St Ives Harbour Hotel, known as The Porthminster, has been part of the St Ives scenery for over a century. The original Porthminster was built in 1894 to provide first-class accommodation for visitors. You can see its age in the grand exterior and the interior panelling and fitments but The Porthminster has recently undergone a modernisation program. Everything about it now is modern: the hotel boasts a number of lavish rooms and suites. The luxury suites have super-king size beds, a private sitting room and a private balcony with ocean views, or you could take a garden view room, which looks down on the private sub-tropical gardens.  The Porthminster offers a wealth of facilities for entertainment and relaxation. Amongst other things, there is a lavish outdoor heated swimming pool with a chalet containing sauna and solarium, and a children’s play area. You will also find the hotel gardens a charming place to stroll gently or relax in the sun. The newly extended Harbour Restaurant has a panoramic sea view which takes in the local lighthouse. Mark, the head chef, uses local produce to build his international menu, including meat that is locally reared and fish landed in the local harbour within the view of the hotel. Mark tells me that he can name the individual fisherman who caught the fish on his menu! I think you will enjoy the extensive wine list and the service which is of the highest quality.

The Scarlet Hotel, at Mawgan Porth, is a newly created luxury hotel for adults only, which provides an opulent environment while maintaining the highest ecostandards. The building dispenses with the antiquated hotel tradition of long corridors, and brings about shorter connecting spaces, straight or curved and focused around the view, with intervening spaces such as intimate gardens, viewing pods and wrap around terraces. It is built on a spectacular cliff-top location with views of countryside and ocean. The organic façade, with sea thrift roof and reclaimed groynes, conceals a highly organised design system of insulation, air tightness, utilisation of solar orientation and natural cooling.

There are several categories of room varying from the ‘Just Right’ to ‘Indulgent’, each individually decorated and ergonomically designed. Some of the rooms are quite spectacular, having design features such as a ‘private gem garden’ or a ‘roof top lounge’ or ‘pod’ accessed via a spiral staircase with intermittent ocean views.

You must visit the Scarlet spa which is out of this world! There are several treatments available, known as ‘journeys’, including the rich mineral mud experience, therapeutic massage, a log fired hot tub and a natural chemical-free pool, cleaned by reeds. The Spa is equipped with luxury tented rooms lit by lanterns and in the relaxation area there are shelter pods swinging from the ceiling, where you can drift off to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach below.

The restaurant has a menu that is sophisticated yet hearty, innovative but not pretentious. Breakfast and lunch are relaxed and served either in the restaurant or on the terrace. Dinner is more glamorous with a sophisticated atmosphere and an extensive menu. The comprehensive wine list is chosen to complement the restaurant menu and includes several unusual vintages. Do not be afraid to try some of the more curious wines on the list. You will be pleasantly surprised!

The Polurrian Hotel, Helston, is a luxury family seaside hotel high on a cliff top set in 12 acres of gardens, with dramatic views across Mounts Bay and the Atlantic beyond. They have facilities for families with a free crèche for younger children and the Blue Room for the over-eights. The rooms are light and spacious, furnished in the modern style with king size beds, most rooms having sea views. The lounges are sumptuously furnished and there is a small but choice library offering a range of books and magazines. Outside is a terrace overlooking Mounts Bay with the view of the landscaped gardens in the foreground. In the evening, you have the opportunity to watch the spectacular sunset over the ocean.

There are plenty of facilities available including the Purity Spa, a tennis court, sports field, indoor and outdoor and a fully equipped gym. Kids have a playground with a great wooden climbing frame and swings and a slide, and just two minutes away is the beach at Polurrian Cove. There is a particularly good sea view from the beautifully restored restaurant, which serves lunches, teas and snacks by day, and in the evening offers a wide range of unpretentious dishes, using the finest seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients. The extensive wine and well-stocked bar, with a good selection of local real ales, provides the perfect accompaniment to any dish.

