We made our way to Clovelly Village through winding narrow countryside roads and giving way to tractors. It took us almost an hour to make a 20 mile journey! When you’re in the Devon/Cornish countryside though, you don’t tend to mind as much as it’s quite pretty. After paying our entrance fee (more about this later) we entered Clovelly Village and from then on I don’t think I stopped snapping photos. Its. So. Pretty.
Clovelly Village is essentially a tourist attraction, though it’s a quant english village with a steep hill winding down to the seaside. If you like your doors like I do, you’ll absolutely love the charm of the house doors in Clovelly. I’ll let my photos do the talking and show you around, and give you my thoughts at the end.
More on the Clovelly Village logistics – At the time we went it cost £7 per person to enter the village. While most people thought this was quite a lot, I considered it comparable to most other tourist attractions around England such as National Trust Properties or English heritage places we visit. That being said, what I didn’t like was that once you’d paid your entry fee, there were numerous places wanting donations, such as the famous donkeys and a pot out to donate to the air ambulance. I’m not sure what the £7 per person fee actually goes to, but it seems it could in part go to these things to not sour people’s experience of this pretty village by asking for more money to a captive audience.
Not only this, but the village itself is on a VERY steep hill with uneven steps in parts, so it is in no way suitable for anyone who is handicapped or has trouble walking. To add insult to injury, they offer “Landrover rides” up and down the hill (though all the shops and pretty houses are along the slopes) for £2.50 each way, which is a little punishing I thought to people who might have been able to manage down the hill, but not back up it. Again, I feel this sort of thing should have been included in the £7 entry fee for those who wanted to use it, as not everyone would.
I also expected there to be more shops. There were only a few, including one very nice little one with lots of seaside decorations and paintings which I was most impressed by. There were a few different choices to grab a bite to eat and drink which I thought was good, but as we had only come to spend a couple hours we didn’t take advantage of these.
Those were my niggles, but to be honest I really LOVED it. I felt like I had a permanent smile on my face the whole time as the sun was out and everything was just too damn cute. From the quirky decorated doors to the sleeping cats, we took our time on the slope so it didn’t seem too bad. I loved the harbour area jumping from rock to rock to get to the waterfall that was a little ways along the coastline (slightly difficult getting there but we managed) and just sitting beside the sea. Everyone we encountered in the village was super friendly and and happy to chat. Some of us got ice cream and some pints and just sat in the harbour watching some dogs playing in the sand.
When it was time to go back up the hill, I’ll admit, I felt terribly unfit when I tried racing up parts, but if you take it slow you’ll be fine. You’re rewarded with sweeping views of the harbour and ocean below at random intervals, making the stop offs worth it. My only wish was that we’d had more time to take advantage of the coastal walk.
Would I go back to Clovelly Village? Probably not, as there are a lot of free seaside villages you can actually go to and once you’ve been and seen everything, there’s not a whole lot of point in paying to go again I don’t think. They do offer a season pass if you’re local, which I think was around £30, but again, not sure if this is really worth it when there are free places along the sea you could go to.
Have you been to Clovelly Village? What do you think about tourist attractions and paying to experience places? Yay or nay?