Channel your inner water baby at a wellness trip with a difference on the Cornish coast.

When I ask my friend Lorna to accompany me on a wild swimming wellness retreat, I’m fairly sure it will be a relaxing and not too scary break. Chapel House has long been a bit of a destination – a historic townhouse sat directly above Penzance’s working harbour in west Cornwall, where relaxation and good food are given equal rights for guests looking to unwind and refuel. Recently, owner Sue and manager Kate have launched wellness weekends, allowing guests to experience this corner of Cornwall with a series of guided sea swims, coastal walks and hot tub dips.

We arrive at Chapel House early from our London sleeper train to the welcome sight of the sunny kitchen-diner. The breakfast bar is packed with local produce, homemade smoothies and hot coffee – my first reassurance that this is going to be wonderfully relaxing indeed. After refuelling from the sleeper, we head out to explore Penzance, stretching our legs on a long walk around the bay to Marazion and across the causeway to the famous St Michael’s Mount, before returning to our first water-based wellness activity of the weekend: the hot tub.

It’s the warmest of the weekend’s activities, which also includes a guided harbour wall swim just after sunrise, a dip at the ignore-the-name-it-was-fine Battery Rocks, and my activity of the trip: a coastal walk and swim in the tidal pool at Cape Cornwall. We spend hours walking and chatting with Kate, who knows every nook and cranny of this stretch of coastline, pointing out her dad’s old fishing hut up in the cliffs and stretches of coast where we might spot seals, before taking a dip in the pool while the sea crashes around behind us.

FOOD AND WATER

Lunch is homemade soup, hunks of soda bread and cheese, which we eat sat on the cliffs looking out at the pool we are delighted to have braved together. Don’t worry if you’re not the strongest swimmer or are worried about the cold: you can do as little or as much as you wish, and Kate is an expert at helping guests in and out of the water, explaining how to breathe through the cold and how to listen to your body. To complement the sea swimming and the cliff walks, there’s plenty of time to slip into the hot tub, relax in the sauna and fit in a blissful massage with on-site therapist Rachel.

I’m delighted to find food and drink is fast flowing on this trip, and we eat exceptionally well throughout our stay. On the first night we stroll around the corner to Barbican Bistro – a family-run restaurant serving excellent small plates of fish, seafood and local produce. My dish of the evening is a tie between butterflied sardines in a rich romesco sauce and lemon sole with buttery capers.

Saturday night is a supper club feast in Sue’s kitchen – it’s served family-style with platters of beetroot and burrata salad, roast lamb with spuds and creamy cauliflower cheese. A classic Cornish saffron pud finishes the evening before we head upstairs to bed. The next morning, I enjoy water activity five: a leisurely soak in freestanding tub with a cup of tea and my book, listening to the sounds of the harbour and the seagulls breezing about below.

We’re reluctant to leave but return home feeling rested, relaxed and well-fed, toasting our wonderful swimathon-style break as our train heads back up the line home. Cheers to that kind of wellness indeed.