Cornwall & Devon

This is the part of England that looks like a different country — turquoise coves, dramatic cliffs, and a genuinely thriving food and art scene, all a real distance from London, which is exactly why it still feels less overrun than the Cotswolds. Worth the extra travel time if beaches and coastline are what you're actually after.

How many days for Cornwall and Devon?

Given the distance from London, this isn't a weekend add-on — budget at least 3–4 days to make the travel time worth it, ideally a week if you want to properly cover both counties rather than just Cornwall's western tip.

What's actually worth seeing

1. The Eden Project — two giant geodesic biomes housing a rainforest and a Mediterranean garden, built inside a former china clay pit; genuinely impressive and a strong rainy-day option.
2. Tintagel Castle — dramatic clifftop ruins linked in legend to King Arthur's conception, connected to the mainland by a striking modern footbridge over the gorge.
3. St Ives — a working fishing town turned art colony, with Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum, plus genuinely excellent beaches right in town.
4. Land's End — mainland England's westernmost point, dramatic Atlantic cliffs, and the traditional start/end point of the End-to-End Land's End-to-John o'Groats route.
5. Dartmoor National Park (Devon) — wild moorland, granite tors, and free-roaming ponies, free to enter and explore, with excellent hiking and wild swimming spots.

What it costs

Getting there

Direct trains from London Paddington to Penzance (the far western end of Cornwall) take about 5 hours on average, or as little as 4h57m on the fastest services — genuinely a full travel day. The Night Riviera sleeper train is a scenic alternative, departing London around 11:45pm and arriving in Penzance around 7:50am. Flying into Newquay Airport (Cornwall's own regional airport, with some UK domestic routes) or Exeter (Devon) can cut the door-to-door time if a full train day doesn't appeal.

Do you need a car?

Strongly recommended. Cornwall and Devon's best spots (St Ives aside, which has its own branch train line) are spread along winding coastal roads with limited public transport, and the scenic drives themselves are part of the appeal. Renting a car in Penzance, Truro, or Exeter is straightforward and gives you far more flexibility than trying to bus between villages.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Underestimating the travel time from London — this is a 5-hour-each-way train trip, not a quick regional hop; plan it as its own multi-day leg.
• Trying to see Cornwall and Devon without a car — the coastal roads and small villages are genuinely hard to cover by public transport alone.
• Visiting Tintagel Castle without checking the weather — the clifftop footbridge and steps can close in high winds, which happens more often than visitors expect on this exposed stretch of coast.