Travel distances

Truro to Newquay

Truro to Newquay on the map

Start and finishThe route by roadSee the stops along the way on their own map ↓

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

Distance

14 miles

by road

By car

About 30 minutes

in normal traffic

By bike

About 1 hour 30 minutes

steady pace

By foot

About 4 hours 40 minutes

estimated at a 3mph walking pace

Before you set off

Saturdays in high summer are the problem, not the weather. Newquay is a changeover town, so between roughly 9am and noon on a summer Saturday the A3075 backs up at Goonhavern and again at Chiverton Cross as one week's visitors leave and the next arrive.[[cite:editorial]] Travel either side of that window and the road is clear.

Which way to go

The fastest route

A39 north out of Truro to Chiverton Cross, then the A3075 straight up through Goonhavern and Rejerrah into Newquay. Single carriageway most of the way[[cite:osm]], but direct and well signed.

The scenic route

Follow the A3075 only as far as Goonhavern, then turn off for Perranporth and run up the coast through Holywell and Crantock. Dunes, cliffs and three of Cornwall's best beaches, finishing with the Gannel crossing into Newquay. It roughly doubles the journey[[cite:editorial]] — treat it as an afternoon out rather than a shortcut.

Caravans and motorhomes

The A3075 is fine for a caravan or motorhome. The coast road is not: the Gannel crossing is tidal and the lanes above Holywell are narrow with awkward bends. If the A3075 is queuing, the A30 east to Carland Cross and the A3058 down into Newquay[[cite:osm]] is the sensible large-vehicle alternative.

Stops along the way

Stops along the way — tap or hover a pin for a photo, the detour and a link to its guideStart and finishThe route by road

Start
Truro
Perranporth
2.9 miles off the main route, adds roughly 8 minutes
Three miles of sand and a bar actually built on the beach — a five-minute detour off the A3075.
St Agnes
5.2 miles off the main route, adds roughly 16 minutes
Mining country above the cliffs, with engine houses standing right on the coast path.[[cite:cornish-mining]]
Crantock Beach
1.8 miles off the main route, adds roughly 11 minutes
Across the Gannel from Newquay, quieter than anything on the town side.
Fistral Beach
1 mile off the main route, adds roughly 9 minutes
The UK's best-known surf beach, on the western edge of Newquay.
Arrive
Newquay

Practical information

Parking

Newquay has plenty of parking but very little of it near the beach you actually want. Trenance and the Manor car parks are the biggest; Fistral has its own, and it fills first. Nothing in the town centre is free.

Train and bus

There is no direct train — the Newquay branch line leaves the main line at Par[[cite:gwr]], so by rail it is Truro to Par and then the Atlantic Coast Line, around an hour and three quarters in total[[cite:nationalrail]]. The bus is the sensible choice: First Kernow run a regular service from Truro bus station taking about an hour.[[cite:firstkernow]]

The best time to travel

Avoid 9am to noon on summer Saturdays. Midweek, or after 2pm on a Saturday, the road is quick.

About the Truro to Newquay journey

Fourteen miles separates Cornwall's administrative centre from its loudest seaside town[[cite:editorial]], and the change in register over that distance is hard to overstate. You leave a cathedral and a Georgian high street, cross the spine of the old mining district, and arrive somewhere that smells of neoprene and sun cream. The A3075 does the job in half an hour. The coast road does it in rather more, and is the reason a lot of people never get to Newquay at all — they stop at Perranporth and stay there.

What to do in Newquay

Fistral for the surf, Towan and Great Western for families, Watergate Bay for space. The headland walk round to the Huer's Hut gives you the whole bay in one go, and the Blue Reef Aquarium[[cite:blue-reef]] and Newquay Zoo[[cite:newquay-zoo]] both earn their keep on a wet day. Out of season Newquay empties, and the beaches are better for it.

Read the Newquay guide

Going the other way: Newquay to Truro

Newquay to Truro is the same road in the other direction and usually a little quicker[[cite:editorial]], because the Saturday queue is heading the other way. We have written the return journey up in full as part of this guide.

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Article Sources

Road distance and drive time: measured between the two town centres by the Cornwall.co.uk editorial team and reviewed against local knowledge of the route.
Road network, road classifications and place names: OpenStreetMap contributors. Available at: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright (Open Database Licence 1.0).
Route shape on the map, and the detour figures for each stop along the way: Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM), derived from OpenStreetMap road data. Available at: https://project-osrm.org
Position of each town, village and beach on the map: OS National Grid references published on that place’s own guide on this site. Available at: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
Live traffic and turn-by-turn directions, linked from the route map: Google Maps. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps
Cycling times are given at a steady touring pace, and walking times are calculated at 3mph on mixed terrain. Both are planning estimates rather than measured journeys, and are labelled as estimates on the page.