Beaches by train: Par

An article popped up on my news feed recently which caught my attention: How to get to Beaches by train. I was pleased to see that I recognised a few of them, and thought I’d jot down some thoughts in case anyone else wants to give them a try. In this post, I’m going to talk about Par.

Par

I must admit I hadn’t even heard of Par until I used Network Rail’s Journey Planner to work out how to get to Newquay by train from my nearest station, Feniton.

A bit like roads and Rome, all trains to Newquay seem to go via Par, where I would need to change trains. So, I did a bit of research and thought that Par might be worth a closer look.

On this occasion I travelled on my own, as I wanted to do a recce ahead of bringing my dogs on the longer journey to Newquay at a later date.

Journey details

You can’t get directly to Par from Feniton, so my journey involved changing trains at Exeter St Davids, which is about 20 minutes away. From Exeter, the journey to Par is around two hours.

As I had to get back same-day for the dogs, I was only in Par for a couple of hours, but I liked what I saw.

First Impressions

Par station is pretty basic, but it’s clean, there is a waiting room, and a proper loo. The nearest cafe is less than 10 minutes walk.

Getting to the beach

From the station I cut through the recreation ground, which is right next door. There are a couple of roads to cross along the way, but most of the route is along footpaths.

I enjoyed the walk, particularly the small nature reserve just before the beach. Even though it was September, the reserve was still looking nice in the sunshine.

Par Sands Beach / Par Beach

The beach itself didn’t disappoint either, with a nice large expanse of sand and pleasant views. When I visited it was really quiet, with just a few surfers and dog walkers, despite the nice sunny weather.

I’m pretty sure there is a mobile cafe right by the beach, but I didn’t try it that day, and instead chose to have a sandwich lunch at the recreation ground near to the train station (as I didn’t want to miss my train home!)

All-in-all, Par looks well worth at least a day trip in its own right. I noticed there are chalets not far from the beach, so it’s clear that some people spend their holidays there, and I’m tempted to do the same in the future. If nothing else, I will definitely return for at least a day trip, but with the dogs so I have more time to explore.

That’s all for now

That’s all for this post. If you are reading this, then thanks for persevering. If you know Par better than me, I’d welcome comments and suggestions about what I missed.

In my next post I’ll talk a little bit about a couple of beaches that are also accessible by train, but don’t appear in the original article.

References / credits

1. Good Journey is a website which “champions car-free leisure travel”
2. Screen grab is from Ordnance Survey’s OS Maps app, https://explore.osmaps.com/ which is excellent. I have a subscription, which I use frequently on laptop, phone and tablet. (In the unlikely event that someone from OS reads this post, please reinstate Landscape mode in the app!)
3. Par Track Community Cafe https://partrack.org.uk/cafe – highly recommended. Great food, nice location, and very dog-friendly.
4. Friends of Par Beach for information and local links https://www.parbeach.com/
5. Trains to Par from Exeter St David’s station take around two hours, and direct trains also run from various locations, including London Paddington, Plymouth, Penzance, and Cardiff