With more and more people rethinking how and where they take their holidays, Cornwall is expecting a surge in visitors this year. Jumping on the bandwagon, after an absence of more than three years, British Airways has resumed daily flights using 150-seat Boeing 737s between Gatwick and Newquay airports this month.

But assuming cycling is not an option, taking the train is, arguably, the greenest way to travel to Cornwall. Not least because we are told trains are getting greener. First Great Western, for example, is installing 117 new engines in its fleet of high-speed trains which will help cut emissions by up to 60 per cent, reduce fuel consumption by 15 per cent, and produce no visible smoke.

The new power cars also consume 76 per cent less lubricating oil which is the equivalent saving of 1,491,339 litres across the fleet. Based on comparable data from a Eurostar survey in 2006, the carbon emissions of a plane journey from London to Cornwall are at least ten times higher than those for taking the train.

Environmental issues aside, there’s something very satisfying about travelling horizontally. The only disadvantage of taking First Great Western’s nightly sleeper service from London Paddington to Cornwall is that, tucked up full-stretch in a bed, you miss the West Country scenery. However, if you get an early wake-up call (before 6am) you can catch sunrise over the gentle waters of South Devon.

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If the train was a breeze, and a delight to alight at a sleepy station surrounded by forest in the middle of Bodmin, trying to find a “green” car to hire, such as a hybrid Toyota Prius or an electric G-Wiz, proved taxing - it seems electriccarhire.com hasn’t expanded beyond the M25 yet. The Cornwall and Devon Classic Car Hire company had a tempting array of Aston Martins and E-Type Jags, for which it astutely practises a carbon offsetting scheme, but that didn’t feel right. We survived the long weekend on a handful of local taxis, car-sharing (formerly known as hitch hiking) and foot.

Cornwall will be opening its upgraded stretch of the A30 this summer between Bodmin and India Queens, cutting a swathe through the interior. With higher volumes of traffic expected, more options for sustainable mobility will be a welcome addition to South West Tourism’s environmental strategy

A 30-minute taxi ride later – expressing just a hint of eco-smugness as we passed Newquay’s St Mawgan airport – we were eating natural undyed smoked Newlyn haddock with Trevean farm free-range eggs for breakfast served with Fairtrade Origin coffee.

The locally sourced food at the Bedruthan Steps Hotel in North Cornwall was excellent. “A touch of Cornwall on a plate – breathe it, eat it,” is the chef’s slogan, who picks wild garlic from the valley and uses sustainably caught fish from the fishmonger Matt Stevens where possible. Like so many people we met he had gained his stripes in London and had no regrets about leaving behind life in the fast lane.

Looking out over Mawgan Porth’s beach from the hotel it’s hard not to believe that the future of renewable energy lies in harnessing the awesome power of the sea. In fact, an offshore tidal energy turbine exists a mile from Lynmouth in north Devon, but it is unlikely to provide any significant energy-saving impact for the local community just yet.

In the meantime, the hotel’s owners – three sisters – are doing everything in their powers to pioneer the way for green tourism in the Southwest, learning as they go.

“We’re becoming a little wiser every day,” says managing director Debbie Wakefield, who sources environmental ideas from the media, the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project (CoaST), and close collaboration with the Eden Project. She even recycles guests’ tips.

“We don’t ram it down their throats, but many guests are excited by our initiatives. They like to feel that they are holidaying responsibly,” says Wakefield.

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