Jaine Blackman kicks back and enjoys a slower pace of life on Tresco where travel is by bicycle or on foot... and no one nicks your cycle

Taking a trip to Tresco – on of the Scilly Isles, located 30 miles off the Cornish coast – is like taking a journey back in time.

And if you were somehow transported to the island’s world-famous Abbey Gardens, you’d be hard pushed to say just where on earth you were.

Thanks to a unique temperate climate, the gardens boast an array of sub-tropical trees and plants unseen elsewhere in the UK.

It’s home to species from 80 countries, ranging from Brazil to New Zealand and Burma to South Africa. Even in winter more than 300 plants will be in flower.

The gardens are the main visitor attraction on the island but there is plenty more there to enjoy.

Or perhaps that should be plenty less.

For a start there are few motorised vehicles. Arriving by boat, we were picked up by an island “bus” – a tractor pulling a trailer with seating.

After being dropped of at The New Inn – the island’s only pub – the rest of the time friend Sue and I did as most visitors are expected to do and explored on foot or by bike. (There are golf buggies available for those with limited mobility.) Not such a hard thing as Tresco – one of the five inhabited islands which together with 200 or so islands, islets and rocks form the Isles of Scilly – measures just two-and-half miles by a mile.

Being townies, on picking up our hired bikes we enquired about locks.

“You can have some if you want but no one usually bothers,” we were told. “Sometimes people take the wrong bike but just come and pick up another one,” said the laid-back cycle hire guy.

So we started to relax and enjoy the peace, quiet and calm that pervades the well-manicured island.

The first afternoon we explored the north of the island with its remains of two castles and fantastic views.

The views in general – and pretty much any direction – are impressive with unspoilt sandy beaches leading to clear azure waters.

We were staying at The New Inn, which offers 16 bedrooms and some excellent fare, along with plenty of pleasant open air seating and a heated outdoor pool.

It’s a popular spot not only with its own and the island’s residents (there’s a permanent population of 160) but with those staying in cottage accommodation on Tresco and passing yachting folk.

After a quick nap (Sue and I aren’t used to so much fresh air and exercise!) in our light, airy bedroom, we sampled the inn’s menu which offers the best of both land and sea, including locally caught fish and seafood and burgers produced from its own grass-fed beef herd.

The following day we headed for the 17-acre Abbey Gardens, established by the nineteenth-century proprietor of the islands, Augustus Smith, originally as a private garden within the grounds of the home he designed and built (see panel).

It’s an astounding mix of exotic plants from all over the world; there are South African proteas, Mexican agave, tree ferns from New Zealand and Australia, the tallest Canary Island palms in the British Isles and no end of fragrant and beautiful blooms. It’s also home to a fascinating collection of figureheads from wrecked ships. Oh, and red squirrels which have been introduced to the island as a conservation project.

A picnic lunch on the beach from the island’s only shop – worthy of any city deli – left us reflecting that less (noise/bustle/litter/cars) is definitely more.

ESSENTIALS
The Island Office – which gives all information about getting to and staying on Tresco, including prices – can be contacted on 01720 422849 or see tresco.co.uk for full details about The New Inn and Abbey Gardens