Cornwall Driving Tours & Road Trips: How to See the Region Properly

Cornwall is a peninsula, which means that by car, you can cross it from coast to coast in under an hour, or you can take three days and barely scratch the surface. The difference between those two experiences is knowing where to stop, what to look for, and who can tell you the story behind the view. This is our guide to Cornwall driving tours and road trips: what to see, how to plan the perfect Cornwall road trip, and why a guided option changes everything.

The North coast route: drama and history

Cornwall’s North coast is the Atlantic coast: exposed, dramatic, and dotted with some of the most photographed landscapes in England. A driving tour between St Ives and Boscastle takes you past the gigantic rock formation of Bedruthan Steps, Port Isaac the filming location for Poldark and Doc Martin, and Tintagel Castle, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur. History, geography, and culture, all in one day.

The South coast route: harbours and estuaries

The South coast is quieter, more sheltered, and arguably more beautiful. A Cornwall driving tour along the southern edge takes you through Fowey, Helford, and the Roseland Peninsula, where the rivers run deep inland and the harbours look unchanged from the nineteenth century. The King Harry Ferry crossing near Truro is worth building into any South coast route: a chain ferry that cuts twenty miles off the drive and feels, briefly, like Cornwall from another era.

The West coast route: beaches and mining

West Cornwall is where the land runs out. A driving tour from Penzance takes you past St Michael’s Mount, the tidal island castle in Mount’s Bay, before heading around to Porthcurno and the Minack Theatre, an open-air theatre carved into the granite cliffs above the ocean. Continue to Land’s End, the most south-westerly point of mainland Britain, then turn north through Zennor and its old tin-mining country into St Ives, with its harbour, beaches and legendary art scene.

The interior: moorland and mystery

Most visitors to Cornwall hug the coast and never venture inland, and it’s easy to understand why. But Bodmin Moor is one of England’s last genuinely wild moorland landscapes: a high plateau of granite peaks, prehistoric stone circles, and Bronze Age settlements that predate the Romans by centuries. A driving tour of the moor, taking in Rough Tor, Brown Willy, and the Jamaica Inn at Bolventor, adds a dimension to Cornwall that no coastal route can offer.

The classic 7-day Cornwall road trip

A week is the sweet spot for a Cornwall road trip: long enough to see both coasts and the far west without spending every day behind the wheel. Here is the route our guides would drive, coast by coast, day by day.

Days 1–2: the north coast (Bude to Padstow). Start in the wild north. Take in Bude’s beaches, the clifftop ruin at Tintagel, Boscastle harbour, and the fishing villages of Port Isaac and Padstow, where you will want to stop for lunch. Base yourself around Padstow for the first two nights.

Days 3–4: the far west (St Ives, the Tin Coast and Land’s End). Cut across to St Ives for the light and the beaches, then follow the Tin Coast past Botallack’s engine houses to Land’s End and the Minack Theatre above Porthcurno. This is the most dramatic driving in Cornwall; give it two unhurried days.

Days 5–6: the south coast (Penzance to Fowey). Swing round the gentler south. St Michael’s Mount off Penzance, Kynance Cove on the Lizard, then the sheltered harbours of the Roseland Peninsula, Charlestown and Fowey. Softer, greener and altogether calmer than the north.

Day 7: Bodmin Moor and home. Head inland for a final day on Bodmin Moor: the waterfalls at Golitha Falls, the tors and the wide open spaces that most visitors miss entirely, before the drive home.

Drive it yourself with this as your map, or let us take the wheel: on a Kernara guided tour the route, the driving and the stops are all planned, and your guide fills in the story behind each view.

Why a guided driving tour of Cornwall is worth considering

The practical challenge with self-drive touring in Cornwall is that the roads are genuinely narrow: single-track lanes with passing areas, hedgerows that leave no margin for error, and junctions that only make sense if you already know where you’re going. A guided Cornwall driving tour takes all of that off the table. Your guide drives a comfortable vehicle, knows every road and every passing place, and focuses entirely on the experience while you take in the view.

How far can you drive in a week in Cornwall?

In a week of relaxed touring, a driving tour of Cornwall can cover the whole peninsula: North coast, South coast, the far West around Land’s End and Penzance, and the moorland interior. That’s roughly 400 miles of driving, spread across five days and six nights. A great guide will know which sections deserve a whole morning and which can be covered at a comfortable pace.