St Ives to Padstow

St Ives to Padstow on the map

Start and finish

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Distance

42 miles

by road

By car

About 1 hour 5 minutes

in normal traffic

By bike

About 4 hours

steady pace

By foot

About 14 hours

estimated at a 3mph walking pace

Which way to go

The fastest route

The fastest route takes the A30 east from St Ives through Hayle to the Indian Queens junction, then the A39 north through Wadebridge to Padstow. The final few miles into Padstow follow the Camel Estuary road, one of the most beautiful approach drives in Cornwall.

The scenic route

For a more scenic alternative, leave St Ives on the B3306 coast road through Zennor, Morvah and St Just, looping around the tip of the Penwith peninsula before rejoining the A30 at Penzance. Continue on the A30 to Indian Queens and then the A39 to Padstow. This coastal loop adds around 30 minutes.

Caravans and motorhomes

The A30 and A39 are both suitable for caravans, with wide lanes and gradual gradients. The B3306 coast road alternative is emphatically not: it is single-track in places with passing places every few hundred metres. Keep to the A30 when towing.

Stops along the way

Start
St Ives
Hayle
Hayle marks the transition from the Penwith peninsula onto the broader Cornish plateau. The town's Victorian industrial heritage, powered by the foundries that supplied mines across the world, is documented in the Hayle Heritage Centre.
Wadebridge
Wadebridge sits astride the Camel Estuary and is the southern gateway to the Camel Trail, the 18-mile off-road cycling and walking path that runs all the way to Padstow.
Arrive
Padstow

Practical information

Parking

Padstow has very limited parking in the town centre. The main car park above the harbour fills quickly in summer. The Rock Road car park on the edge of town is a better option for longer stays. St Ives departures should factor in at least 15 minutes at each end for parking.

Train and bus

There is no direct bus service between St Ives and Padstow. The most practical public transport route travels by train to St Erth, then to Bodmin Parkway, and finally by bus through Wadebridge to Padstow. Expect a total journey of around 2 hours 30 minutes with connections.

The best time to travel

Padstow is at its quietest in spring and early autumn, when the harbour is still busy with fishing boats and the restaurants are easier to book. July and August see the town at its most crowded, with long queues for parking and for the most popular eateries.

About the St Ives to Padstow journey

The 42-mile journey from St Ives to Padstow crosses Cornwall from the far south-west to the mid-north coast, two towns that share a fishing heritage but little else in character. St Ives looks out over St Ives Bay and the Atlantic; Padstow faces the broad sweep of the Camel Estuary, sheltered and south-facing, its harbour packed with lobster pots and pleasure craft.

What to do in Padstow

Padstow's harbour is the town's natural gathering point. Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant is the famous draw, but the town has a range of other excellent options. The Camel Trail starts here and is worth following even for a short stretch on a hired bike. Prideaux Place, the Elizabethan manor house on the hill above the town, opens to visitors in summer.

Read the Padstow guide

Going the other way: Padstow to St Ives

Returning from Padstow to St Ives, the A39 and A30 are the quickest option. If you arrived via the coastal B3306, consider returning via the direct A30 to save time, or stop in Newquay or Hayle on the way back to break the journey.

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Article Sources

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