Aerial view of Prussia Cove — waves breaking against rugged granite cliffs where green Cornish fields meet turquoise sea.

Cornwall

Things to do in Cornwall.

The considered guide — beaches, walks, family days out, food and drink. Start with a curated guide or browse by type.

Photograph — Kernow Skies / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Curated guides

Start here — ten guides written from experience, not algorithms. Each one covers a genuine question visitors ask and answers it properly.

Cornwall is a small county with a lot of country in it. You can drive from one end to the other in two hours; you can spend two weeks walking the coast path and still see only a fraction. The trick to planning a Cornish trip is to choose your shape before you choose your itinerary — surf trip, family week, food-led short break, off-season escape, walking holiday — and let everything else flow from that.

The guides below are the ones we point first-time visitors at. They're written from genuine trips and the same questions we get asked every week — where to take small children, where to walk if you're not a hiker, what to do when it rains, how to do Cornwall in three days. Pick the one that matches the trip you're planning. The "Browse by type" cards at the foot of the page open into the deeper editorial: every beach worth knowing, every walk, every restaurant town by town.

Porthcurno at low tide — turquoise water and white sand with the granite cliffs of the Minack Theatre above.
Porthcurno — Cornwall's most photogenic beach, with the Minack Theatre carved into the cliff above. Photograph · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Or browse by type.

Four rooms — beaches, walks, days out with the kids, food and drink.

Porthminster Beach at St Ives — sheltered sand and the Godrevy lighthouse on the horizon.
By town

Beaches

Every beach worth visiting, organised by town — from the Atlantic surf of the north coast to the sheltered coves of the south.

Read the guide
A grass coast-path stretch above granite cliffs and Atlantic surf on the south Cornwall coast.
Coast & inland

Walks

Coast path classics, woodland loops and easy rambles — distances, difficulty and what to expect on the ground.

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The Lost Gardens of Heligan — sub-tropical planting in a Cornish valley garden.
Family-tested

With kids

Family-tested attractions, beaches and days out across the county — the ones that genuinely work with small children.

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A plate of Padstow seafood — local crab and lemon, set on a harbour-side table.
Harbour to farm

Food & drink

Where to eat and drink in Cornwall — from harbour-side seafood to farm shops, gastropubs and the pasty debate.

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The Eden Project biomes — two huge geodesic glasshouses in a former Cornish clay pit, sheltering rainforest and Mediterranean plants.
The Eden Project — a former china-clay pit turned into the country's most recognisable garden, and the wet-weather day every Cornwall trip needs in reserve. Photograph · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

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