I WAS CAPTIVATED by Cornwall even before we landed, enchanted by the views from our Dash aircraft over the surf-washed beaches, craggy coves, boat-filled harbours, ancient castles and lush hinterland.
It could have been the coast of Northern Ireland that we had left only 50 minutes before on the new Belfast-Newquay service - were it not for the fact that the beaches were packed like Cornish pilchards with happy families and hundreds of surfers whose black wetsuits made them look like sleek seals from 1000ft up.
Seaside towns like Newquay itself and Padstow appeared colourful and inviting. As did the mosaic of hedgerow-fringed little roads that looked like the Ards Peninsula except that they were interspersed with vast concentric circles of former china-clay quarries resembling massive earthworks designed by Cornwall's renowned sculptor Barbara Hepworth.
After our two-week holiday in peak season, having discovered that those same seaside towns were not so inviting if you were trying to find a parking space or a restaurant with a free table, I still adored the whole Cornish experience. The month of September or Spring would be perfect.
I sorely regret never having spent a holiday in Cornwall decades ago when it was less popular with the English middle-classes who hog the narrow roads with their Chelsea Tractors and walk around in flip-flops and cut-off combats showing candle-white feet and legs, garish designer T-shirts and massive leather Gucci shoulder bags. The women are even worse.
I'm only joking - the sort of holidaymakers attracted to Cornwall tend to be my type of people, who love to mix outdoorsy, beachy activities and lots of sight-seeing with top-class accommodation and fresh local food prepared with flair.
Here are five splendid hotels split between North and South Cornwall. I first discovered them by surfing the Internet for hours and can now heartily recommend them from personal experience to the discerning readers of TREW'S TRAVELS:

Magnificent Mullion
Cove Hotel

MY ABIDING memory of this dramatic clifftop hotel will not only be of its Atlantic Gulf Stream panoramas but also the view of its restaurant's Seafood Platter composed of the fruits of that very sea.
I relished scallops, mussels, prawns, crayfish, shrimps and oysters plus a tasty crab just captured in the lobster pots of a Cornish crabber I'd photographed chugging out of tiny Mullion Harbour just below the hotel.
My meal was a vast array of the freshest shellfish this side of Atlantis and I had to have help from my family to finish it. The hotel's food is generally very good - which, at £28 for the set dinner and a hefty supplement for the Platter, it should be.
Yes, this is a family hotel, but the clientele tends to be mainly active older couples who enjoy walking local stretches of the South West Coast Path which passes the front door.
However, in our three-day stay we also shared the superbly located outdoor pool with thirtysomethings keener to lie in the sun rather than test the temperature of the solar-heated pool (which was quite warm thanks to the fact that we had chanced upon the only sunny part of England in the wash-out July of 2007).
The romantic setting also makes the hotel perfect for honeymooners. I was happy - but puzzled - to loan a honeymoon couple some DVDs to play in their bedroom as the Thai bride didn't speak English and couldn't watch TV. As the Scots groom thanked me profusely the next morning, I asked myself: Have a newly-married couple nothing better to do than watch my grandson's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?
Beaches nearby include Kennack Sands, which is EXACTLY what a great family beach should be - waves high enough for boogie-boarding and rock-pools frantic with enough marine life to fill a bucket in a blissful childhood hour. Nearby is Rosskilly's Open Farm where they make famous Cornish Cream Ices; We had a delicious lunch in the colourful courtyard there.
Two of the great attributes of Mullion Cove Hotel are its exemplary reception staff, Lorraine and Sarah. I had already got to know the personable Lorraine during a chatty email correspondence starting in May (it's best to book early for good hotels in South Cornwall as elsewhere). When I forgot my shoes, she posted them back home - I'd swear they had been cleaned!
l Mullion Cove Hotel, Mullion Village near Helston,about an hour's drive south from Newquay Airport. Tel: 01326 240328, email: mullioncove@btinternet.com, www.mullioncove.com

