Crowds in Cornwall? What Crowds?

Cornwall can be mobbed with tourists -- mostly English families with their dogs and ice cream cones visiting all the predictable corners. St. Ives, Port Isaac, and Mousehole are quaint, Tintagel is the place to stick a sword in the stone, and Land's End is a must-do photo stop. But there are plenty of ways to have the real wonders of Cornwall all to yourself. Here are three:

Cornwall is many-faceted in its charms. And it claims to have more prehistoric megaliths than any other region of England. Finding a remnant of lost civilizations that is older than the oldest Egyptian pyramid makes you want to just sit there in silence for a while and marvel.

The best way to find and experience the wonder of this corner of England is on the South West Coast Path. Within a few minutes of any car park, it's just you and nature.

The "Connoisseur's Land's End" is Cape Cornwall, just past the mining town of St. Just (a few miles north of the Land's End tourist trap). OK, so it's a smidge short of the southwesternmost tip, but it feels like the end of the world. From a small car park, where the only place to spend money is at a blustery little tea and ice cream stand, you hike past a ruined sixth-century church and conquer this little bluff to enjoy a magic moment...just you and the gulls and Cornish Atlantic vastness.