Cornwall Beaches
These are just some of the places we have visited in Cornwall. It is one of our favourite places. We still have so many places to visit as well.
St Ives, this place is one of our favourites. We frequently go here when we are in Cornwall. There isn’t much parking directly in the town, we always park at the top, walk down and then get the dedicated bus back up to parking. My personal favourite is Porthminster Beach. It has golden sand and clear water and a nice café where you can get a nice drink or food, it does get busy on those sunny days though. We love it. We always walk past St Ives Harbour and Bamaluz to get to Porthgwidden. This beach is a little less crowded as is Porthminster. Porthgwidden offers a little café as well.
Carbis Bay is just round the corner from St Ives. It offers parking and has a few little shops near it. It so dreamy there, you almost forget you’re in the UK. I have only ever been here once; my parents go here every time they go to Cornwall.
Hayle beach with 3 miles of golden sand, this beach is amazing for spending the whole day at. We normally stay in Hayle when we go to Cornwall, so this is the beach we use the most. It has dunes, which we used to roll down in the rubber rings as kids. We love walking through them and watching the sunset at the top of them. Not too sure how you access the beach for public access as we always stay on a site attached to it. Although, I think there is a public bridleway.
Newquay has so many different beaches and is home to the best surfing waters. We park about 5 minutes from the beach and shops. Fistral beach has an amazing waves for all the surfers out there. Towan Beach and Newquay Beach Front are relatively close to one another. The Great Western beach is surrounded by cliffs and again more surfers like to frequent here. Newquay Beach is hidden away between two large rocks and is quieter than the more popular beaches. We always visit Fistral before walking into town.
Crantock beach is a little before Newquay beaches. If you are part of the National Trust, you can park here for free. It has flat access, with a cute little café on the beach. I believe it is the estuary to Newquay beaches. The water seemed nice, and the beach was lovely. It was quiet when we visited, and the kids loved it.
Holywell Bay this is another beach which has a National Trust carpark. You then walk about 5 minutes, and you are on the most picturesque beach. There were two TV programmes filmed here. Poldark and House of Dragons and well as the infamous James Bond: Die Another Day. We stayed at the Holywell Bay caravan site and could walk here in a few minutes. They have a pub at the beginning of the beach and the food is delicious.
Porth Curno is gorgeous. It’s a little trek down to it, but so worth it if you are planning to spend the whole day at the beach. There is a minack theatre on the cliff top, which still has shows. We’ve only been here once but, were impressed with how quiet and calm it was there.
Portreath is stunning, you come down a beautiful steep hill and park at the bottom. I never get over the stunning view as you come down the hill. The beach access is flat and there are local shops, cafes and toilet blocks nearby. They have tidal pools and a wave known as ‘The Vortex’. We go here every visit just before sunset, we get hot chocolates and just sit and watch the sun go down.
Perranporth is such and amazing place. We love visiting here. It is such a popular beach. It stretches for 3 miles at low tide. There is nothing better than going to the pub on the beach while the kids play.
Gwythian Towan Beach is amazing. This beach is super popular. It has rock pools to explore, sand dunes to climb and is super windy so kite surfers and surfers love it. There are two access points to the beach from the carpark. We came here once and Rubi and Ellia ran off without anyone knowing where they went, and with a sheer drop from the cliffs edge, I was terrified. Me, Troy and Kez were frantic searching for them, we went down to the lifeguards on duty, who were amazing with Layton. They gave him blanket and asked him to look through the binoculars at the sea. The girls had found an off-duty lifeguard who escorted them back up to us. Turns out they had run left while we had gone right. Safe to say they didn’t do that again.
Gwenver Beach this beach! We had seen it on an Instagram or Facebook post. It looked stunning, so we thought we’d give it a go. It was such a secluded beach. The only issue was the mountain of steps it took to get down there. The beach was so quiet, only one or two other people on it. We could See Sennan while sat on the beach. We started our ascend back to the carpark… this is not for the weak. The steps are extremely steep and there are so many. And then the hill too. Although an extremely stunning area, the walk back up is horrendous.
These are just some of the beautiful places we have visited in Cornwall. We have so many other beaches we want to visit like Kynance cove, the Lizard, Looe, Mousehole, Nanjizal beach, Lantic Bay and so many more.