The perfect 10 day road trip around Southern Cornwall
Here is our itinerary for a 10 day road trip on the southern end of the UK (during pandamic times). It’s an absolutely stunning area, whilst it does take a long drive to get down south – it is well worth it.
Cornwall is an often forgotten but beautiful part of the UK, we visited main tourist sites and also some less well known ancient sites where there was no one else for miles!
Getting There
Car: We departed from London hiring a car and driving for around 5 hours to Truro, but you can also get there a few other ways.
Train: Overnight train to Penzance from London – using Great Western Rail’s Night Riveriera Sleeper
https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/journey-information/on-board/night-riviera-sleeper
The service operates day journies that take around 5.5 hours give or take.
But from 11.45pm it has the sleeper cars which look gorgeous and get you into Penzance in style (thinking of Agatha Christie’s The Orient Express), by 7.30 in the morning. It’s a lovely way to wake up with the ocean and a brand new place to explore!
Plane: Fly from London terminals to Newquay’s Cornwall Airport in 1hr 10min. Currently its around £150 pounds but do check Skyscanner.
Tip: Do make sure you have access to a car as otherwise you’ll be severely limited in what you can do.
Covid Safe
To be safe and yet still enjoy everything we tried to book mostly self catering accommodation where possible. Due to new government restrictions (Tier 1: 10pm bar & restaurant close times, no gatherings of more than 6, social distancing etc) we found places were either closed or busier than usual.
TOP TIP: BOOK EVERYTHING before you go. We booked hotels around 6 days prior due to potential lockdown concerns which luckily didn’t affect the area. However accommodation options were sparse so some places like St Ives we couldn’t get self catering.
We then booked activities/restaurants around 2 days before we left to make sure we weren’t caught in another lockdown but some restaurants (particularly in St Ives) were fully booked for weeks.
Table of Contents
Exploring the Roseland Coast – Day 1 & 2
Travel day – getting to southern Cornwall it’ll take around 5 hours so give yourself a day and some time to rest!
Day 1 and 2
Base: We based ourselves in Truro at an Airbnb – here’s a£50 sign up discount if you would like to join Airbnb.
What to do:
We drove up the coast exploring the small towns of St Just in Roseland – see the gorgeous 13th century church with its winding subtropical gardens, perfect for getting lost in and enjoying.
St Mawes Castle & St Mawes beach
Portscatho, Portloe, Veryan are all great little coastal towns to visit.
We stopped off at Portscatho and walked to the Hidden Hut for a delicious lunch of crab sandwiches, broccoli and blue cheese soup, and of course a Cornish pasty!
Onwards to the Lost Gardens of Heligan – there are MANY gardens in southern Cornwall but this was definitely one of my favourites due to the story behind it and the beauty of the enormous gardens. During WW1 Heligan was closed up as the gardeners and family were conscripted to join the war, when it was all over everyone who knew about it had forgotten the estate. So it lay there growing wild. In 1990 John Willis (a descendent of the original Tremayne family) noticed a mysterious door in the wall of his garden, and his journey through the door rediscovered these gardens lost to time. There are 200 acres of wild life, plants, animals, Italian style gardens and kitchen gardens for you to explore.
We had a wonderful time seeing the sculptures, and all the areas, plus a small farm with cute pigs!
You are also welcome to bring a picnic or they do have café on site.
Tickets are £16 at time of writing
Lizard & Kynance Bay Coastal Walk
Lizard is a lovely quirky town, definitely worth a visit and there is a lovely walk to the gorgeous Kynance Cove. If you are like us and forgot to take victuals (or food for those not from medieval times!) there is a little café that serves some yummy lunches and snacks just at Kynance Cove.
Up this way is also the famous Eden Project. We were on the fence about it due to the high ticket prices (£28.50!!) and parts of the gardens including café/restaurant were closed due to the pandemic times.
*If you want to visit cheaply then get a Gardeners World Magazine from May which includes a 2 for 1 gardens pass across the UK and includes Eden & Kew Gardens. It’s valid for 1 year at only £6.95!! (we didn’t get a chance to get it! : (
https://www.gardenersworld.com/2-for-1-gardens/
Southerly Point of the UK, Penzance, St Michaels Mount & Lands End – Day 3-5
Day: 3, 4, 5
Base: Treen. Staying at Jeff’s Coastguards Cottage. (also on Airbnb)
Penzance is a lovely artsy town with a gorgeous Chapel street to wander down. I’d suggest you start off with a big brunch in the courtyard at The Front Room Café – good coffee and lovely cream tea (for Aussies reading this blog that is Devonshire tea with jam, cream and scones!).
