Cornwall Road Trip - 4 day itinerary

Last month I headed to Cornwall for the first time ever! Having previously lived in Scotland, Surrey, Norwich and Northern Ireland - Cornwall has always been just so far away to visit! I had always heard it was beautiful and a popular holiday destination, but the drive there had well and truly put me off! Now living in Cardiff, Cornwall is only a 3 hour drive away which makes it the perfect long weekend getaway! So without further ado, let me tell you how to spend 4 days in Cornwall!

WHERE TO STAY

We based ourselves just outside of St Ives, and used this as a base for the whole weekend (rather than changing accommodation each night). Cornwall can be expensive but having gone in April, outside of school holidays we managed to get an affordable stay. We stayed at a holiday park in Hayle which had self catering chalets and was right on the beach. It was basic but did the job and had everything we needed! See the link to the accommodation here.

HOW TO GET AROUND

We drove down from Cardiff, meaning we used our car to go from place to place. I definitely think a car is the best way to see Cornwall as you can head off the beaten track or to much smaller areas which would otherwise be hard to get to by public transport. Most places listed below had pah and display car parking, but if you go off season you may be lucky to get off street free parking instead. If you don't drive, there are train services to the main towns and bus services to smaller places - but it is worth checking timetables to see how frequent these are.

THE ITINERARY

DAY 1

We set off from Cardiff at 7am, getting us into our first stop off point at 10:15am. Our stops of the day were:

• Boscastle - a small picturesque fishing village with a cute stone walled buildings, a couple of cafes and a lovely harbour walk. We stopped here for 1 hour to have a wander!
  

• Tintagel - a must in North Cornwall. Park in the town and take a stroll past the cute shops, cafes, pottery stores and the old Post office. Head down to Tintagel Castle. There is the option of paying to go across the bridge to the castle ruins but instead we walked down to the beach which is free and then did this coastal walk (link here) which gives beautiful views of the castle ruins.

• Port Isaac - a quaint little village with a beautiful view of Cornwall coastline. We enjoyed a short wander and a Cornish cream tea here!

• Padstow - our final stop of the day was Padstow. This is a bustling seaside town with lots of food options, a coastal walk and a beach! We enjoyed a walk along the coast and to the beach, a wander round the town and got fish and chips for dinner before driving down to our accommodation near St Ives for the night.

DAY 2

• St Ives - The morning of day 2 started off rainy, so we headed into St Ives Town and darted in and out of cute shops and cafes. We got some amazing baked goods from St Ives bakery including a jam and custard cruffin - so make sure to get one of those!

• Penzance - Next up was a walk around Penzance Town and sea front where you can see St Michael's Mount (if we had more time we would have loved to visit this!). We also visited another lovely bakery called Loafes which did a great almond croissant and steak and Stilton Cornish pasty!

• Porthcurno Beach - the sun fully came out for us, and this beach was by far the most beautiful stop for us! The water colour was incredible, there was beautiful soft sand as well as a cliff walk.

• Lands End - when you are this far into Cornwall, you have to visit Lands End right? Apart from an expensive car park and your obligatory photo with the sign, there is nothing really open after 4pm (which was when we went) - but I believe before this there are cafes and amusements available to enjoy. We walked along the cliff coastal walk to check out RMS Mulheim shipwreck which was pretty cool!

DAY 3

• Praa Sands - a gentle beach walk to start the day!

• Porthleven - you can walk to this village from Praa sands if you are wanting a longer walk, but we drove in order to fit in seeing as much as possible! Porthleven is a cute fishing town which is known to bee popular for its foodie spots. It just so happened that when we visited it was their food and music festival weekend! There were loads of food trailers to choose from which was a great experience, as well as live professional chef demonstrations which we enjoyed watching.

• Lizard - we headed straight for Lizard point, rather than stop in the village. The point is looked after by the national Trust. There were a couple of cafes, lots of marked out walks and a great place to see lots of seals!

• Falmouth - our last stop of the day was Falmouth. We arrived here around 4:30pm and stayed 2.5 hours. We enjoyed seeing the colourful streets of Falmouth town which has a big university student culture. We got Cornish pasty's for dinner from Rowes which were great! Then we did a walk round Pendennis point (which you could actually drive to more comfortably!), the seafront and the Princess Pavilion & Gyllyngdune Gardens.

DAY 4

• St Ives - the sun was out for our final day in Cornwall so we headed back to St Ives to see it in the sun and do a coastal walk. All trails link here. We also picked up some fresh scones, jam and clotted cream for our nutritious lunch!

• St Agnes Head - wow this was an incredible view point and walk! The car park is free and it takes about 15 mins to Wheal coats (an iconic mining heritage site) and then you can walk along the coast further to get to Chapel Porth so you can get down to the beach. The beach and the sea were amazing, and honestly gave Australia vibes!

• Newquay - (you can tell we are trying to get more north as we head towards the direction of home!). We really loved Newquay beach and harbour and got some amazing local ice cream from Freddo's ice cream. We left about 5pm which got us back home for 8pm.

And that concludes our 4 day road trip of Cornwall. This is very much a non- extensive list of what to do in Cornwall, but it covers most of the highlights! It is also quite an active road trip, so for a more leisurely holiday or some more beach time then you may want to schedule in some more time! Surfing and water sports is also very popular here and next time we come we would love to carve out time to attend a group lesson!

Happy Travelling!

Ruth xxx