If you want to spend your motorhome, camping and caravan holidays in Cornwall and you're looking for a campsite that is open all year, Little Trethvas Camping and Touring Site might be just what you are looking for.
This is a beautiful holiday park in Helston, Cornwall, found on the largely unspoiled Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. It welcomes guests with touring caravans, motorhomes and tents, while also having a self-catering caravan and self-catering holiday cottages available for hire.
The touring and camping pitches are found on a level field, with fresh water supplies and grey water drainage available. The park is laid out so the centre of the field is left open for children to enjoy running around and playing ball games.
Facilities available to guests staying at Little Trethvas Camping and Touring Site include showers, a washing up area and a laundrette. Tourist information is available on-site to help guests decide how they’re going to spend their holidays in Cornwall.
The park prides itself on staying true to the unspoiled landscape in which it sits and which surrounds it – which includes sections of Heritage Coastline – and allows wild grasses and flowers to grow in various sections of the park.
Visit Cornwall and you can explore this beautiful part of the UK – it's a super holiday spot if you like the outdoors life. And if you've pitched at Little Trethvas Camping and Touring Site, you'll have lots to do without needing to venture far from the park.
Explore the area on foot. A number of walking routes head out directly from this campsite, many of which head towards local villages and attractions, while guests can also choose to head off the beaten track and across the countryside to find their own way around Cornwall. Cyclists can use most of the walking routes, although there are plenty of quiet country lanes that are perfect for cycling, too.
The Lizard peninsula is the most southerly part of the British mainland. The National Trust run Lizard Point and Kynance Cove is a dramatic and historic stretch of coastline, where rare flora can be found – and as Lizard Point is less than 10 minutes from Little Trethvas Camping and Touring Site by car, it is very easy to get to. Maybe you'd like to enjoy Cornish ice cream, a Cornish pasty, milkshakes, scones, tea and coffee in the nearby Kynance Beach Cafe, which is in Kynance Cove, an area of outstanding natural beauty with stunning coastal views, white sand and turquoise waters.
Of course, beaches are a major draw of this area – and you really will be spoiled for choice. Discover the ancient church at Gunwalloe, enjoy the surf at Kennack Sands or drive about 20 minutes from this campsite to the coastal village and fishing port of Coverack – and many of Cornwall's beaches are also dog friendly.
Around a 20-minute drive north of Little Trethvas Camping and Touring Site in Helston is Flambards, a theme park that is a fun day out for the whole family. There are gentle rides for the little ones, as well as soft play, or more daring rides for the thrill seekers in your party. Enjoy a day out with a difference on your holidays in Cornwall.
tourist information area
Poldark Mine
Helston Museum
Cornish Seal Sanctuary
Overall rating
Based on 3 review(s)
Hampshire 09 Jun 2015
We were very lucky to find this little campsite based on a recommendation from the National Trust. It was just what we wanted. A quiet campsite, with a quiet area for tents, with good bathroom facilities, and washing up facilities, on the Lizard, with easy access to coastal footpaths and other walks.
This is a campsite and caravan site which also offers glamping, and has chalets and a caravan.While we did not stay as glampers, we did check out the glamping facilities after other campers have left (my photos of the glamping facilities show it as recently vacated, rather than as presented to new guests, so please bear this in mind)
The glamping facilities are good, with a dedicated kitchen area. While the tipi was sheltered somewhat by vegetation, the site can get quite windy due to its location on the Lizard, so be prepared to tighten the guy ropes occasionally if conditions demand, or feel free to ask the owners to do so. There are no dedicated bathroom facilities for glampers, these are shared with other campers, however this is not an issue, as the three bathrooms are excellent, with hot powerful showers, a toilet and a shaving socket in each.
The remainder of my review reflects the site in general, the local amenities, and our experience as tented campers with own comfortable tent.
The owners provide a freezer which is open access for people to freeze their ice packs, and a fridge for people to store their perishable food (I suggest you bring labels to put your name on it, this is what others seemed to do). There is also a washing machine in this sizeable little shed, which also doubles as a small library for
guest use (mainly adult books) and a tourist information centre which has vast numbers of leaflets and information packs which were enormously helpful to us in planning our week, even though we have visited the Lizard for several previous holidays and have explored it at some depth. I recommend the booklet Wild Lizard, which lists places to watch wildlife, and has details of regular nature walks.
I attended a botany walk on Goonhilly Downs, which was enjoyable, interesting and relaxed.
