Where to stay in Padstow.

Stay in the town and you can walk to every restaurant on your list — Rick Stein's, Paul Ainsworth at No 6, Prawn on the Lawn — without thinking about driving home. The cottages here are tight eighteenth-century terraces with steep stairs and small rooms; book a parking space with the property or accept that you'll use the long-stay carpark above town. Best in shoulder season, when the day-trippers thin out and the harbour calms down.

The two best surf beaches near Padstow, with lifeguard cover through the season and a clutch of high-end self-catering. Treyarnon has the YHA at one end and proper beach houses at the other; Constantine Bay attracts the surf-school crowd and a more upmarket cottage rental scene. An excellent base if surfing is the point of the trip — and you don't mind a fifteen-minute drive when you want a restaurant.

Five miles inland on the river, Wadebridge is a working market town with proper shops, a passable food scene, and direct access to the Camel Trail cycle path that runs all the way to Padstow. Self-catering here costs notably less than the coast, and you trade beach steps for a more practical base — supermarkets, a vet, a hardware store. Worth considering for longer stays where one day's beach time is plenty.