little touches for people of all stages of life: the playroom with table football will delight younger visitors, while the deluxe spa treatments (Swedish massages from £85 for 1hr) will have the grown-ups wishing for a longer stay.
Get there
The King Harry Ferry departs every 20 minutes and lasts under 10 minutes, connecting Trelissick with Philleigh (£11 day return). Otherwise, you're in for a 40-minute drive from Truro or St Austell.
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