About the Area

Hayle is dominated by the spectacular 3 miles of golden sands that stretch north towards Gwithian Towans and Godrevy Lighthouse. A quite stunning beach that offers opportunities for sunbathing and surfing. When the wind is blowing, watch out for the windsurfers, particularly in the waves at the northern end of the beach. This is one of the best windsurfing spots in the country. In the town of Hayle, Paradise Park is always popular with both adults and kids with their fantastic collection of rare birds and animals. There is also a good indoor play area for the kids if the weather gets bad!

St Ives, once a busy fishing village, now relies on tourism as its main industry. Turner came and painted a landscape in 1811 and art has played a part in St Ives history ever since. More recently Barbara Hepworth and the Tate Gallery have put St Ives on the modern map. The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is an amazing place to visit, and well worth it even if you’re not a budding artist. Trewyn Studios where she lived and worked from 1939 until her tragic death in 1975 has been turned into a fantastic museum, depicting many of her favourite sculptures in the sub tropical garden, is now managed by the Tate. The Tate Gallery St Ives was built in 1993 on the former gas works site displaying various paintings, sculptures and ceramics.

The beautiful town of Marazion, set on the shores of Mount’s Bay, has for long been a hot favourite for tourism in West Cornwall. Its clean, sandy beaches, with stunning views towards the Lizard Peninsula and Land’s End, have established Marazion as the most wonderful destination for beach holidays in Cornwall with long sandy beaches providing a safe seaside environment for swimming and other watersports including windsurfing, kitesurfing and sailing. A number of major sporting events in these fields are held in the bay.

Nearby Penzance, meaning ‘holy headland’ is the last major town before Lands End. The market town was once made famous as the birthplace of Sir Humphry Davy, now services the Isles of Scilly by land and sea. The streets of Penzance hold many historic buildings dating from the 17th century; it is well worth a walk around. The Turk’s Head pub on Chapel Street reputed to date from 1233 is the oldest pub in the town, steeped in smuggling and pirate history. A few minutes down the road is Newlyn, home to one of the largest fishing fleets with over 40 acres of harbour as well as more recently attracting many great artists and exhibitions.