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Arriving in Truro

Travel distances

St Ives to Truro

St Ives to Truro on the map

Start and finish

Open this route in Google Maps ↗ for live traffic and turn-by-turn directions.

Distance

25 miles

by road

By car

About 40 minutes

in normal traffic

By bike

About 2 hours 30 minutes

steady pace

By foot

About 8 hours 20 minutes

estimated at a 3mph walking pace

Which way to go

The fastest route

The quickest route follows the A30 east from St Ives, joining at Hayle and continuing through Chiverton Cross before dropping into Truro via the A390. In light traffic this takes around 40 minutes and is by far the most reliable option year-round.

The scenic route

For a more rewarding drive, leave St Ives on the B3311 towards Nancledra and Penzance, then pick up the A394 through Helston and on to Truro via the Fal valley. This coastal-and-countryside loop adds around 20 minutes but passes through some of West Cornwall's prettiest villages.

Caravans and motorhomes

The A30 is the most caravan-friendly route, with wide dual-carriageway sections and easy overtaking from Hayle onward. Avoid the B3311 coastal alternative, which has narrow lanes and sharp bends ill-suited to towing.

Stops along the way

  1. Start

    St Ives

  2. Hayle

    The estuary town of Hayle sits at the mouth of the Hayle River and is the first landmark on the A30 east. The three-mile beach at Hayle Towans is one of the longest in Cornwall.

  3. Chiverton Cross

    The A30/A390 junction at Chiverton Cross is the natural waypoint between West Cornwall and Truro. From here the final stretch into the city takes under 15 minutes.

  4. Arrive

    Truro

Practical information

Parking

St Ives has limited parking, so it is worth leaving from one of the park-and-ride sites on the edge of town. At the Truro end, the main pay-and-display car parks cluster around Lemon Quay and the railway station. Arriving before 10am or after 4pm avoids the busiest periods.

Train and bus

First Kernow operates regular bus services between St Ives and Truro, with some journeys requiring a change at Hayle or Camborne. Journey time is roughly 1 hour 15 minutes. The St Ives branch railway line runs to St Erth, where you change onto the main Penzance to Paddington line for Truro, giving a total rail journey of around 50 minutes.

The best time to travel

The A30 moves freely outside summer, but July and August bring heavy holiday traffic, particularly at weekends. Leave before 9am or after 6pm on Saturdays in peak season to avoid the worst of the queues around Hayle.

About the St Ives to Truro journey

The 25-mile journey from St Ives to Truro is one of the most-travelled routes in West Cornwall, connecting the county's most-visited seaside town with its cathedral city and administrative centre. St Ives sits on a peninsula almost surrounded by sea, so every route east involves a short climb out of the town before the landscape opens into the broad agricultural plateau of the Penwith moors. By the time you reach Hayle, the Atlantic is behind you and the softer, wooded valleys of mid-Cornwall begin. Truro grew as a stannary town where tin was weighed and taxed, and its Victorian Gothic cathedral, completed in 1910, dominates the skyline long before you arrive.

What to do in Truro

Truro is worth half a day at minimum. The Royal Cornwall Museum on River Street is one of the finest regional museums in England, with collections spanning Cornish geology, art and social history. Lemon Street Market is the place for independent food and craft stalls, and the Hall for Cornwall hosts theatre and music throughout the year.

Read the Truro guide

Going the other way: Truro to St Ives

The return journey from Truro to St Ives reverses the same A30 corridor and takes around the same time. If you used the scenic B3311 route on the way out, the A30 makes a faster return. Coming into St Ives from the east, the first glimpse of the town and its harbour from the hill above Carbis Bay is one of the great views in Cornwall.

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Article Sources
  1. Project OSRM (no date). Open Source Routing Machine: route shape and detour calculations [online]. Available at: https://project-osrm.org Project OSRM
  2. 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
  3. Google (no date). Google Maps: live traffic and turn-by-turn directions [online]. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps Google Maps