FAQs

Travel to Cornwall by car

It takes less than five hours to get from London or Birmingham to the heart of Cornwall by car.

Drive along the M4 motorway from London, or M6 from Manchester, and then the M5 to Exeter and finally either the A30, that is mostly dual carriageway, or the A38 passing Plymouth and Saltash into South East Cornwall.

Alternatively if you enter Cornwall from North Devon, there is the scenic A39 Atlantic Highway running through Bude, which you can join from Junction 27 on the M5.

Due to the high volume of traffic on Cornwall's roads during the summer months the main routes can become congested especially at weekends. Travelling overnight or outside peak rush hours is recommended to avoid long delays.

• To plan your journey use the AA Route Planner for a tailor made travel plan with timings and mileage
• For information on possible delays or roadwork's throughout the UK or in Cornwall visit Traffic Watch
• Travelling to Cornwall with a caravan? Check out our Caravan Towing guide

PLEASE BE AWARE. Sat-Navs can lead you to some wonderful places in Cornwall, many of them down narrow country lanes with high hedges and few reversing points. If you are not sure...don't go on. Better to turn around and find another route than end up lost in the middle of nowhere.

Travel to Cornwall by coach and bus

National Express operate a full service into Cornwall as far as Penzance, Megabuss also go to a few towns including Newquay and Falmouth.

Coach travel times from London or Birmingham to the city of Truro are around 7-8 hours

Many tour operators offer coach holidays to Cornwall, contact your local travel agent for details.

For information on public transport, including local bus timetables, once you are in Cornwall, Click here.

To plan your journey in advance, journey planning websites such as Traveline South West can be useful.

If you are bringing a coach to Cornwall, did you know Cornwall Council now offers a weekly coach rover ticket. This is available for all car parks where coaches are permitted and costs £15 for 24 hours or £50 for 7 days and £35 for 4 days. These can be obtained by creating an account to use the ZatPermit system.

You can drive via either the M4 and M5 to Exeter and then take either the A30 or A38 depending on where in Cornwall you are heading.

You can also use the M3 and A303 from west London.

Both National Express and Megabus operate coach's into Cornwall

Trains to Cornwall leave from Paddington Station

You can fly to Cornwall from both Gatwick and Heathrow (Jan 2023)

The A30 runs down through the centre of Cornwall, leaving the M5 at Exeter. It enters Cornwall at Launceston, crosses Bodmin Moor and passes Bodmin. Once past there roads branch off to St Austell and Newquay and a little further on, Truro.

At the present time (November 2022) work is still on-going to dual a long stretch of the A30 heading west towards Redruth and Camborne. This will hopefully do away with summer traffic jams as you head towards the far west, St Ives and Penzance.

The A30 continues past Penzance all the way to Lands's End.

Leaving Exeter, the other major road into Cornwall is the A38. This crosses the Tamar Bridge at Plymouth and serves the towns and villages of south-east Cornwall before terminating at Bodmin where it joins the A30.

Coming down the North Coast, the A39 (also known as the Atlantic Highway) is good for access to Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow, and all the lovely north coast beaches. It continues onto Truro and eventually Falmouth.

The A390 is the main road serving St Austell, running from Tavistock in Devon, across the Tamar at Gunnislake and onto Liskeard. From St Austell it continues down to Truro.

Running north. and adjacent to the Devon/Cornwall border, the A388 runs from Saltash up to Launceston.

The A94 runs from Falmouth to Penzance via Helston where the A3083 runs down to Lizard Point.

Avoid the traffic jams, the arguments when the GPS sends you the wrong way and the general hassle of having to drive great distances...

GWR operate high speed train services frequently from London Paddington station including the Night Riviera Sleeper Service to Penzance. There are also direct trains daily from Bristol and beyond. More info from: nationalrail.co.uk

Once in Cornwall, there's a great rail network for getting around the county, ideal for when the roads are busy in the summer. Give the driver a rest and grab a cheap day return to St Ives or Looe. Sit back and enjoy the scenery on the Tamar Valley Line or head to the beach at Newquay or Falmouth. For more info, go to Great Scenic Railways

For National Rail enquiries telephone 08457 484950

The First Group co-ordinate bus services from many Cornish stations.