Perfect Primrose
Valley Hotel

IT WAS A PLEASURE to meet Andrew Biss, co-owner of the excellent Primrose Valley Hotel. It is almost adjacent to Porthminster Beach within sight of the legendary town and harbour of St Ives.
Andrew is an enthusiastic award-winning advocate of Sustainable Tourism and has lectured on eco-friendly Initiatives to local hoteliers in Northern Ireland. It was gratifying to hear that he is now a fan of The New Belfast and the Merchant Hotel ( ably managed by my friend Adrian McLaughlin) in particular.
(As a committed exponent of re-cycling, he was obviously impressed that the Merchant was re-cycled from the abandoned hulk of Ulster Bank HQ where I used to cash the odd cheque as an excuse to see the awesome interior maintained by their iniquitous overdraft charges and derisive interest payments.)
However, Primrose Valley is a luxurious 10-room boutique B&B hotel and not some hair-shirt hostel for the militant wing of the Green Party. Our suite had high-style furniture and fittings - including the best deluge shower capsule I have ever seen outside a five-star hotel. World-class gourmet breakfasts are sourced from named local producers such as Carleys Organics, Cornish Orchards, Boddington's Berries etc. The 40-choice Wine List at the lovely bar includes some very fine vintages indeed.
It's the location that packs the place out, of course. Porthminster Beach is perfect for paddling - unlike the wild-water surfing beaches on the other side of the St Ives peninsula. The sand is great for making a sandcastle or, in our case, North Cornwall's first-ever 10ft replica of Titanic complete with jagged iceberg. It was a poignant moment when the tide came in and it sank below the waters of the Atlantic. The Portminster Café on the beach was excellent, but somewhat expensive.
St Ives is picturesque in the truest sense - hundreds of British artists have painted pictures of it and its warren of little streets are lined with galleries climaxing in the amazing Tate St Ives and Barbara Helpworth Sculpture Garden.
As an amateur painter myself, I was really drawn (pun intended) to this place. We shall return earlier in the season when the lovely restaurants and alfresco pubs along its quaint streets and quays are less busy. As it happened, failure to get a table anywhere meant that we had to dine off our first real Cornish Pasties - crisp shortcrust pies brimming with braised steak and veg. Munching them with loved ones on the harbour wall -- while battling with cheeky seagulls as the sun went down - will remain a happy holiday memory.
l Primrose Valley Hotel, Porthminster, St Ives Tel:01736 794939 Email:info@primroseonline.co.uk, www.primroseonline.co.uk.
Tell Andrew I sent you.

Rick Stein's smashing Seafood Restaurant

GOURMET RESTAURANTS with rooms are a mainly French accommodation category which we have patronised from Normandy to Narbonne over many years.
Sometimes we found that the cheaper and more cramped the room, the more expensive and spacious the restaurant below. This was certainly not the case with our beautifully airy bedroom above Rick Stein's renowned Seafood Restaurant in Padstow.
The restaurant is famous due to its frequent appearances of its owner on Rick's TV programmes so it would be easily found, right? Its location, on the harbourside, is almost as celebrated as his wee dog, the late lamented Chalky (now immortalised on the label of the local brew Chalky's Bite), right? Yet we couldn't find it, and drove through a nightmare of quayide crowds at funeral pace.
We eventually reversed up a one-way hill to the St Petroc's Hotel, one of Rick and Jill Stein's many enterprises (deli, bakery, giftshop, fish&chippie, hotels) which have earned the town the nick-name Padstein.
There, a lovely receptionist called Sophie helped park the car and carried our heaviest case back 100 yards down to the Restaurant (which had been obscured by a bloody bus of daytrippers taking pix of it!)
Sophie was typical of the well-trained, customer-focused professionals we encountered, not only in the Stein empire but throughout Cornwall where tourism is the biggest industry by far. As the Seafood Restaurant was fully booked, we dined superbly at Rick Stein's Café - an hour earlier than our reservation time thanks to the helpful, flexible attitude of the lovely manageress.
After a restful night in one of the biggest of the Seafood Restaurant's 14 rooms, awakening to the sound of seagulls swirling over returning night-fishing boats, it was time for breakfast in the renowned restaurant. Wow! I sampled nearly everything on the bountiful buffet featuring the best produce of Rick's Food Heroes, so I only had room for grilled fresh-caught mackerel fillets instead of the Full English.
We loved our visit to one of Padstow's quirkiest attractions - the National Lobster Hatchery, a conservation charity curiously dedicated to re-stocking the depleted stocks of Cornish lobsters so as we can trap, kill, and eat them! We sponsored Lobby, one of the baby lobsters and will be able to watch its progress on the web.
l Seafood Restaurant Rooms are only some of the Rick Stein accommodation options in Padstow. Call 01841 532700
for reservations or check out the huge website www.rickstein.com

