This time last week, Alex and I were checking out after a very chilled out stay at Una St. Ives.
A short Autumnal break to somewhere close to the ocean was exactly what we needed, and the atmosphere at Una definitely helped us to wind down and take stock for a couple of days.
Tucked away down a country lane just outside of St. Ives and Carbis Bay, Una is a holiday resort made up of 25 luxury eco-lodges, a restaurant (Una Kitchen), fitness studio, swimming pool and spa. The complex is only a couple of years old, and they’re doing work at the moment for some pretty significant expansions too.
We arrived at our lodge on Wednesday evening, and were pretty wow-ed by the size of it! We’d been (very generously) put into one of their four bedroom lodges, and it had so much space. At Una you can book a two bedroom, three bedroom or four bedroom lodge, some of which have hot tubs as well – great for groups and big families.
The open plan living and dining/kitchen space was beautiful and clean, with tea, coffee, milk, juice and biscuits waiting for us. Upstairs the bedrooms (all doubles – although all except the master can be made up into twins too) were all very airy and light with calming decor. The master bedroom was impressive, with large full height windows/glass doors and a big balcony outside, as well as its own ensuite.
Tip 1: Bring a sleep mask! Although it looks beautiful, the very top angled part of the window did not have any blinds/curtains, so in summer you’ll need a sleep mask in the master bedroom if you don’t want to be woken up by morning light!
In terms of bathrooms, there was a small W/C in the porch, plus the master en suite, plus a big family bathroom with a bath upstairs too. Plus, when you open up the back doors from the dining area, it opens out onto a lovely bit of decking with grassy area too. There are long burners in every lodge, with logs supplied in the Winter months to make it extra cosy.
Tip 2: Bring your own shampoo/conditioner! While soap is supplied in the bathrooms, other toiletries are not so remember to bring your own. Luckily I had my BeautyKubes with me.
We settled right in, unpacked our things and drove a quick 5 minutes into St. Ives for dinner at Beer & Bird, before heading back and snuggling up in our huge master bed.
The next day, we woke up and headed over to the on-site restaurant, Una Kitchen, for breakfast. I had a smoothie and waffles, while Alex went for the full Cornish brekkie! He was very pleased as it came with hog’s pudding (apparently the key to a ‘proper’ full English!). The restaurant is open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner too.
We then spent a lazy morning at the lodge, using the wifi to do some work, and watching sports on TV. The weather was pretty rainy and windy during our stay, so we didn’t fancy going out for a walk (although it’s very easy to get to the coast path from Una), but it was nice to have a slow day inside making the most of the beautiful lodge – and the incredibly comfortable sofas!
Tip 3: Bring a laptop or device with you if you’d like to stream Netflix etc. as the TV in the lounge has Smart features switched off. Plus sometimes we found Netflix wouldn’t work, presumably due to some kind of block, but iPlayer worked just fine!
After lunch we visited the leisure facilities at Una – you can book a range of treatments in the spa there, which I’ve heard are very good, but we just opted for a couple of hours by the pool (the fitness studio looked well equipped too but we were feeling too chilled and lazy to go there!).
The pool area is pretty huge with lots of space and lots of loungers to choose from. I LOVE it when spas/hotels/resorts have loungers by the pool as it means you can just lie there in the chilled vibes with a book and not a care in the world! The pool is 15m by 12m which is nice and big, plus there’s a separate smaller children’s pool for young kids too, as well as a large jacuzzi, sauna and steam room.
The leisure facilities here are open to locals (around £20 for a day pass) and you can also become a member too. This had made us think it would be busy but due to the size it wasn’t at all, and we spent a couple of hours just chilling here and floating about.
Arriving back from the pool, we decided to pop open a bottle of bubbly to truly relax and kick back! In September I had my best month to date in my business, and I’m always talking about how we should celebrate small wins and appreciate little things like this to stay positive even when you’re super busy, so we thought – why not?
To celebrate, we’d brought with us a bottle of Floreat; an upcoming low-calorie sparkling wine made by a Cornwall-based company based just outside of Truro that I’m really excited to be working with**. Floreat is also low alcohol (just 5.4% instead of 12%) so perfect for ‘cheers’-ing on a ‘work night’, plus contains a blend of 26 different herbs, vitamins and botanical extracts which have the benefits of better sleep, alleviating stress and less chance of hangover symptoms the next morning.
Created by medical herbalist, Anne-Marie (who is very clever and super lovely in person, by the way!), Floreat tastes really unique and delicious thanks to the violets, roses, lime flowers and other botanics used in it, making it perfect for more mindful drinking. Learn more about how it’s made and try a bottle on the Floreat website!
That evening after a couple of glasses, we were booked in for dinner at Una Kitchen, which is in the same central building as their reception and leisure facilities. The decor in the restaurant is really fun and inviting, with an exposed kitchen and huge woodfired oven for making pizzas.
Everything on the menu looked delicious, and it was really hard to choose, but I went for salt & pepper squid to start followed by pizza, while Alex chose pork & beef meatballs as a starter followed by the mussels in a white wine sauce, which were delicious! Sadly we were both too full for dessert, and rolled back to our lodge for our final night.
We were both sad to leave the lodge – we’d had a wonderful relaxing time here and staying in such a large lodge for just the two of us was really fun! Thanks so much to Una for having us :)
To find out more about Una and their eco-lodges, head to their website!
* Our visit to Una was a complimentary press trip, but all opinions are my own.
** I am sponsored by Floreat but please know I only work with brands & businesses that I truly love and want to shout about!
Looks very enticing! We stayed in St. Ives last summer and had a really nice time. The downside was the seagulls outside our window at 4am! And one that stole my wife’s ice cream cone! I’m guessing there’s less of the seagulls at Una?