A day out in Looe, Cornwall

Where is Looe?

Looe is a small coastal town in South East Cornwall. It was the largest coastal town near our Airbnb during our week in Cornwall (about 10 minutes away). Read on for more about our day out in Looe, Cornwall.

It is divided in two by the River Looe, into East Looe and West Looe. We spent a bit of time in both parts during our visit.

Where to Park in Looe

There are two large car parks serving Looe and we found it easy to get a space in the car park on the East side of the river, right next to the town. The other, which I believe is larger, is on the western side of the river at the large Mill Pool Car park. We didn’t have cash to pay for the parking but found it easy to pay using the Parkonomy App (which also warns you when your ticket is about to expire, handy!)

The parking was just perfect for us with the children, right next to town and only about 10 minutes to the beach.

On the way to the beach we popped into one of the traditional seaside town shops to pick up a body board and water gear for the girls. This meant they could go a bit more into the water without getting cold. There were some fantastic independent boutiques too. On the way back to the car I nipped into one and got some souvenirs from our trip.

We visited in April 2021, shortly after England lifted some of its travel restrictions. It was reasonably quiet when we arrived, it had started getting busier as we left at lunchtime. I can imagine once the tourists flock back it’ll be much busier, so as always, I advise getting their early!

The Beach in East Looe

The sandy beach was clearly signposted and access to it was simple, down a ramp. We even pushed our pushchair onto the sand with no issue. The tide was on its way out as we got there, and it amazed us how much it went out during about an hours duration! (we don’t live by the coast so things like this amaze us ;-)). The beach was quiet, even towards lunchtime and it felt sheltered from sea breezes (which is handy in April!). I wanted to walk out onto he Banjo Pier but it was shut, not sure if this is was a Covid precaution or whether it is occasionally shut. Instead I looked around the harbour a bit more, and got a gorgeous view back over to the River.

Both girls needed the toilet during our visit and it was a short walk up onto the esplanade to the free public toilets. Because its so well located for the town, parking, toilets and food options this is a brilliant beach for children. In warmer months it would be easy to spend all day here.

West Looe

At lunchtime we headed back to the car and along the coast, into West Looe, for lunch at the Island View Cafe. The cafe is very popular with quite the queue (due to Covid precautions more than anything I expect) but the view from this pretty little place is gorgeous and the food was delicious. We also managed to park straight outside – result! However…there are no toilet, be warned and come prepared if you have little ones.

West Looe, Hannefore Beach

After lunch we walked over the road to Hannefore Beach which was one of our best ‘accidental’ discoveries of the week. At low tide there is a huge expanse of reef with endless rock pools that you can spend ages exploring. We found about 6 crabs (all pretty small!) in our hour there and the girls were over the moon. It’s obviously important to do no harm when rock pooling so we were careful to put the crabs straight back where we found them.

The weather was perfect (Hannefore Beach is known as a bit of a sun trap) and the view out over Looe Island was gorgeous. Another place in Looe that we could easily have spent all day at. However, be mindful of the lack of toilet facilities.

Looe is a complete treat and somewhere you could easily base yourself for a lovely South East Cornwall holiday. If you’d like to read more about our visit to Cornwall, how about our blogs on Talland Bay or Polperro.