Beautiful Boscundle Manor
I CHOSE Boscundle Manor Hotel on the internet just because of its proximity to the Eden Project - and was thrilled when it turned out to be one of the best country hotels in Cornwall.
Initial impressions were good - a secluded driveway sweeps up to a former mining millionaire's mansion amid beautiful terraced gardens. We loved the croquet lawn (Papa John 0 - Grandson Simon 4) and the tree-fringed pool, but the outdoor hot-tub was second only to the indoor pool as our favourite. Alas, we didn't have time for a Spa treatment.
With all such facilities this would rank as a great place for your romantic weekend or family get-together. The public rooms are sumptuous and immaculate. A parade of all-size wellies was standing to attention behind the mighty front door. The deep pile on the carpet was constantly being hoovered to give it a bounciness which felt like walking on air.
The high-backed chairs in the ornately classic country-house dining-room are hand-crafted locally and are the most comfy I have dined upon. Starched table cloths and dazzling cutlery combined with fresh flowers and candlelight to create an appropriate setting for classic French cuisine with a Cornish twist. I wore my new linen jacket for the occasion but it got stained in my enthusiasm to mop up the madeira jus from my Tournedos Rossini - local Angus fillet and foie gras on a crispy crouton. I later sponged it out with the Moulton Brown shampoo in our huge bathroom.
Our tasteful bedroom was really spacious and led onto its own private ground-level terrace with nice wrought-iron furniture. Simon had a pirate suit for the duvet on his futon and young guests have Pirate meals etc.
This buccaneer theme is no doubt inspired by the Manor's proximity to unspoilt Charlestown Harbour, an ancient hideaway for pirates - and now a regular movie location - which is home to a great Shipwreck museum. Just alongside the old sailing ships is the Harbourside Inn where we ate our very best pub meal of 2007 and Simon beat me at pool.
Just up the road from the classy Manor is Cornwall's biggest Indoor Weekend Market, a vast array of stands selling everything from transvestite clothing to quad bikes. I bought a three-pack of socks for 99p which disintegrated in their first wash.
Boscundle Manor is the PERFECT place to stay if you want to get to the Eden Project early to avoid the coach parties - they can supply Fast Track tickets and will give you a map to avoid traffic.
l Boscundle Manor Hotel & Spa, near St Austell
Tel: 01726 813557 email:stay@boscundlemanor.co.uk www.boscundlemanor.co.uk

Superlative Sands Resort in Newquay

CLIMAX of TREW'S TRAVELS in Cornwall was our final four days spent at the Sands Resort overlooking the little beach of Porth on the Airport side of Newquay.
In fact, it took us just ten minutes to drive the four miles to catch our Flybe flight home - a wonderful piece of planning on my part that was (like our good weather) pure luck.
We loved the Sands. It exceeded our expectations in nearly every way and I can recommend it wholeheartedly for families who love to keep active and try all kinds of sports. I advise older couples and honeymooners to book outside the school holidays!
Dinner is inclusive in the daily tariff, which in other hotels usually means big buffets of bland cafeteria-style food. Not so at the Sands. Every single course is prepared and cooked to order and served by smiling cosmopolitan staff under the direction of Terry, the helpful manager. I was astonished at the quality of the seafood and local meat dishes, and the cheeseboard in particular.
For example, every night I had a selection of three different Cornish cheeses with biscuits and fruit. This dish could not have been bettered in Jamie Oliver's famous Fifteen Cornwall a mile down the spectacular coastal road at Watergate Bay where the Tasting Menu is £65 a head (I didn't even look at this place as a tout was demanding £5 just to park!)
The Sands is excelling in catering for the fast-growing market of families with small Maddy-age children who want to go to Cornwall instead of Portugal, Spain or Florida but who demand international facilities.
As well as the two pools, we were impressed by the tennis courts, proper full-size maze, surf-shack with wetsuits and body-boards, games-room with billiards plus air hockey table (Papa John 3 - Simon 3). More especially, we loved the FREE nine hole par 3 golf course which is the equal of courses here costing upwards of £10 a round. This was my first golf since major spinal surgery in 2004 and I even enjoyed the missed putts and wayward drives.
Rooms are well equipped for families, with sofabeds, baby listening, safe terraces and good sound insulation. The only minor downside to the Sands is that you really need a car as Newquay Town Centre is miles away and the nearest beach (Porth) is too far for most kids (and me!) to walk. Having said that, a local bus passes the hotel now and again, and car-hire is reasonable.
My favourite bit was, of course, having a really professional reflexology session with a gorgeous Swedish masseuse in the Sands Spa. Ahhhh, blissss...
I met lots of repeat guests including one Scots family enjoying their 15th consecutive visit. They have seen it expand and improve year on year:" Why bother going anywhere else" Why not, indeed. We'll probably return, too!
l Sands Resort,Watergate Rd, Porth, Newquay
Tel:01637 872864 Email:reception@sandsresort.co.uk,
www.sandsresort.co.uk. The brochure is enticing!