The Nare Hotel in Truro is an elegant ‘boutique’ style hotel, elegant but not stuffy, a comfortable place to relax away from the madding crowd. Set in its own grounds, overlooking a beach with amazing sea views, The Nare has traditional standards of comfort, luxury and service that you don’t often find any more. The Nare is privately owned, started in 1989 by the late Mrs Bettye Gray and now run by her grandson, Toby Ashworth. All of the rooms and suites are individually and tastefully decorated in a unique style. The Country View rooms are slightly smaller, while many of the Seas View rooms and suites have balconies or terraces that make the most of the magnificent ocean views. The Pendower is the hotel’s largest suite. It has a comfortable sitting room overlooking Nare Head with separate bathroom and shower rooms and a large master bedroom with tremendous views of the Cornish coast. The Garden Suite has a lounge leading directly into the garden with its own private terrace with beautiful views of the gardens and the bay.

The Nare has its own valet service including a shoe cleaning facility in the old fashioned way. And yet everything is modern: all rooms have flat screen TVs with DVD players with an extensive DVD library. There are many other facilities including indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, health and beauty spa, croquet lawn, snooker room and a hot tub.  Also a perfect Cornish beach and coastal path are nearby.

The Nare offers two restaurants, the Dining Room with a traditional table d’hôte menu, changing daily, and The Quarterdeck Restaurant with a relaxed a la carte menu. Richard the head chef uses local ingredients as the basis for his menus, with locally reared beef, fresh locally caught seafood and seasonal vegetables and fruit. His specialty dish is Beef Wellington with braised red cabbage, gratin dauphinoise, served with a Madeira jus. The Nare’s extensive wine cellar contains some speciality vintages as well as old favourites laid down by the proprietor.

If you are looking for a family friendly hotel, look no further than the Bedruthan Steps Hotel, a 4 star hotel with fantastic facilities for all the family. You will find it between Newquay and Padstow in Mawgan Porth (TR8 4BU) by the Atlantic, with stunning ocean views along the coastline. Bedruthan is an established family-owned hotel opened in 1960 by Mary and Peter Whittington. Now their daughters, Emma, Debbie and Rebecca, continue to run the hotel. Bedruthen’s austere facade belies the light, bright and spacious interior. All rooms have an en-suite bathroom, tea and coffee making facilities, telephone, chill box, TV and radio and a baby listening service.  You might like to try one of the apartments, each with a spectacular view over the Atlantic, and of various sizes to suit families or couples.

Bedruthan Steps also has newly refurbished Villas for families on the ground floor with direct access to the outdoor children’s play area. The delightful Ocean Spa provides a safe and secure place to relax and enjoy the water with family and friends. Light lunches or larger meals are available at the Cafe Indigo and in the evening the Indigo Bay Restaurant offers a family table d’hôte dinner menu, changed daily to make the most of fresh seasonal produce. The international wine list contains some interesting local and organic wines as well as the traditional vintages selected to complement the menu. Bedruthan Steps also has a rigorous environmental policy which is one of the factors which earned it Cornwall’s Hotel of the Year for 2010.

The Summer House, Penzance is the place for stylish, modern luxury bed and breakfast accommodation. You will find it set in a quiet mews within an easy walk of the sea front. The property is a fine example of Regency Architecture at its very best stylishly converted into a small town house hotel. It has been tastefully refurbished to provide all the modern comforts to ensure a comfortable and relaxing stay. I particularly liked the spacious lounge and its graceful yet comfortable furnishing and also the tropical walled garden with its terracotta pots and palm trees. The bedrooms, doubles and singles, are all light and airy, tastefully decorated each in a unique style, but with a common theme of elegance and comfort. Particular attention is paid to breakfast with hand squeezed orange juice, freshly perked coffee, freshly baked croissants, eggs from the local farm and locally cured bacon. The house is particularly convenient for the pubs and restaurants in Penzance, where a wide variety of menus are available.