The owners are happy to charge up phone batteries and camera batteries for you (please bring your own plug in charger), or bring your own rechargeable power block, and they will charge that for you. There was no charge for charging batteries, or for freezing ice packs, which made for a very relaxed trip.
We were surrounded by birdsong, which was great. We went to sleep early as dusk fell, and woke with the dawn chorus. While the main Lizard road is nearby, the noise was not disturbing, and it quickly disappeared to a background drone that did not impact on the tranquility of the site (and we were in the field nearest the main road - basically if you do not let it bother you, you wont hear it after 5 minutes, if you obsess about it, you will hear nothing else).
The owners make an effort to ensure that nice people book, who are going to respect the site, and other guests, and this showed. Loud music and disturbance would not be tolerated here, and while the site is dog friendly, the owners were clear that dogs must be kept under control on leads when on the site, and in the rare
event that a dog makes a mess, the owner MUST clear it up. The owners have three lovely dogs which it was great to meet, and they also have free range chickens, with two broods of chicks when we were there. This is another reason why children need to be supervised (we saw one unsupervised child harassing a chicken by throwing things at it before the owner intervened - this was not repeated), and of course dogs cannot be allowed off leads as they will chase the chickens (we saw one example of this when a small dog briefly escaped their owner - again, the site owner and my wife intervened to extricate the chicken from the dog's jaws - this was also not repeated!). These were isolated incidents not typical of our week on the site, and are included to demonstrate that these incidents were quickly resolved by the charming and attentive hosts Liz and Mike who own the campsite.
Basically, if you are not the sort of guest who will supervise your dogs and children and have consideration for other guests around you, please go elsewhere (or in my view stay at home!), but nice respectful guests will have a delightful relaxed time here.The owners run a great little cafe onsite which is open most mornings and afternoons for breakfast, cream teas and light meals. This was good value, with high
quality locally sourced ingredients used. The owners have a source locally for excellent homemade pastys which we discovered after having our pasty of the week, so we look forward to trying them on our next visit! The bathroom facilities are excellent - there are three bathrooms, and an additional two toilets, which doesn't sound many, but my initial misgivings were unfounded, I always found a bathroom or toilet free, partly because we were sensible enough to pick quieter times of day, and the site is quite small, with the caravanners I assume having their own loos.
The bathrooms are proper bathrooms, ie a room with an un-metered hot shower, sink, shaver socket, mirror, and toilet, with bolt on the door, so it is yours for the duration once bagged. People are asked to mop the floor after showers or the next person, so the floor is not slippy.
The pitches were flat, and in good condition. No camp fires are allowed, as the owners wish to maintain the lovely pitches in good condition, but barbecues and gas stoves are fine providing they are raised and will not burn the grass. We cooked most evening meals ourselves on a little Coleman one burner stove and loved it!
Walking from the site was good, we walked from the campsite to Kynance Cove, Lizard Point, Lizard Village, Church Cove and Cadgewith, and there so many other places to visit, and walks to do.We had great tips from the owners. We tried excellent Fish and Chips at Rodneys Happy Plaice in Porthleven, we didn't have time to try
the excellent pastys from the Horse and Jockey in Helston or Porthleven, but we did enjoy one of Ann's pastys from Lizard Village. The butchers in Lizard is good, but there are handy supermarkets in Helston, at least one of which is open 24 hrs a day. We enjoyed Roskilly's ice creams in Lizard Village, and had a great cream teas and occasional cooked breakfasts in the cafe on the campsite (the Almond Tree)
We will definitely return, we very much felt welcomed into their family by the owners. There were very brief periods when the owners were not on site, but they always left a chalk board with their contact details on if they had to pop out shopping, say. Considering the site and cafe are run only by a husband and wife, the level of
service is remarkable.
I didn't like having to go home at the end of the week, we could happily have stayed on for another week, and look forward to visiting again. This would be my first choice of campsite when visiting the Lizard.
Northamptonshire 20 Mar 2014
No words can describe how wonderful the campsite is, especially how homely the hosts are. AWESOME.. Thank you for the wonderful time. I have three kids and they all felt at home and had loads of fun. The places around are so pretty and colourful ...
Northampton 20 Mar 2014
We found this small site right up our street.Liz was very helpful and knowledgable re places to visit, walks etc.The birdsong in the mornings was delightful asd everyevening the Owls would start up,It must be Spring.Lovely clean well managed site and we have already booked to come again in early summer.