St Mawes Hotel

Some things in Cornwall never change, and some only get better. The latter is certainly true of the St Mawes Hotel, which has a fabulous location on the waterfront, right in the heart for the village, and has been refurbished and opened as one of those in-vogue places that has lovely spruced-up rooms, does great food, and keeps its doors open all day long for people wanting to pop in for a drink, snack, chat, whatever. Ok, it's the trendy thing, and this is Cornwall after all, but the thing here is that they carry it off so well. The building is a beauty for a start, a rock-solid balconied village centrepiece that looks like it's been here forever; and the seven rooms are beautifully done, cool, bright and contemporary, and decorated with furniture and a colour palette that for once isn't all about showing off. The best rooms enjoy fab views of the sea, plus they have family rooms as well as doubles. The downstairs lounge couldn't be more comfortable and the welcome is warm, with service that achieves the best balance of attentive yet relaxed. The restaurant is open seven days a week and prides itself on being a busy place, accessible to non-residents and locals. Basically there's no better place to explore St Mawes, Falmouth and this glorious stretch of the Cornish coast – apart, that is, from its sister hotel, the Idle Rocks – and although as they say you can do as a little or as much as you like,  this is a pretty good place to do nothing much at all.