11Barnaloft

Is there a better place to holiday?

We fell in love with St Ives when Ethan was born and the thought of a foreign holiday suddenly seemed like a lot of hassle.
We remembered great holidays in Cornwall as kids and looked around for some inspiration.
A friend recommended St Ives and told us of some flats right on the beach.
We ended going twice that year - two fantastic weeks in the summer and a great week in October. As well as perfect beaches, rock pools, surfing, ice cream and great fish and chips, St Ives has a lot of culture.
The Tate is wonderful, as is the Barbara Hepworth museum - and there are lots of independent galleries selling work by the plethora of great artists who have worked in  St Ives. And eating out is a great pleasure, with a number of fantastic restaurants.
Since then we've been every year and now own 11 Barnaloft - which we rent out when we're not using it. So if you're looking for somewhere to stay you can;

• get more details here

• check out availability here

• and make a booking here.

Building work at Barnaloft

There is a lot of work being done on Barnaloft and Piazza over the next few months - so with the likely noise and disruption and the work not scheduled to finish until mid June, we are not letting the apartment until July.

It will be fantastic when its done, so its probably worthwhile.

Full marks for Porthminster Cafe

The Telegraph has given a glowing review to one of our favourite St Ives restaurants, Porthminster Cafe. They give it 10 out of 10 and i can't disagree
Each year one of our friends has his birthday whilst we're all in St Ives and a dinner at Porthminster is now  a tradition - with around a dozen of us it's always a memorable night and the past couple of years have been blessed with perfect weather.
One excellent item is their courgette flowers - grown in the garden next to the cafe.

New furniture at 11 Barnaloft

We've now started changing the furniture at number 11.
First we've put in two new beautiful leather sofas (designed by Mathew Hilton) and some new shelves (which are also Mathew Hilton).

We've also replaced the bed side tables with Kartell Componibili storage tables and on the balcony we now have Jasper Morrison Air Chairs. Other improvements include a new stereo system as well as an iPod dock and a flatscreen TV.

More changes over the summer.

Storms in St Ives - March 10 2008

I was in St Ives a couple of days earlier sorting the new furniture and it was wonderful weather!

New Year in St Ives

We spent new year in St Ives and it was great fun. Everyone ( yes, everyone) dresses up in fancy dress and wanders round the town.
As its our first time in number 11 since we bought it we were able to start to make it ours - we bought a new sound system and an ipod speaker system, some new plates and cups etc and started to change the furniture.

With some new art and some more new furniture on order it will be even nicer by the summer. We also replanted the window boxes on the town side - and then I found this picture (from Design Journal - click on the photo to enlarge) which shows the town side of our apartment as it was in 1965 (Number 11 is the one in the centre with its own stairs) . It also shows the Barbara Hepworth piece which graces the car park.

It's wearing well.

15 reasons to visit St Ives

Nice article from Waitrose magazine that gives some good reasons to make a trip. Nothing to new but well worth a read - I didn't know about the scuba diving possibilities.

St Ives Porthmeor studios openday on YouTube

Nice YouTube video of a St Ives holiday

I found this on YouTube and thought it sums up the place. Don't know who the people are though. Not long to New Year - really looking forward to that

UPDATE - just found this site that features lots of video about St Ives - including some fun ones of previous New Year celebrations

Sharks off Porthmeor?

The Sun is very excited by some footage of a shark off Porthmeor beach in St Ives.

The Times is a little more cynical.

Update  - Surprise surprise - Its all a hoax. The tourist has admitted the picture was taken a little further south.

More proof that St Ives is the best resort

A friend pointed out this story from a couple of years ago. Scientists have concluded that St Ives is the best resort in the UK - and 4th best in the world.

Beaten only by the Tuscan Riviera, Tarifa in Spain and South Beach Miami, St Ives the formula is: (A x W) + 2 [E x C x V] + v[ F x S ] divided by (T)+(TC), where A=quality of beach, W=weather, E=entertainment, C=culture, V=activities, F=familiarity and friendliness, S=shopping, T=time to destination in hours, TC=total cost as a percentage of annual income.

Having been to all three of these places I'd say Porthmeor is better than all of them - Tarifa is good apart from the wind and South Beach was great in the early 90s, but is so over now.