Around Bude

A beautiful home by the beach

Seagull Cottage Bude

Things to do in and around Bude:

The beaches.

There are two beaches in Bude: Crooklets and Summerleaze.

Crooklets is popular with surfers and is home to Bude Surf Life Saving Club. RNLI lifeguards patrol the beach during the day from May to September. When the tide is out there is a vast expanse of golden sand. The cliffs next to Crooklets are formed from alternating shale and sandstone sedimentary deposits with the buckling and twisting of tectonic plates creating the beautiful shaped rock formations.

The many rock pools in the area provides hours of entertainment for young and old alike. There are two beach cafés within easy reach and in addition to food and drinks, beach toys and sandals are usually available. Rosie’s café has customer toilets and there are public toilets next to Crooklets car park.

Summerleaze is less than five minutes walk from Bude town centre and has a large car park with level access through the sand dunes on to the beach. There is an RNLI shop with toilets next door and a bistro overlooking the sea. To the right of the beach is the sea pool, refreshed every day by the tide. To the left of the beach is the breakwater. Built to shelter the harbour from the Atlantic, the breakwater is a fantastic location from which to watch the sunset or go fishing. The metal support for the barrel on Barrel Rock at the end of the breakwater, was once the propeller shaft of the wrecked SS Belem.

The canal, also to the left of the beach, was built to carry lime-rich sand inland to improve the soil for farming. Bude canal roughly follows the line of the river Neet and there are circular walks following the canal and the river. These start at the Bude visitor centre car park near the wharf.

Crooklets beach

Summerleaze beach

The shops.

Apart from the traditional bucket and spade shops there are art galleries, jewellery shops, ice-cream parlours, cafés, pasty shops (real pasties of course, not factory made), surf shops, charity shops, newsagents and a department store. Lansdown Dairy convenience store stays open until 10.00pm seven days a week. A petrol station is on the road out of the town centre. There is also a post office and there are several banks with cash machines.

Sainsbury’s and the Co-Op have stores in the town, there is a large Morrisons with a petrol station a few minutes drive away in Stratton and a new Lidl store opposite that.

Dining out.

In addition to the numerous cafés in the town and by the beaches there are traditional pubs that serve food such as The Globe, The Brendan Arms, The Bencoolen and The Carriers Inn. The Falcon hotel has a bar serving food and a more upmarket restaurant.

Several hotels in the area have been transformed in to contemporary bar/restaurants and serve an excellent variety of daytime and evening meals. These include Tommy Jack’s which is just a minute away, Hebasca, The Beach, Elements and The Bay View Inn at Widemouth.

If you fancy an Indian meal there are three restaurants to choose from with Bay Leaf having excellent reviews. For Chinese meals there are take-aways and there is a Thai restaurant in the Strand.

Finally, The Bank at Petherick’s Mill, is a delightful tapas restaurant with a canvas style roof.

Find more restaurants listed here:

www.eatoutcornwall.com/restaurants/bude/

Indoor activities for children.

Harlequinns Leisure centre near Morrison’s supermarket has ten pin bowling and a large indoor play area on six levels, a snack bar serving hot food and a children’s party room. Next door is Splash indoor swimming pool. Fifteen miles out of town near Clovelly there is The Milky Way, an all weather adventure park. themilkyway.co.uk

Sports and outdoor activities.

Bude has an 18 hole golf course next to the town (budegolf.co.uk) and Outdoor Adventure (outdooradventure.co.uk). Shoreline Extreme Sports (shorelineactivities.co.uk) offer daily surfing and coasteering lessons. Coasteering is safely managed climbing, scrambling over rocks and jumping in the sea. There are also residential courses for families and school groups.

Further out of town there are adventure parks such as Cornwall’s Crealy, and Combe Martin Wildlife Park . Other adventure parks further afield can be found here: dayoutwiththekids.co.uk

There are numerous walks in the area and bikes are available to hire from budebikehire by Petherick’s Mill.

Let’s not forget the obvious outdoor activities when you are staying right next to the beach: paddling, sandcastle building, rock-pooling and sun bathing!

Late night bars and clubs.

For those with enough energy left after a day full of activities, you can dance the night away at BED nightclub in The Strand and enjoy live bands at Bar 35, Belle Vue Lane. There are usually taxis waiting by The Triangle which is near to both bars but it’s always a good idea to book in advance. Pick up a card from a driver when you see them around the town.