Travel distances

Falmouth to Truro

Falmouth to Truro on the map

Start and finish

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Distance

12 miles

by road

By car

About 25 minutes

in normal traffic

By bike

About 1 hour 10 minutes

steady pace

By foot

About 4 hours

on foot

Before you set off

The A39 between Falmouth and Truro is one of the busier commuter roads in Cornwall. Rush hour in both directions — roughly 7.30 to 9am and 4.30 to 6pm on weekdays — can double the journey time. Outside those windows it moves freely.

Which way to go

The fastest route

Take the A39 north from Falmouth through Penryn and Perranwell Station, following signs for Truro throughout. The road is fast, well signed and direct. Allow an extra ten minutes at rush hour.

The scenic route

Leave Falmouth on the Mylor road through Flushing and Mylor Bridge, following the Fal estuary north through Feock and Carnon Downs before rejoining the A39 for the final stretch into Truro.¹ The views across the river at high tide are outstanding. Add about twenty minutes.

Caravans and motorhomes

The A39 is entirely suitable for caravans and motorhomes, with good width and no low bridges. Truro's ring road is straightforward for large vehicles, with signed car parks on the approach. Overnight stopping is available at Carnon Downs Caravan and Camping Park, neatly placed between the two towns.

Stops along the way

Start
Falmouth
Penryn
0.3 miles off the A39, adds roughly 4 minutes
A granite market town older than Falmouth, with independent shops and the ruins of Glasney College a short walk from the high street.
Mylor Bridge
1.5 miles off the A39, adds roughly 10 minutes
A pretty waterside village on a Fal creek, with a boatyard, a good pub and the churchyard where the working boats are remembered.
Carnon Downs
0.5 miles off the A39, adds roughly 5 minutes
A quiet village with easy access to the Bissoe Valley cycle trail and Devichoys Wood nature reserve, and a handy stop for fuel or a coffee.
Arrive
Truro

Practical information

Parking

Truro has several central car parks. Lemon Quay is the most central and convenient for the cathedral and the shops; Garras Wharf is a short walk further. Both are well signed from the A39 ring road. On-street parking is limited but available on the outskirts.

Train and bus

The bus from Falmouth to Truro runs every fifteen to thirty minutes throughout the day on the Truronian and First Kernow network, with a journey time of around forty-five minutes.² It is a reliable and frequent service and avoids rush-hour delays entirely.

The best time to travel

Any time outside the weekday rush hour. Mornings and early afternoons on weekdays are clear; Saturdays are busier than Sundays but rarely serious.

About the Falmouth to Truro journey

Twelve miles up the Fal estuary, from Cornwall's great sailing port to its only city. The drive is nothing — twenty-five minutes on a good road — but the two towns earn comparison. Falmouth looks out to sea across a harbour that has sheltered ships for four hundred years; Truro faces inward, a cathedral city of Georgian terraces and a covered market, the administrative and commercial centre of the county. The bus does the journey just as well as the car, and on a weekday morning the fifteen-minute frequency makes it the easier answer.

What to do in Truro

Start at Truro Cathedral, the only Victorian cathedral built from scratch in England, and walk down Boscawen Street to the covered market, where the best Cornish food is sold under one roof.³ The Royal Cornwall Museum on River Street holds the county's best single collection of art and history.⁴ Lemon Street and the Georgian town above it are worth the climb on a clear afternoon.

Read the Truro guide

Going the other way: Truro to Falmouth

Truro to Falmouth is the same twelve miles in the opposite direction, and we have written that up in full. The commuter traffic runs both ways, but it flows towards Falmouth in the evening and towards Truro in the morning — plan the return accordingly.

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Article Sources

OpenStreetMap contributors (2026). Road network, road classifications and place names. Copyright and licence [online]. Available at: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright OpenStreetMap[↩]
First Kernow (no date). Bus services, routes and timetables in Cornwall [online]. Available at: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/cornwall First Kernow[↩]
Truro Cathedral (no date). Home page [online]. Available at: https://www.trurocathedral.org.uk Truro Cathedral[↩]
Royal Cornwall Museum (no date). Home page [online]. Available at: https://royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk Royal Cornwall Museum[↩]
Project OSRM (no date). Open Source Routing Machine: route shape and detour calculations [online]. Available at: https://project-osrm.org Project OSRM
Ordnance Survey (no date). National Grid references used to position each place on the route map [online]. Available at: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk Ordnance Survey
Google (no date). Google Maps: live traffic and turn-by-turn directions [online]. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps Google Maps