Self-catering and luxury are concepts not often found together - at least not in my experience. Self-catering was a feature of many childhood holidays, around the UK and sometimes, exotically, in France or Spain, and in my memories tended to involve chilly chalets with very thin walls and cheese sandwiches for every meal. You had to take everything with you, too, it seemed - duvets, towels, even cutlery.
Now Gwel an Mor (Cornish for 'view of the sea', of which it boasts a very fine example) is attempting to reinvent the English self-catering holiday with a village of five-star lodges that offer families or groups their own private space combined with the kind of facilities you would expect from a hotel - bar and restaurant, gym, pool, sauna and steam room as well as a spa.
Huddled on a cliff top between Tehidy Country Park and the village of Portreath, just a couple of miles from Redruth, Gwel an Mor is designed to appeal to the middle-class tourists who have flocked to Cornwall in recent years in pursuit of a Rick Stein fish supper. Prominent mention is made of 'sustainability' in the promotional material and the restaurant uses mainly locally sourced produce - to help assuage the eco-guilt I presume, though I couldn't help noticing that a lot of the guests had turned up in four-wheel-drives.
The Scandinavian-style wooden lodges come in two- or three-bedroom options and provide guests with every essential - crisp bedlinen, fluffy towels, bathrobes and a fully fitted kitchen complete with the two items most crucial to my culinary repertoire, a microwave and a toaster.
The site is open all year round and is very good value for a winter break. The lodges are all cosy enough for cold evenings, but the Tregea VIPs, larger detached lodges that feature wood-burning stoves, are particularly so. All the lodges have a DVD player, satellite TV and wireless internet in case the weather keeps you indoors, but most of Cornwall's family attractions are open all year and you need only pick up the phone in your lodge and call reception to get personalised advice on what to do with your days - staff will also make bookings for you and help you plan visits.
In high season there are organised activities for children, including visits to a neighbouring farm and the Portreath Surf Lifesaving Club, and the site has an outdoor playground, though children can use the pool only if supervised. Christmas and New Year packages are especially popular for families and groups of friends, but off-peak the place is quiet enough to make a lovely retreat for anyone keen on winter walks or just some sea air - and you have the added luxury of having the pool and sauna all to yourself.
It probably wouldn't be the first choice for a single traveller, simply because the lodges are designed to be convivial and the cost for one is quite hefty, though couples wanting a romantic break do get a discount on the two-room lodges. But I went on my own because I wanted to make the most of a long weekend to get in some training for a 40-mile charity walk I'm doing this spring.
During the summer season some 5.5 million tourists descend on Cornwall, but if you're not a fan of crowded beaches and traffic jams, you can, if the weather is only moderately kind, enjoy all the advantages of the Cornish landscape on foot, horseback or mountain bike and still have room to breathe.
From the beach at Portreath the South West Coast Path leads along the cliffs in either direction, west towards St Ives or east to St Agnes, but the information folder in the lodge suggested a couple of local circuits of varying difficulty, and I decided to try the longer of these. Hard blue skies, a hint of early frost giving way to real warmth when the sun burns through, and all the spring bulbs newly opened, make early spring the perfect time to explore on foot.
Once you leave the shelter of woods for the cliff path, though, the wind is merciless and I was grateful for the moments when the coast path dipped steeply into small coves and valleys, despite the steep climbs this entailed. The views from the tops are magnificent, out over a blue haze and down to small, pristine coves at the foot of the cliffs, seemingly unreachable.
The path brings you out by Smugglers' Cottage at the west side of Portreath beach. (You'd have thought it was a bad idea for the smugglers to make their address so obvious, but apparently the house is built on the site of what was long known as Smugglers' Cottage - there was a lot of it about in Cornwall, as you will find out if you visit the Smugglers Museum at the famous Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor.) From here it is only a short walk, though a thigh-tremblingly steep one, along a stream and through woods back to Gwel an Mor. Altogether this walk was slightly under five miles (I'm a long way from doing 40!) though the cliffs made it hard work, and when I got back to the site I was more than ready for a spa treatment.
I chose a 'firming and slimming' massage, which, with hindsight, was a mistake. To be fair, Eva, my charming Polish masseuse, did try to warn me. 'This is not relaxing massage,' she said, pursing her lips. 'In fact, is quite painful.' In fact, it was much like being punched in the bum for an hour, to the sound of pan pipes. 'Don't worry - it is more painful if you are fat,' Eva observed, delivering another deft upper cut to my thigh. I felt this was in some way a compliment, if not a consolation. By the end, though, I did feel strangely invigorated. 'Now I give you head and feet massage to relax,' she kindly offered. Next time I am opting for the full body massage, no question.
From the upstairs sitting room of my lodge I watched the sun set over the Atlantic as I lit the log fire. (It's contained safely within a stove so that it's almost idiot-proof - although do please remember that fire makes metal hot and if you touch the door handle without the protective glove you'll end up with a vicious blister. But only an idiot would do that.)
My only complaint was that for a five-star resort, the restaurant was fairly pedestrian. Perhaps the proximity of Rick Stein just up the coast at Padstow had given me over-ambitious notions of fresh seafood, but the menu was more standard pub fare - fish and chips, sausage and mash and a range of pizzas - presumably meant to please families with children rather than foodies. It's all made with good-quality local ingredients but they could have done with a better range of light meals and salads. But the beauty of self-catering is that you always have the option of staying in and cooking your own.
There are big plans to develop the Gwel an Mor site, adding conference facilities, outdoor sports areas and further lodges (at the moment the site has 60), though I can't help feeling that this would spoil things. Part of the appeal of the place is being part of a small community for the duration of your stay, and the communal facilities, especially the pool, are designed to cater for a small number of guests. I would advise booking now, while it's still relatively low-key - and if you're choosing a massage, make it a nice gentle one.
Essentials
A two-bedroom lodge at Gwel an Mor, sleeping four, costs £445 for a week in low season, rising to £1,150 at peak season. A three-bedroom VIP lodge sleeping six, with the added extras of a private hot tub, woodburner and mid-week maid service, costs £625 for a week in low season, rising to £1,795 at peak season. Use of the pool, jacuzzi, gym, sauna and steam room are included in the price. Three- or four-night short breaks are also available throughout the year. For information and bookings see gwelanmor.com or call 01209 842354.