Get There
Only way to get there direct is Flybe's Belfast City to Newquay seasonal service which finishes 29th Sept
and restarts next Spring. www.flybe.com
Our Fiat Grande Punto came from the friendly locals at www.cornwallcarhire.com for £20 a day.
Official Cornwall Tourist Board: www.VisitCornwall.co.uk For attractions go to www.cata.co.uk and www.edenproject.co.uk

Birthday weekend in Happy Valley

MY BEST weekend for ages in Northern Ireland was spent in the newly-refurbished Valley Hotel in the Chill-out Capital of Ulster - Fivemiletown.
I joined scores of revellers there to celebrate my gorgeous friend Lisa Williamson's 30th birthday party. Thirty? She looks young enough to be asked for her ID at the bar - if her family didn't own the place!
The six Williamsons - John, Sally, Greg, Paul,Diane and Lisa - run what I consider to be the finest family-owned provincial town hotel anywhere in Ireland which it is why it has just won AA 3 stars.
The food, the superb service, the Loco Bar and Bordeaux Restaurant have always been in tune with the times (a hotel has been on the site since 1685!) but now the nightclub and 22 guestrooms have also been brought into harmony with the 21st Century thanks to what Lisa described to me as "a tasteful transformation ".
Due, no doubt, to my previous rave reviews here and at TripAdvisor.com, I got one of the best rooms in the house - a fresh-as-paint contemporary suite of TWO rooms plus sparkling new bath/shower room. The sitting-room, with comfy sofa and chairs, has a view over the Tyrone hills to compete with the 30in, 8-channel flat-screen TV on the wall. There is another LED TV in the bedroom above a dressing table/workstation complete with free Broadband connection.
The decor is downright delightful - cappuchino and rich red combining to create the perfect contemporary cosmopolitan ambiance. What is even more remarkable is that the new decor was designed by Lisa's mum Sally and not, as you would imagine, by a leading international interior designer!
Go to www.thevalleyhotel.com for more info and reservations (and click on Restaurant to see a pic of me tucking into one of chef Paul's Flavour of Tyrone specialities!)

TREW'S TOP ATTRACTIONS
Cornwall is now UK's top holiday destination and has more attractions per acre than anywhere I've ever been in these islands.
EDEN PROJECT is Britain's biggest and best man-made attraction.
It lives up to all the hype in every way and we were breathtaken by the exotic plants flourishing in Eden's iconic domes (biomes) which demonstate mankind's dependence on plants. I could fill this newspaper with the 204 photos I took in a six-hour visit. I could not be more enthusiastic. Go to be uplifted and amazed!
BLUE REEF Aquarium is the only place in Newquay to see sharks in spite of this summer's sensationalised stories of shark sightings in
nearby waters. Great demonstrations by marine experts.
Be dazzled by TREVARNO Gardens complete withsuper adventure playground, delightful museums of gardening and toys, plus what must
be Cornwall's classiest conservatory restaurant.
Take a boat-trip to Falmouth's NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
to marvel at the achievements of solo sailors and modern shipwreck survivors rather than look at dusty model battleships, as in other
maritime collections.
TATE ST IVES gallery has a panorama of Porthmeon surfing beach which competes with the artworks on the walls. Nearby is Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, an acre of pure magic behind her Trewin Studio
(no relation of my Cornish ancestors, the Trews).
Bodmin's COURTROOM EXPERIENCE is an enactment of an actual murder trial in the very court it was heard. A great way to shelter from showers.
Our visit to LANHYDROCK, the National Trust in Cornwall's most Stately of Homes was marred by a disgusting fish pie which looked and tasted like wallpaper paste which had been left forgotten in an outside loo. Let me say that this could never happen in any National Trust restaurant here!