“We need to look as though we’re enjoying ourselves,” says Boris Johnson to a smiling Joe Biden in front of a throng of assembled photographers. “I am,” the US President fires back. And why wouldn’t he be? Biden is standing on a terrace overlooking Carbis Bay, one of Cornwall’s most picturesque beaches. It’s June 2021 and leaders of the G7 countries, along with their considerable entourages, have taken over the pretty fishing villages that make up this most south-westerly point of England to thrash out the most pressing talking points of the day. On the agenda this week, global corporation tax, and how to vaccinate the developing world against a deadly virus.

For a few days in that socially-distanced summer, world leaders, and the cameras that captured them walking and talking on sandy beaches in suits, did Visit Cornwall’s job for it. While Biden and his detail had effectively turned Tregenna Castle in nearby St Ives into a temporary version of the White House, Johnson was staying at the Carbis Bay Hotel, on whose terrace the official photo op had been arranged, and which became the main venue for the summit. The G7 meeting didn’t put Carbis Bay on the map – the crescent-shaped beach’s eponymous hotel first flung open its doors in 1894 – but it certainly raised the profile of this secluded stretch of prime coastal Cornwall.

Until the 19^th century the bay remained largely untouched, save for a network of underground mining tunnels that date from the 1700s. Formerly known as Barrepta Cove, the inlet was renamed Carbis Bay in 1884 after an inland farmstead recorded under the family name Carbons. In 1877, the St Erth to St Ives branch line opened, attracting enough tourists to warrant the opening of the Silvanus Trevail-designed Carbis Bay Hotel two decades later (Trevail would become Cornwall’s most esteemed architect, designing the Headland and Atlantic hotels in Newquay, and later becoming Mayor of Truro, as well as President of the Society of Architects).

The Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate, as it’s found today, is largely the work of the Baker family, which acquired the property in the early 1980s and transformed what was a traditional Victorian seaside hotel into one of the UK’s best-known luxury coastal resorts. The estate, which has expanded to around 125 acres, is currently led by managing director Stephen Baker, who assumed the role from his father, and whose children, Thomas and Eloise, serve as directors. Under the Bakers’ stewardship, and following a multi-million-pound regeneration project completed in 2019, Carbis Bay now encompasses the 34-bedroom main hotel, luxury beach lodges, self-catering properties, five restaurants, an on-beach watersports facility, and arguably Cornwall’s best spa. Technically, the Bakers own the beach itself, but it remains open to the public all year round.

During the G7 Summit, international media reporters became fascinated by this part of the world. With its striking coastal scenery, surfing beaches, low-slung fishing villages, cream teas and fresh seafood, it’s not hard to see why. There’s little sign that this unassuming stretch of coast recently hosted the most powerful leaders of the world, save for a few plaques put up by hotels to signpost the dignitaries they hosted. Johnson had the shortest to travel, staying in a beach lodge close to the meeting rooms in which leaders convened.  

Sadly for Macron and Merkel, Carbis Bay didn’t complete the renovation of its two-storey spa until later that summer. Meaning that neither the French President nor the German Chancellor got to take a dip in the hotel’s 17-metre heated outdoor swimming pool, or unwind in its hydrotherapy pool or barrel sauna. Had they booked a return visit, they might have enjoyed baked goods at a new, stylishly decked-out deli, or lunch at the beautiful, David Salisbury-designed Orangery.

Summer 2026 will see Carbis Bay add another feather to its cap, as celebrity chef Tom Sellers – of two-Michelin-star Restaurant Story fame – prepares to open Mor, a new restaurant whose menu will be in part dictated by the seasons of the sea (‘mor’ in Cornish means ‘sea’). Mor moves into a space formerly occupied by Adam Handling’s Ugly Butterfly (which has relocated to The Headland Hotel in Newquay). It’s not Sellers’ first time at Carbis Bay. In 2019, the chef ran the wildly successful pop-up, Story by the Sea. Expect a menu that draws heavily upon day-caught fish and local ingredients.

All of which is to omit to mention the reason the Carbis Bay Hotel opened where it did in the first place – the mile-long tract of sandy beach that stretches out before it. Sheltered by tree-covered cliffs either side, the bay is protected from the wind and waves that batter other stretches of the Cornish coast. Surfers will be better suited elsewhere, but families will find (largely) safe, tranquil waters. Carbis Bay is the only hotel in the UK that can claim it sits on a beach that is both Blue Flag and Seaside Award accredited, which is to say it’s safe and clean.

Looking out at one of Britian’s best beaches, and back towards some of its most idyllic countryside, it’s no wonder Biden was enjoying himself.

From £312 per night B&B, visit carbisbayhotel.co.uk

Read more: The best luxury hotels in Cornwall