by “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Is there a more annoying phrase? It has always been said by people that there is an irritating abundance of personal freedom. You rarely hear it, for example, from those whose lives are based entirely on trips to and from schools, clubs and children’s swimming lessons. In rush hour.
Still, the last family “trip” gave me pause. Hell Bay Hotel, on the island of Bryher in the Isles of Scilly, is the most westerly hotel in England. Those swimming in cash travel by helicopter. The strapped for time to take a small plane. The view of emerald fields and the azure Atlantic is spectacular, but the ease disconnects you from the distance you are traveling, and therefore the unusual eccentric remoteness of where you are going.
The ferry is, of course, cheaper – however, at £84 each way for adults, and £47 for children aged two to 11, it’s still great value. Children under two are charged £23; even a dog £11. It’s a real adventure, though.
First you have to get to Penzance, which is an odyssey in itself as you travel from darkest Norfolk in a very capricious car. Next, the Scillonian III: a white whale of a ferry that skirts the Cornish cliffs, whizzes across the deep blue and dislodges its passengers – by then a little wobbly – into the stunning bay at St Mary’s, the head most of the Islands. Scilly.
Then you are scooped into a happy little vessel, landed on a deserted beach at Tresco (a nearby island of Bryher), bumped across the dunes with an electric shuttle, before finally going on a Popeye-sized boat across to Bryher, where the Hell Bay Hotel’s Land Rover. stays on the sand. And all before lunch.
Remember The Wizard of Oz, when the tornado lifts Dorothy from her all-time monochrome world, and drops her into a wonderland of color technology? Picture waves, not wind, and there you have it. Because everything on Bryher and Tresco is brighter. The sea is luminescent. The sand really glitters. Tinselled heather is in bright canary yellow and violet buds. Red lobster pots glow in the sun.
Neither island has cars. But while Tresco is a wonderfully chic paradise, Bryher is its smaller, wilder brother. Where Tresco has smooth paths, Bryher tracks and paths intersect. Where there’s a shop at Tresco (shirts for £165), Bryher has honesty boxes with quinces, chilli jam and obscenely large vegetables.
Instead of bougie beach restaurants, there’s a white-washed tea room and bar that closely resembles a fisherman’s cabin. Because the islands are so close, and the ferry so regular, you don’t have to pick one character over another. Still… Bryher was an immediate fit for the generous family.
Knowing that the island was a paradise for children, Michael Morpurgo set many of his books here. While nearby Tresco is genteel and sandy, Hell Bay Hotel sits on the rocky, pirate shore, where waves crash against huge sea stacks. The island is so small (half a square mile) you can often see both sides at the same time and we did the lot in the afternoon, passing ruins, cattle and a chorus of seabirds.
In the summer, you can rent sailing boats. We picked up a kayak, paddled in water so clear it was almost like swimming in mid-air, past – as Bryher sits in the path of the Gulf Stream – incredible palm trees and giant succulents.
The hotel itself also has an oddly California edge. There’s an outdoor pool (heated, thank God), and like a motel, all 25 rooms are individually accessible from the outside—ideal for families splashing straight from beach to room. On one side, the hotel borders a sheltered beach.
From the downstairs suite – one of four with two bedrooms, a large bathroom and a generous corridor for wellies, coats, wetsuits and more – we could see the waters from the bed. The children ran from the patio doors down to the sand. I swam. Someone hung a makeshift hammock high in the rocks above.
Inside, the hotel has recently been renovated. Interior designer Tania Streeter brought a fashionable dusting of coral pink and coastal blue. A little rattan here, some tongue-and-grooving there. However, there is something nice old school and uniquely British about the place. Our bathroom had a sensible bath-over-shower.
The owners are art collectors, and their influence goes far. Taking your pre-prandial in the lounge, you are surrounded by landscapes that are fine enough to focus on the waves through the window. In the bar, however, we lunched from a family-friendly menu of delicious burgers and fish and chips, beneath a brave angel hurling a frisbee at a bikini-clad defiant babe. Have a lively theological debate with the 13-year-old boy.
Later, in the dining room which houses the Isle of Scilly’s only Rosette by AA restaurant (delivering traditional, delicate fish-centred dishes), we joined our fellow guests for a chatty life raft. Some had been returning for years. One man came to propose. She said yes. It is the kind of place. People make pilgrimages, and then they become addicted. It applies to both the journey and the destination.
Fundamentals
Hattie and her family traveled as guests of Isle of Scilly Travel (islesofscilly-travel.co.uk). Hell Bay Hotel offers stays for a family of four from £290, including breakfast.
Bryher, Isles of Scilly TR23 0PR (01720 422947; hellbay.co.uk)
