The Cornwall Rip off

Parking is a rip off in tourist areas wherever one goes and Cornwall is no different in that respect. But out of season (now until the start of March) most council car parks are free, unlike our home town where, like many others I guess, the car parking charges are one factor in the demise of our high street. Many popular tourist spots in Cornwall are NT owned and parking charges for non members are extremely high. Again, I don't believe that's any more the case in Cornwall than anywhere else.

Out of interest, K, when were you last in Cornwall, whereabouts and what time of year? What did you pay for parking?

Parking in our city is very expensive, can't tell you what as we don't use them 😉. But 2 1/2 years ago it was £5 + all day for long stay. We recently went to St Albans for the day and over 6 hours £12. It seems to be the way if the world.

We live here so can easily compare car parking charges with tourist spots elsewhere. I’d say they’re no better and no worse in Cornwall. Perhaps it depends on one’s personal viewpoint of reasonable / cheap / expensive.

How fortunate we are in living here and being able to take advantage of free parking in many places at this time of year! The council doesn’t maintain the charging in out of town car parks in winter because they tend to be very lightly used and it would cost more than it’s worth to empty machines. In town, the charges stay but I don’t find them excessive at just over £1 per hour. 

Privately owned car parks are, of course, a law unto themselves.

Is it me but I have a feeling we’ve had this discussion before?

I think you need to be a bit more selective in where you try to park in Cornwall then, K. Not just roll up to the first place you find and stump up whatever they're trying to fleece you for! 

Try Cambridge's Park & Ride if you want to dig deep. Can't remember prices now, but the charges for both parking & bus fares on the busrail (I'd never heard of one until then) were anything but cheap. It would have been cheaper to park in the city which surely defeats the object of Park & Ride.

We recently toured Northumberland and Borders with our MH. Only had to pay in two car parks, and one was in Alnwick on Food and Drink festival weekend. So busy we had to use Alnwick Castle car park, but it wasn’t over expensive. Never paid a thing elsewhere. Berwick, Seahouses, Bamburgh, Coldstream, St Abbs, Eyemouth, North Berwick, Amble, Wooler etc........all free. I think we paid on Lindisfarne.

Then we toured SW. Had to pay almost everywhere other than NT. Boscastle, we paid. Fowey, we paid. Okehampton, we paid (got a bit back in Waitrose.) Tavistock, MHs banned from main carpark, we eventually found other cp, and paid. Topsham, we paid. Chanced it for a late night dog walk near St Austell, and Caerhays Beach rather surprisingly free.

The difference between the two tours was enough for me to pass comment, but I think the former was the more unusual, we normally have to pay most places. So there you go, NE is rather more welcoming for visitors with motor vehicles.

Good to know AD. Once we venture overseas I will look for best advice on Toll roads as well.

Have to say we more more surprised at not having to pay as much in NE, than having to pay in SW. Some places seem quite expensive, others not so, but its all part of the holiday budget overall. One of worst parking areas we know is Whitby and Scarborough. I recall spending  a fiver just to park up and have a pee, before we even started looking around Whitby, and you can’t transfer tickets between lower town car park, and the one up by the Abbey. It’s either pay again or tackle the climb up and down!

Many car parks are levying charges on blue badge users as well nowadays, including, rather disgracefully our local hospital. It’s almost a tax on being unwell if you have to make regular visits with someone disabled or very elderly who requires regular check ups.

Obviously depends on one's mobility, but in high summer in Cornwall it'd be hard to beat parking at St Agnes Head (free!) and walking along the coastal path either to Chapel Porth in one direction or Trevaunance Cove in the other!  

So far, Cornwall is probably the only place we have visited where we would find caravan a better choice in some ways than MH. We know certain parts of Cornwall very well, but not so easy to get to them with MH, we found ourselves using alternative routes to places, and compromising on walking. For example, we didn’t go across Bodinnick Ferry with MH as we know we would have got stuck, so it was a much longer drive round to Eastern side of Fowey Estuary. However, touring was much easier, and we did get to see more of the whole county.