Cornwall · Where to stay · Fowey
A sailing town built into a wooded estuary, with a Du Maurier literary heritage and a working china-clay harbour. The south coast at its most considered — and quite unlike the north.
Photograph — Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)
Fowey · South-East Cornwall
Fowey sits at the mouth of one of Cornwall's most beautiful estuaries — deep, sheltered, working, and lined with woods that run down to the water. The town terraces up the hillside in a tight grid of merchant houses; the working quay handles ferries to Polruan and Bodinnick alongside the china clay ships. Where you stay here depends, more than anywhere else in Cornwall, on which side of the water you want to be on.
The five distinct accommodation areas all sit within fifteen minutes of each other, but each has a properly different character. Fowey town is for walkability and food; Polruan across the river is for the view back; Readymoney is for a small beach within walking distance of dinner; Polkerris is for the Du Maurier woods and a single excellent pub on a cove; Bodinnick is for the car-ferry crossing and the quietest of all the bases.
Below, the five areas in order of how close each sits to Fowey itself — then a practical panel covering the ferries, the regatta, and the Du Maurier connection that has shaped this corner of Cornwall since the 1930s.
Stay in town and you walk to every restaurant, gallery and pub on a maze of narrow streets that climb away from the quay. Cottages here are tight Georgian terraces with low ceilings and often no parking — Fowey's parking problem is legendary, and most stays come with a permit for the upper Caffa Mill carpark. The food scene punches above the town's size: Sam's, The Old Quay House, the Galleon Inn for proper pub food.
Walking holidays, food-led short breaks, sailors
The smaller village directly across the harbour from Fowey, reached by the year-round passenger ferry. Polruan is quieter and steeper than Fowey, with a single waterfront pub (the Russell Inn), one shop, and superb views back over the harbour. Self-catering here is cheaper than Fowey-side equivalents and feels more like local life. Drive access is from a different road (via Polperro side), which means you typically use the ferry to get into Fowey for dinner.
Quieter stays with a view, walkers, photographers
A small sheltered beach a fifteen-minute walk south of Fowey town, with a single café and a clutch of small holiday lets. The beach is family-friendly — sheltered, sandy at low tide, with the ruined St Catherine's Castle on the headland above. Stay here and you get a beach plus walking access to town, with notably less noise than the harbour itself.
Families with young children, beach access without the crowds
The Polruan passenger ferry stops running at dusk. Anyone staying on the wrong side at 9pm in summer has either booked a table they'll miss, or they've worked out that the right time to be in Polruan is precisely when the day-trippers have gone home.
A short drive west of Fowey — Polkerris is a single-pub cove with a sandy beach and a sailing school; Menabilly is the Du Maurier estate that inspired Manderley in Rebecca. Self-catering here is in larger cottages and converted estate buildings, often dog-friendly, set in private woodland. Excellent for longer breaks where the daily plan is a walk in the woods plus an evening pint at the Rashleigh Inn on the beach.
Literary travel, dog walkers, longer self-catering stays
Just upriver from Fowey on the east bank — Bodinnick is the location of the car ferry that crosses to Fowey, and the home of the Old Ferry Inn and Daphne du Maurier's family house. Self-catering options up the lane into Lanteglos parish are typically larger farmhouses with extensive gardens. Quietest of all Fowey-area bases — properly rural, with the South West Coast Path running through and the Hall Walk to Polruan starting at the door.
Rural escapes, walkers, multi-generational stays
Live properties across Fowey, Polruan, Polkerris and the Hall Walk villages — pulled daily from Cottages.com and Hoseasons.
Live property listings refresh daily — there are none in the feed for this view yet. In the meantime, browse the full operator inventory:
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