Then wander down Chapel Street exploring….seeing the Egyptian House, artist shops (check out Sarah Bell’s awesome watercolours), Newlyn Art Gallery, The Chocolate House.
By the sea you can see the amazing Art Deco Penzance Jubliee pool – the most exciting addition is the new geothermal pool at 40 degrees on all days it is the only geothermal pool in the UK (it was completely booked when we tried, its only just opened!).
*Beware that many places close on Sunday!
Coffee & Eating
The Front Room Café – Penzance – good coffee and great food especially cream tea!
Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar – Restaurant at Newlyn just down the road. We had an amazing dinner here. No reservations just turn up!
Mousehole – a little further on from Penzance is a TINY town. I’d suggest you park in the first carpark you get to, as it really is not a driving town. It is too small with one way streets. Get out, stretch your legs and enjoy exploring the tiniest town we’ve seen in the UK!
*Beware it does get pretty crowded in summer.
Ancient Stones of Lanyon Quoit, Men-An Tol and Nine Maidens are all stone structures from megalithic bronze age. Lanyon Quoit has many questions surrounding it, was it once a burial chamber? A mauseleum? Or a ritual altar for dead bodies to be eaten by birds? Nearby are small stone burial chambes known as cists and the quoit is aligned with cardinal ley line points.
Men-An-Tol is just further up the road and is a holed stone. These holed stones are found in many parts of the British Isles but very rare in Cornwall. They think it was part of a larger stone circle.
Nine Maidens were legendary girls punished for dancing on a Sunday or so the local legend goes, in reality they are part of a large stone circle. Why were they placed there, who created them? Now we can only imagine and marvel at how beautifully they sit in the landscape.
Getting there: You can drive there and park close to each of the sites. Lanyon Quoit is right next to the road, but Men-An Tol & Nine Maidens are about a 20min walk from parking areas, more if you’d like to see the other ancient Neolithic stones. These are all marked on google maps.
St Michaels Mount Castle & Gardens
A small cobbled pathway connects the islet and the mainland, and is subject to the tides. No matter what time of year you must book ahead as it is based on the tides! Once that water comes in the pathway is underwater!
This is a beautiful few hours on a little island, you get to explore the Castle (open during Covid currently) learn about its history as a monastery, barracks and then private residence with the family still in residence.
Find the Love stone on the way up to the castle.
Then head down to see the gardens that are part rock garden part kitchen style gardens, really beautiful tropical plants and luckily for us the clouds parted!
Marazion is also a cute little town to walk in, although many shops were closed when we were there due to the pandemic.
https://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/
Tickets: To save confusion that we had, you do need to book for the Castle and Gardens as two separate tickets. Give yourself 45min to see the Castle and 15min to get down to see the Gardens.
Food: There was only one coffee cart serving rather sad looking pasties, I’d suggest you bring your own food. Or wait until you leave and go to the café in Marazion.
Minack Theatre
What an amazing place, built directly on the most southerly cliffs of the UK. Minack means a rocky place, ‘meynek’ in Cornish and was built by an extraordinary theatre enthusiast Rowena Cade in 1930’s onwards.
She hosted an amateur production of A Midsummer Nights Dream in her backyard 1929 and the following year they wanted to put on The Tempest in her cliff garden. So she and a few others began constructing seating, performance area etc all by hand! It took most of her life to complete it and it is such an amazing space.
They do performances even now of Opera, theatre and more. Do book ahead!! We wanted to go but they were sold out for the evening shows. Planning for next year in Summer!!
Lukcily we were able to walk from our Airbnb rental in Treen to Minack, only 30min through various farmlands and then out across the coast and beach. Beautiful!
Lands End – we did go but they charge you £7 to park and have built a small theme park and with horrid cafes and slot machines. Completely overrated go anywhere else on the coastal path and avoid all the tourists and see better sites.
Lots of great walks along the coast.
Carn Euny Ancient Village
One of the best-preserved ancient villages in South West England, Carn Euny has foundations of stone houses from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD. At the heart of the village is an underground passage known as a fogou. This mysterious type of Iron Age monument is found only in the far west of Cornwall.
Nearby you’ll see the Carn Euny holy well, and a blessing tree beside it.
