There is lots to discover in the Great British wild west by car…
Amid the global pandemic, more Britons are choosing a staycation than ever. Holiday parks and camping sites are overflowing with bookings and people are falling back in love with the Great British Holiday. So in this spirit, I thought I’d join them.
Unfortunately for me, my long weekend in Morocco was cancelled, so I had some time to kill. But, it turns out my road trip to Cornwall was one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. Every cloud and all that.
For a relatively small county, Cornwall sure packs a punch. Littered with idyllic coastal spots, the area feels like an easter egg hunt for Beach lovers.
We (my best friend and I) made our base in the seaside Town of Falmouth. Falmouth is a reasonably small but extremely pretty fishing town. And for any sailing nerds out there, it’s home to the harbour where Dame Ellen MacArthur set sail on her record-breaking voyage around the globe.
I’ve put together this 4 day itinerary for Cornwall as an idea for some things to do on a long weekend down south, so I hope you enjoy.
Before getting into the main plan, here are some things to consider:
Accommodation
Cornwall can run a little expensive, especially in the more up-market regions like St. Ives, so we were lucky to be able to save money by staying with friends, however, if you’re looking at accommodation, we suggest a couple of things:
- Keep to one place: reduce spending by only booking one room. Cornwall is really small, so it’s a short drive to many of the destinations that we visited.
- Stay in one of the larger towns such as Truro or Penzance – these tend to be a little cheaper. But if you’re happy to spend, then go for one of the coastal towns like St Ives or Newquay.
- Try to avoid hotels (as always) and use hostels or Airbnb.
Parking costs/permits
As a lot of Cornwall is National Trust Land and areas of high tourism, parking can be expensive (around £6-7/day).
You might have to pay twice if you move to different places on the same day, so reserve about £12 daily for parking. You’ll probably end up spending less, but it’s worth budgeting in.
Public transport
Public transport is pretty limited once you get past Bristol, which is one of the reasons why a car is necessary. To explore Cornwall without a car is possible, but you’ll be severely limited about where you can go and what you can see.
There is a train line that runs through the county, and a few smaller branch lines. The bus network is not too bad, but, for best results, explore Cornwall by car.
Overall budget
Overall we spent about £120 on activities, food, petrol & parking. Which is pretty good going if you ask me.
If you’re staying in accommodation, you’ll need between £200-£400 extra for that.
Day 1 – Gyllyngvase Beach, Paddleboarding & Sunset
From our starting point, it took about 3 hours to drive down to Falmouth. Because we’re not punctual, we ended up arriving in the late afternoon, so we didn’t manage to get too much done the first day of our Cornwall itinerary.
Once we arrived we took a quick trip to the Lidl in the town centre to pick up some snacks and booze and wasted no time in getting ourselves to the beach. Falmouth has two beaches, a small surfing beach named Swanpool, and the slightly larger Gyllyngvase, where you can book paddle/bodyboarding sessions for £15.
The sea was absolutely freezing and we didn’t think about bringing wetsuits, so that’s something we would definitely recommend, but the paddleboarding was worth it for the price as we got to sit out at sea and watch the sunset.
Day 2 – St. Ives town & Gwithian Beach
The second day of our Cornwall itinerary took us to St. Ives. The main goal was to have a mooch around the town and dip in the famous St. Ives bay. The drive from Falmouth took us about 45 minutes, although Google reckons the trip is just shy of an hour. Traffic can be awful in the summer, so bear this in mind.
St Ives town really is the picture from a postcard, with the natural surroundings to match. The shops are very much tailored to the yummy mummy/ surfer type (think: WeirdFish & FatFace), but we did manage to find an adorable gift shop selling handmade souvenirs that trounced the usual tourist clobber.
The town is also known as a bit of an arty hangout, and there even a branch of the Tate just off the beach. But, there are also lots of smaller artist studios dotted about town, so you could easily grab some original artwork if you’re in the market for something.
In terms of food & drink, St. Ives isn’t shy of a good pub, and there’s plenty of fish & chip and pasty places to choose from.
One thing to consider in St. Ives is the busyness of the town. Even in the middle of the day on a Thursday, the place was pretty packed with people, so perhaps not the best choice if you’re looking to maintain social distancing.
From there, we drove about 20 minutes along the coast to Gwithian beach that overlooks St Ives bay.
