Cornwall looks compact on a map and feels enormous from behind a windscreen. Forty miles can take two hours if every turning tempts you towards a cove, and on this route you should let them. Over seven days you travel west along the north coast — Bude, Boscastle, Tintagel — then down past Padstow and St Ives to Land's End and the quiet far south-west. It suits a car, a relaxed pace and a healthy appetite for scones. Book your beds before you set off in summer; the good places go early.
Day 1: Bude and the northern edge
Arrive with time to spare rather than a schedule. Bude is small, walkable and a decent first taste of the Atlantic: the sea pool at Summerleaze is a tidal lido cut into the rocks, free to use and sheltered enough for a proper swim, and the breakwater gives you a level walk with views back over the town. If the weather is playing along, drive ten minutes south to Widemouth Bay, where the sand is wide and surf schools run all summer. Eat early. The fish and chips here set the standard for the rest of the week.
Allow a couple of hours from Exeter on the A30 and A39, and more on a summer Saturday. Base: Bude or Widemouth Bay.
Day 2: Boscastle and Tintagel
Head west for roughly half an hour to Boscastle, where a narrow harbour sits in a steep, wooded valley. Park in the main car park above the village and walk down; the lanes were not built for modern traffic. The National Trust looks after much of the valley, and the walk out towards the lookout is short and rewarding.
Carry on to Tintagel, fifteen minutes further, for the castle on its headland. The footbridge across the gorge has made access easier, but there are still plenty of steps and the wind is honest. Timed tickets are worth booking in peak season, and sturdy shoes beat sandals on the cliff paths. Base: Tintagel or Boscastle.
Day 3: Port Isaac and Padstow
Port Isaac is best seen on foot and early. Park at the top of the village and walk down through the squeeze of whitewashed cottages to the Platt, the small harbour wall where the fishing boats still land crab and lobster. The lanes are genuinely too narrow for casual driving, so leave the car where it is.
Then take the coast road to Padstow, about forty minutes, and spend the afternoon on the Camel Estuary. The passenger ferry to Rock runs across the water in season, and the Camel Trail gives you a flat, traffic-free cycle path if you have energy left. Padstow's food scene is well known; book dinner rather than hoping to walk in. Base: Padstow.
Day 4: Bedruthan Steps, Watergate Bay and Newquay
This is the day for big beaches. Bedruthan Steps, a National Trust site twenty minutes from Padstow, is a row of sea stacks below a cliff path — check locally whether the steps down to the sand are open before promising anyone a swim. Mawgan Porth and Watergate Bay follow, both long, sandy and popular with surfers.
Newquay is the busy end of the north coast: Fistral for surfing, the harbour for a wander, and plenty of places to eat that do not mind sandy feet. If you would rather keep the evenings quiet, stay in Padstow a second night and treat Newquay as a day trip. Base: Padstow or Newquay.
Day 5: St Ives
Drive west, and break the journey at Godrevy, where the headland looks out to a lighthouse and grey seals often haul out on the rocks below. Hayle Towans, three miles of dunes, is a good leg-stretch if the tide is right.
For St Ives itself, park at Lelant or St Erth and take the branch line along the bay into town. The train drops you by Porthminster beach, and you avoid the town's car parks entirely. From there: the Tate, the Barbara Hepworth sculpture garden, Porthmeor beach, and the maze of lanes behind the harbour. Stay for the light in the late afternoon, which is the reason painters turned up in the first place. Base: St Ives.
Day 6: Zennor, Land's End and Sennen Cove
Follow the coast road west through Zennor, a village of granite cottages with a church that holds a carved mermaid and a pub that has been pouring beer for centuries. The walk from Zennor Head towards Gurnard's Head is one of the finest short stretches of the South West Coast Path.
Near Pendeen, Geevor Tin Mine tells the story of Cornish mining with the machinery still in place and a guides' hut on the cliffs. Then it is on to Land's End. Yes, there is a car park charge and a signpost, but stand away from the buildings and the cliffs do the talking. Sennen Cove, a mile north, has a working harbour and a beach that catches a good swell. Go early or late to miss the coaches. Base: Penzance or Sennen.
Day 7: The Minack, Penzance and Mousehole
Start at Porthcurno, where the Minack Theatre is carved into a granite cliff above the sea. Book ahead for a performance if you can; the visitor sessions alone are worth the ticket. Next door, the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum explains the submarine cables that once made this valley the communications hub of the British Empire — a strange and genuinely interesting corner of history.
Finish in Penzance: the promenade, the lido at Jubilee Pool, and Chapel Street's Georgian buildings. Marazion, a short hop east, is the launching point for St Michael's Mount — walk the cobbled causeway at low tide or take the ferry when the water is up, and check the tide tables before you set out. End in Mousehole, tiny and almost impossibly pretty, or in Newlyn, where the fishing fleet lands and the seafood is as fresh as it gets.
Practical notes for the drive
A suggested sleeping order, if you want one list to book from:
- Night 1 — Bude or Widemouth Bay
- Night 2 — Tintagel or Boscastle
- Nights 3 and 4 — Padstow (or Newquay for night 4)
- Night 5 — St Ives
- Night 6 — Penzance or Sennen
- Night 7 — Penzance, or homeward bound
Distances in Cornwall are short, but average speeds are low. Plan for twenty to thirty miles an hour on coast roads and single-track lanes, and remember that passing places are for passing: pull in to let faster traffic by, and if you meet someone head-on, the car nearest a passing place reverses.
Fill up with fuel in towns rather than hunting for a rural garage, keep change or a parking app handy for car parks, and consider National Trust or English Heritage membership if you plan to tick off several sites. Tides matter more than timings here — check them before any beach walk or causeway crossing, and never let a rising tide get between you and the path up.
On cream teas
In Cornwall the jam goes on first, then the clotted cream, which is the reverse of what happens a few miles east in Devon. Both are correct in their own county and neither is worth an argument. The important thing is the scone: fresh, plain rather than fruited if you want to taste the cream, and split by hand rather than sliced with a knife. Order a pot of tea, sit near a window, and let the traffic on the coast road sort itself out without you.
Photo: ELG21 / Pixabay