Park-and-ride schemes run in season at Liskeard (for Looe) and St Erth (for St. Ives).

Flying to and from Cornwall offers an attractive alternative to the long and sometimes frustrating journey by train or car, Cornwall's airport is a few miles outside Newquay on the north coast.

For more info go to Cornwall Airport Newquay Website or call +44 (0)1637 860600 or e-mail Info@newquaycornwallairport.com

2023 destinations and airlines include

Aberdeen, Manchester, Edinburgh, Isle of Man and Newcastle with Loganair Alicante, Faro, Malaga, London Stansted, Dublin and Edinburgh with Ryanair Gatwick up to 3 times a day, Humberside, and East Midlands with Eastern Airways Isles of Scilly with Skybus Dublin, and Belfast City offering onward connectivity to/from the US with Aer Lingus Glasgow and Manchester with EasyJet Heathrow twice a day and Manchester daily with Flybe Zurich with Edelweiss Dusseldorf with Eurowings Copenhagen with SAS

There's also a small airport near Land's End that is used to fly to the Isles of Scilly Skybus and a heliport in Penzance used for the same route.

Exeter Airport is also within easy reach of Cornwall via the A30 and A38.

Travelling across the Channel from France to the UK can take as little time as 35 minutes on the Eurotunnel from Calais to Folkestone and just 1 hour and 20 minutes on one of the ferry services between France and Dover.

Plymouth is the closest ferry port to Cornwall, being just across the River Tamar. Brittany Ferries offer services from Roscoff in France and Santander in Northern Spain into Plymouth as well as further services from France and Spain into Portsmouth and Poole.

There's a well-known saying that Devon is close to perfection, perfection being Cornwall!

You won't get a real Cornish pasty in Devon, and they don't know how to make a proper cream tea.....

What more do we need to say?

Yes, very much so. With a choice of beaches everybody should find something to do. From surfing to sandcastles, Bude has the perfect beach.

Add to that a golf course, a canal to walk along or explore by kayak, the South West Coast Path and a nice range of places to eat and drink, we think Bude is the perfect family destination.

It's great, if you don't want too many bright lights and nightlife!

For a traditional seaside holiday with somewhere to swim and enjoy yourself, Coverack ticks all the boxes. You can learn to kayak, snorkel, or go for long walks along the coast. But it's not Newquay or Blackpool! Don't come here looking for amusement arcades, theme parks and nightclubs...

Saying that, Flambards, Cornwall's biggest theme park is less than 20 minutes drive away...

Some you can, some you can't, and for many it depends on the time of year and the time of day. To find out more about the restrictions on individual beaches, see our 'Beaches' pages.

The beach is dog friendly but between Easter and September they need to be kept on leads.

Dogs are welcome on Harbour beach except between the 1st July and the 31st August (10am - 6pm) when a seasonal dog ban is in place.

Dogs are welcome on Porthminster beach except between 15th May and 30 September (10am - 6pm) when a seasonal dog ban is in place.

Dogs are welcome on Porthgwidden beach except from the 1st July to the 31st August between 10am and 6pm when a seasonal dog ban is in place.

Dogs are welcome on Porthmeor beach except between 15th May and 30 September (10am - 6pm) when a seasonal dog ban is in place.

Dogs are allowed on Bamaluz beach all year around.

Dogs are allowed on Castle Beach, Gyllyngnvase Beach, Swanpool Beach & Meanporth all year except from 1st July - 31st August when then are not allowed between 10am - 6pm.

Trevaunance Cove is St Agnes’ main beach, with two car parks less than a minute’s walk away and excellent local facilities. St Agnes is a well-known surf spot and can get crowded on good days. Board and wetsuit hire and surf lessons are available. Dogs are allowed all year.

Yes , but please keep them on leads during nesting season and also when sheep are lambing. This stretches from March 1st until July 31st.

Help our farmers and our wildlife.

It depends which beach, the main sandy beach at East Looe has a dog ban all year around, whereas Hannafore Beach at West Looe is fine for dogs.