At The Cornish Way we operate on a Friday changeover to offer guests the best traffic option.

Getting to Cornwall in the summer is never easy, but it’s a lot better on a Friday than a Saturday.

And of course the other benefit of leaving the far west on a Friday is that you can stay somewhere else for the night on the way home.

As we come across great options for the stopover I’ll document them here for you.

Following on from my post a few months back on staying right in the middle of the journey between Tregiffian and London, here’s a different idea for breaking up the trip home.

Chagford in Devon is only 120 miles from the Tregiffian cottages, but it’s well worth a night’s stop.

For years we have been staying at The Three Crowns. At first it was OK, then it got ropey, but we carried on visiting as that first visit was one of our first stays away together. Then a few years back St Austell Brewery took it over and spent a fortune on a good refurb and tasteful extension.

The food is reasonably good pub fayre that’s not too expensive, but more importantly the beds are very good, and even the dog friendly room that we use is comfortable if a little pricey.

This last stay we also ate at the recently re-opened Chagford Inn which had an excellent menu based on them buying a beast a fortnight and working through the whole animal. Less carnivorous options are available too. Good beers and friendly staff made us decide to book here for our next stay.

So plenty of food and accommodation options, but what else is good?

Chagford is a quaint and pretty town in its own right, sheltered by the surrounding hills, and offering good walking form the doorstep, but drive a few miles and you’re on the wonderful Dartmoor.

Dartmoor isn’t huge, but it’s varied scenery draws me, and in September the colours of heather and gorse with occasional monbretia take some beating.

We parked near the Warren Arms where the peat fire is said to have burned continuously from 1821 – that’s one hungry fire. In light rain we headed off for the nearest Tor, passed an interesting linear standing stone arrangement, crossed valley, hill, bog, and stream, and had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours. Take a compass and map if you’re heading far from the road – the weather can change quickly and dramatically.

The famous Dartmoor ponies came for a nose around the cars too, hoping for a pie, sorry guys, bit peckish myself.

A drive down to Buckfast Abbey took us through hugely changing scenery and the calm of the abbey capped the day nicely – just working up the appetite for the dinner at The Chagford Inn.