Colonial Style on the Beach at Tolcarne, Newquay
I absolutely love finding unique places to stay in Cornwall, and the Colonial at Tolcarne Beach definitely felt so different to anywhere else we’ve stayed!
As you drive across the cliffs into Newquay town centre, you’d never know this gem was here. Tolcarne beach is nestled between Great Western beach and Lusty Glaze and the Colonial itself is tucked into the cliffs sat right on the sand.
The beach ‘village’ down here is privately owned (although the beach and restaurants are open to the public) and features two restaurants – The Colonial and The Wedge – and a range of different, quirky accommodation options, from colonial style rooms and suites, to apartments, beach huts and beach cabins.
(There’s also guest-only parking down here which is like gold-dust in Newquay!).
We weren’t sure what to expect as I hadn’t heard of The Colonial before. This bar & restaurant recently refurbished a collection of rooms to fit with the colonial theme and WOW – they’ve done such a great job. We were seriously blown away as we walked into our room!
We were staying in the Ganges Sea View Suite for the night, and I fell in love with the decor and quirky vibes of this place straight away. With wood floors, four poster bed (complete with parrots!), rolltop bath, and even a record player and vinyls in the room, we were totally transported to somewhere exotic like India or the Caribbean.
And of course, the balcony looking over Tolcarne beach and the Atlantic ocean certainly helped with the feeling of being abroad.
For dinner, we headed down to the restaurant for their Sunday beach BBQ on the terrace. They’re running these throughout summer and it’s open to non-guests as well, and I’d definitely recommend it!
We ordered a couple of cocktails each and opted for the mixed BBQ sharing platter, which came with half a lobster, Newlyn scallops, marinated prawns, jerk chicken, a rack of ribs, 10oz sirloin steak and octopus (although we swapped this for chicken skewers). Just look at how insane this looked! 😍
Every single mouthful was incredible, and there was also a buffet salad available to go alongside which was super tasty as well. My favourites were the lobster, steak and jerk chicken, whilst Alex loved the chicken skewers – but there wasn’t a thing on that platter that we didn’t say ‘wow that’s so good’ to! There was also so much food that we actually couldn’t eat all of it in the end… which NEVER happens.
After dinner we headed to up our room to enjoy the summer sunset from our balcony, on the super comfortable cushioned armchairs. The golden light was absolutely stunning, and it was the perfect way to end a gorgeous warm day at the beach in Cornwall.
We even made ourselves a couple of hot chocolates with our in-room tea & coffee facilities, and as the sun set I also loved that we had a couple of blankets in our room to snuggle up in on the balcony.
Sunsets in Newquay are always next level – they always seem to go super red and it just makes for the most breathtaking views across the coast. This was such a perfect, romantic moment 🥰.
The next day, we headed down for an early breakfast at The Colonial restaurant as well, where they had lots of different cooked options to choose from – including a Full Cornish (of course this is what Alex got!) and even American style pancakes!
I opted for an iced coffee (perfect for summers on their terrace!) and the pancakes, obviously. These were some of the best American pancakes I’ve ever had; perfectly crispy on the edges and soft in the middle (and without even a hint of baking soda taste… does anyone else ever find that with some pancakes?). They were covered in maple syrup and served with berries and it was just the best start to the day!
Overall I can’t recommend the Colonial and Tolcarne Beach enough because it was such a unique and luxurious stay – something so different to anywhere we’ve stayed in Cornwall before. Of course being right on the beach is wonderful, but the food was incredible as well and it has just a great vibe too.
To find out more, check out the Tolcarne Beach website!
*We were kindly invited for a complimentary stay & food in exchange for social media content, but I was not obligated to write this blog post at all – I genuinely wanted to because we had a great time :)
