Saffron Cottage

Saffron Cottage is a two-bedroom cottage in St Ives, sleeping four, set within 15th-century Academy Place. The entrance is through a narrow stairway between the Fore Street shops - easy to walk past if you don't know it's there. Inside: low beamed ceilings, exposed dry-stone walls, and a private courtyard garden at the rear. The kitchen is equipped for cooking and baking, there is an outside laundry room, and both bedrooms are on the upper floors.

St Ives Harbour Beach is 100 metres away, shallow enough for paddling at all tides. Porthmeor Beach - the surf beach on the north side of the headland - is 200 metres. Two entirely different beaches within a few minutes on foot, which is the main draw of staying right in the old town.

Tate St Ives sits above Porthmeor Beach and the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden is five minutes away. The cottage works well as a base for day trips to the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, 10 miles south, or St Michael's Mount at Marazion, 8 miles east.

Best for couples or small families who want to be immersed in St Ives town life, walking everywhere. Less good for guests who need a car nearby, as parking in St Ives is genuinely difficult in high season.