Then we stumbled upon the Eunycorn studio a tiny art gallery in tucked away in the trees!
To Eat: Kota Restaurant, Porthleven
We luckily were able to get into Kota Restaurant in Porthleven. Check out the awesome food here.
The chef Jude Kereama, of this cute harbourside restaurant, is half Maori, half Chinese Malay – and so the dishes are influenced by his Asian and New Zealand background – making for exciting food.
Visiting St Ives & Around – Day 6 & 7
Base: St Ives – it is a tiny town so everything is very walkable. Just make sure your accommodation has parking, otherwise go to the long stay carparks.
St Ives Town
Such a lovely windswept beachside town. Originally home to artists & hippies (thinking of Donovan), but it has gradually become upmarket and rather pricey! Walk down Porthmeor Beach and watch the surfers (in winter! Shiver!!!!) then up past the headland, and past Porthgwidden beach into St Ives town and all the little winding streets.
Do check out the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Garden, its beautiful and gives you such an appreciation for her work and how it works with nature. (I was introduced to her on this trip). Timed tickets of course but you will want to linger in the garden.
Tate St Ives is a must when you are here. Its small but well proportioned and focuses on the important St Ives artists. Great to see there is still art being created here too, and on that note…
Art galleries, there are quite a few in town you can drop in and they also have a layby scheme to buy new artwork. I was so tempted at the New Craftsman Gallery such great work there.
Porthminster Beach Café – there were few availabilities with the restaurants but we did go to here and it was delicious! Expect healthy servings of good food, but its not fine dining (no tablecloths etc), more nice bistro style.
Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens
A woodland oasis with sculptures to seek out, plus a lovely café with views of St Michaels Mount (on a good day). We booked early 11am for brunch – everyone told us to book in advance no matter what the season. Luckily I asked for indoor as it was pelting down with rain when we arrived. The breakfast was lovely, gorgeous fresh flowers on the table and good coffee. Just as we thought we’d have to abandon the garden, the rain cleared and we got to have the entire gardens to ourselves!!!
Eat: Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens Kitchen – yum great brunch. On a clear day there are good views too!
Good old Glastonbury, Somerset – Day 8 & 9
We love Glastonbury, its always a great place to retreat, meditate and come back to yourself. In fact I’m pretty sure it has more yoga classes on every week than it has actual residents!
It’s a new age gathering town, with Goddess house & temple, alternative events at the Town Hall (Fairy Festival, Yoga Festival, Nihilist Festival, Goddess Festival etc etc), and so many crystal shops you wonder where the locals buy other things!
We decided to stop in on the way back to London life and touch base with some of our favourite places.
Base: Just outside Glastonbury in a lovely bnb in Meare called Brue View. The river runs RIGHT OUTSIDE YOUR ROOM : ) Waking up to views of the fields and cows was so refreshing!
Check it out!! https://www.riverhousesomerset.com/en/1800060/gallery
Get your discount code there.
What to do?
In Glastonbury explore the High street, drop into my favourite crystal store ‘Crystals’, have a ‘cuddle’ (steamed oat milk and spices) at Hundred Monkeys café and a bite of cake, meditate at the Goddess Temple (upstairs from Blue Note Café), see the ancient tunnels under the St George & Pilgrims Hotel, drop into the Goddess Temple to see what classes are on, then head out to see the outdoor sites.
Enjoy the beautiful ruins of Glastonbury Abbey & pay your respects to King Arthur & Queen Guinvere’s tombs (allegedly).
Drop into St Margaret’s Chapel
See the Somerset Rural Life Museum – great exhibition and interesting special exhibit on art making during the pandemic
Climb Glastonbury Tor – just spectacular views
Visit the Chalice Well & Gardens – then across the road check out the White Spring
Walk to the old thorn tree then drive to Shapwick Heath to catch the murmuration of birds at sunset….
Eat:
Rainbow Café – for lunches! Great fantastic food!
Hundred Monkeys – good for lunch and dinner always yummy.
Sheppey Inn – our favourite restaurant. The menu seems simple but the food is always delicious!!!
Day 10 – time to head home : (
We had a wonderful road trip, seeing not only the main tourist sites but some great ancient ones too. We would love to explore more of Cornwall next time, (maybe on the Penzance overnight train!).
So what did you think of our trip? Let us know your top places in Cornwall and if any of the places above inspire you to go and visit!
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