 The Cornwall Hotel Spa and Estate at St Austell is a 43 acre hotel complex with accommodation to suit all tastes. You will find sumptuous suites and traditional bedrooms in the newly restored Victorian White House, the main hotel building, and in the deluxe Woodland Rooms. Also there are several luxury self-catering Woodland Homes, with two or three bedrooms. All of the bedrooms and suites in The White House are individually designed each with its own unique characteristics, some with four-poster beds. All rooms are generous and airy, tastefully decorated and fully equipped without being cluttered. Each room has a large private balcony offering imposing views of the estate’s sweeping parkland, across thePentewanValley. The Woodland Homes are architect-designed, self-catering holiday houses built with sustainably-sourced cedar wood and natural slate. In the centre of the estate is The Clearing Spa, the ultimate place for beauty, health, fitness and relaxation. You will find a range of luxurious treatments, manicure bar, juice bar, infinity swimming pool, sauna and aroma steam-room, drench showers and a new fitness suite with personal training and nutritional advisors. In the Arboretum Restaurant, Tom, the head chef, personally supervises the menu and creates exquisite dishes from locally sourced ingredients.

 The Old Quay House Hotel at Fowey is one of those few luxury boutique hotels that are incredibly chic and essentially comfortable. You will find it right on the waterfront, an imposing old building which has been carefully restored to make a most amazing luxury hotel. The individually designed bedrooms, with king-sized beds, combine comfort with style, affording full amenities and all modern comforts. The Penthouse has a freestanding claw foot bath and polished wood floor and a balcony with an impressive view overlooking Fowey Estuary. Most rooms have balconies which enable guests to enjoy the stunning views of the harbour. The ‘Q’ Restaurant is presumably named for ‘Q’, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the renowned literary critic, who came from Fowey. ‘Q’ is equally renowned for its excellent cuisine and a spectacular waterfront location, with uninterrupted views over the Fowey estuary. The light wooden furniture gives ‘Q’ a chic robust yet modern look which fits well with the menu. Ben, the head chef, draws on the traditional bistro style, using local produce such as Fowey river oysters and pan fried Cornish scallops. I recommend his duck confit and air dried salami. ‘Q’ has its own in-house Master of Wine who provides an extensive wine list with some rare and exquisite vintages.

The Idle Rocks Hotel  St Mawes is an ideal place for the combination of luxury accommodation and an exceptional dining experience. You will find it perched on the harbour wall in St Mawes, a quaint fishing village in the unspoilt scenery of the southern coast ofCornwall. The views from the bedrooms are spectacular. You can see the picturesque harbour, narrow lanes of tidy fisherman’s cottages, green fields sloping to the sea and charming sandy beaches. The accommodation consists of individually designed ensuite rooms or suites, with an emphasis on comfort and style. The ‘Premier Plus Rooms’ have French windows and balconies that enable guests to get the most out of the superb views. The Water’s Edge Restaurant offers diners a view out over St Mawes harbour. Steve, the head chef, has a wealth of experience in culinary excellence and creativity, with a varied menu of dishes prepared and served to the highest of standards. For less formal dining, The Rocks offers a varied Brasserie menu in the Bar, at lunchtime and in the evenings.

 The Greenbank Hotel  Falmouth is a modern luxury hotel overlooking the Fal estuary, with spectacular views across Falmouth Harbour to Flushing and the Roseland Peninsula. The accommodation is amongst the finest in Cornwall with spacious, well equipped, luxurious bedrooms. All rooms have en-suite facilities with ‘deluge’ showers, flat screen TV and free wireless. The Sheldrake Suite has a tripod mounted brass telescope for guests to view the Harbour’s hectic activity. Fiona, the head chef, personally supervises the restaurant, where she creates a selection of dishes worthy of the finest gourmet establishments. I highly recommend her succulent sea bass and red mullet, and the famous Falmouth Bay oysters. The cuisine, accompanied by an excellent wine list, and the sumptuous accommodation, make The Greenbank one of my favourite locations in the Cornwall area.