Gwithian is on National Trust land and is considered a UK heritage site, which means its an area of outstanding natural beauty. And outstanding beauty it delivered. Almost deserted, the huge expanse of sand is framed by tall natural sand dunes and behind that a gorgeous clifftop grassland.
Aside from some stray surfers and a young couple with a spaniel (called Duckie), we were alone on the beach, and we managed to get a stroll along the waters’ edge in as the sun was setting.
As an activity for your Cornwall itinerary, we rate this one 10/10 simply for the breathtaking scenery.
Day 3 – Horse riding & St. Agnes Coast
We switched it up on the third day and tested out some of the activities Cornwall has to offer. As neither my friend nor I had a hope in hell of navigating a surfboard, we decided to try something a bit more equine…
Cornwall has two well-renowned horseriding stables that offer a range of services from ‘own a pony’ days to treks and even horseback pub crawls!
As we missed out on the pub crawl, we decided to go for an hour trek instead. The stables were based in Redruth which was a 25 minute drive from our base, which felt like 5 minutes because we were so excited.
The stable is run by a mother-daughter duo who are super experienced so we knew we were in good hands. We went for an hour-long ride around the abandoned mine buildings, a hangover from Cornwall’s mining industry days. The weather sadly wasn’t in our favour and the whole thing was a touch misty, but all in all, it was a great experience.
At £25 for the hour it was a little expensive, but worth it for the unique experience. If we had kids, we definitely would have brought them along.
In the afternoon, we made an onward journey North to St. Agnes heritage coast.
We stopped at a small surfing cove and parked up. Parking most places here is free after 5 pm which is a pretty sweet bonus. We dipped our feet in the sea and then set about walking along the coast’s edge. We walked about a mile but avid hikers could walk the entire 6.7 miles of spectacular coastline.
On the way home, we picked up some fish & chips from Falmouth’s famous ‘Harbour Lights’ restaurant. Best chippy we’ve ever had. Enough said.
Day 4 – Sightseeing: St Michaels Mount, Prussia Cove, Lizard
In the interest of not being too lazy on the holiday, we were determined to get some sightseeing in. We chose to take a route along Cornwall’s south coast, stopping in Marazion, Prussia Cove, Porthleven and finally Lizard.
[map route piccy]
Our first stop in Marazion was to see St Michael’s mount. The mount has a castle and surrounding gardens which you can visit at low tide via a stone walkway from Marazion beach. It’s a nice little piece of cornish heritage and a bonus is the site is very picturesque.
You need to book tickets to enter the mount itself, which you can do here, or if you’re a National Trust member your entry is free.
Then we took a super short drive to our next stop, Prussia Cove. The cove is nestled in a tiny piece of coastline that lies at the bottom of some rather fancy looking English country homes. The whole thing felt like something out of an Enid Blyton novel.
This cove was recommended highly by locals when we asked around about nice beaches and we could see why. If you’re wanting an almost private beach experience with warm, bright blue shallow waters, this one’s for you.
A word of advice: Check the tide times!!! We stupidly took a detour and ended up getting stuck on a beach because the tide cut off our route back. We had to rock-climb our way up a small cliff to get onto a pathway above. 10/10 for thrills, 0/10 for safety and convenience.
Finally, after the tide fiasco, we made it down to Lizard, the most southerly point of the UK.
Contrary to popular belief, Land’s End isn’t actually the ‘bottom’ of the country. Because no one really seems to know this, Lizard is pretty devoid of tourists. We got to sit right at the edge of the UK with almost no-one around, which was pretty cool if you ask me.
We felt like we needed to burn off some of the Cornish pasties & ice cream, so we took a 2.5-mile coastline walk from Lizard Point to Kynance cove. This ended up being one of my favourite moments of the trip because we stumbled across some seals playing in the water below us. 100/10 for cute water puppies.
Afterwards, we headed back to base for a nice wine on the beach before packing up ready to leave in the morning.
Final thoughts
Our little 4 day Cornish road trip was just what we needed. Forget your cancelled trip abroad, the UK has just as much to offer in terms of natural beauty and then some. If you’re looking for an inexpensive, environmentally friendly and convenient micro-break, we can’t recommend it enough. The slow pace of life and exquisite scenery will make you never want to leave.
If you’re looking for a city break with access to Cornwall, check out our 48 hour guide to Plymouth in Devon
The post Cornwall By Car: A 4 Day Road Trip Itinerary appeared first on Gone Travelling.
