St Ives is a charming seaside town, located in Cornwall, England and known for its picturesque fishing harbour. In this post, learn more about planning a weekend break in St Ives, Cornwall, with recommendations of things to do and where to eat.
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Weekend Break in St Ives Cornwall
Approximately 275 miles from London, St Ives is a great destination for a road trip to the British seaside. St Ives is a pleasure to explore by foot, whether you are exploring the beaches, browsing the array of independent shops in the town centre or enjoying the lively atmosphere at the fishing harbor.
With so much to offer families, St Ives is an ideal destination for a short break in Cornwall. Read on for tips on planning a weekend in St Ives with kids.
St Ives Cornwall Beaches
We lucked out with gorgeous sunny weather to enjoy the beach during our June weekend break in St Ives. Top beaches in St Ives include Porthmeor Beach and Porthminster Beach which have been recognised for their environmental and quality standards.
Porthmeor Beach and Porthminster Beach have both been recognised with the prestigious Blue Flag status as well as Keep Britain Tidy’s Seaside Award.
Blue Flag status is an international award given to beaches, marinas and tourism boats that meet high standards for water quality, safety and environmental management. The Seaside Award celebrates the quality and diversity of England’s coastline and rewards commitment to environment, water quality and beach safety.
Porthmeor Beach
Located just below the Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach is a soft, sandy beach and popular surfing spot. Porthmeor Beach has plenty of facilities that include a café, surf school, restrooms and beach rentals.
In addition to surfing, popular activities at Porthmeor Beach are tidepooling, swimming and stand up paddle boarding. The water looks very inviting, but it is freezing and wetsuits are highly recommended year round! You can rent wetsuits and other water sport equipment at the beach.
St Ives Surf School [website] is based on Porthmeor Beach and holds an extensive array of surfboards. Bodyboards and wetsuits are also available for rental. St Ives Surf School provides bespoke surf lessons and coaching, along with paddleboarding tuition and sea kayaking tours.
Porthmeor Beach Café [website] – Just below the Tate, Porthmeor Beach Café serves breakfast, lunch, tapas and dinner. With its beachfront location, Porthmeor Beach Café is also a great spot to enjoy drinks or alfresco dining watching the sunset.
Tate St Ives [website] – The Tate St Ives art gallery overlooks Porthmeor Beach and features work by iconic 20th century artists who lived and worked in Cornwall. Alongside displays from the Tate collection, the gallery presents modern and contemporary art from around the world through a dynamic exhibitions programme.
Porthminster Beach
Located at the opposite side of St Ives, Porthminster Beach is great for families with young children thanks to its calm, protected waters. Porthminster Beach is also very conveniently located, only a ten minute walk from the town centre, with a train stop and nearby car park.
As previously mentioned, Porthminster Beach has also been recognised for its commitment to water quality, environmental management and beach safety with Blue Flag status as well as the Seaside Award. Lifeguards are on patrol between 10am to 6pm each day between mid-May to end of September.
There are a number of facilities at Porthminster Beach, including a beach bar and café, restaurant, ice cream parlour and chalets to rent.
St Ives Watersports Centre [website] – Located on the townside of Porthminster Beach, the watersports centre is open throughout the summer months. St Ives Surf School offers supervised kayak and stand up paddleboarding tours around the bay, along with water sports equipment hire.
Porthminster Beach Café [website] – One of our favourite restaurants in St Ives is the award-winning Porthminster Beach Café, which specialises in seafood. The charming beachfront restaurant and terrace enjoy spectacular panoramic views of St Ives Bay. I have included more details and photos in the St Ives Restaurants section of this post.
St Ives Harbour
Along the coastline of St Ives are bright, beautiful gardens. This fantastic view overlooking St Ives Harbour is at a lookout point between Porthminster and the town centre.
The beach at St Ives Harbour is a popular spot for families during the day to enjoy being by the water.
The coastline views are beautiful from St Ives Harbour, looking towards Porthminster Beach.
St Ives Harbour is bustling with activity in the evening, with shops, cafes, restaurants, an arcade and art galleries along the waterfront.
St Ives Town Centre
The independent shops and art galleries at St Ives town centre are a pleasure to explore.
We found some great souvenirs, including a children’s book set in St Ives, The Little Sea Dragon’s Wild Adventure by Helen Dunmore.
We also purchased lovely handmade glass bowls by local artist Jo Downs at her shop in St Ives. Jo Downs is one of the world’s most respected fused glass designers.
St Ives Restaurants
Porthminster Beach Café
Porthminster Beach, Carbis Bay, St Ives TR26 2EB | www.porthminstercafe.co.uk
One of the best restaurants in St Ives is Porthminster Beach Café, with its fantastic oceanfront location overlooking Portminster Beach. The restaurant is very family friendly and the food and atmosphere are excellent.
Mr. G ordered the whole baked Dover sole, served with roasted garlic butter, fresh lemon, tiger prawns and baby leeks. Little T had a plate of fish and chips off the kid’s menu.
I ordered the Cornish prime beef fillet and rib (served separately below), served with a tasty oxtail hash, burnt onion, Bordelaise sauce, ripped Yorkshire and fried turnip.
The Seafood Café
45 Fore Street, St Ives TR26 1HE | www.stivesseafood.co.uk/the-seafood-cafe
Located in the heart of the St. Ives town centre, the Seafood Café offer a selection of fresh local seafood, prime Cornish meats and free range poultry dishes.
You can make a selection from the display cabinet and add your choice of side order and sauce from the blackboard.
Seafood Café also offer a menu of starters, light lunches and main dishes. Mr. G had a plate of grilled halibut with potatoes, which was a simple dish with great flavour.
Little T had fish and chips off the kid’s menu. Children’s menu options at Seafood Café also include Cornish fish pie, chicken goujons and sausage and mash.
Pengenna Pasties
9 High Street, St Ives TR26 1RR | www.pengennapasties.co.uk
For the drive back to London, we bought several Cornish pasties from Pengenna Pasties in the town centre. The pasty is Cornwall’s signature dish, steeped in Cornish history, and usually filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables.
Pengenna has a great selection of beef, lamb and vegetarian pasties. Their range of flavours include Traditional Steak, Steak and Stilton, Lamb, Vegetable, Cheese and Onion and Vegan pasties.
Moomaid of Zennor
Street-an-Pol, St Ives TR26 2DS | www.moomaidofzennor.com
One of the best dessert places in St Ives is the Moomaid of Zennor ice cream parlour, serving delicious luxury Cornish ice cream. Moomaid of Zennor make their ice cream at their family run dairy farm perched on the hills between Zennor Hill and the Atlantic Ocean.
Flavours at Moomaid of Zennor include traditional favourites such as Cornish Clotted Cream and Honeycomb, along with unique flavours like Limoncello Lemon Curd and Salted Caramel Praline. Do stop by Moomaid near St Ives Harbour for scrumptious ice cream and keep an eye out for greedy, relentless seagulls!
I hope you have found this post helpful to plan a weekend break in St Ives Cornwall. We had a wonderful time in St Ives and fell in love with the beautiful town, sandy beaches and picturesque coastline.
Where to Stay in St Ives
St Ives is a pleasure to walk around, and I would recommend choosing a hotel close to town to make the most of it. An ideal location for a St Ives hotel or holiday rental is within walking distance to Porthminster Beach, St Ives Harbour and Porthmeor Beach.
If you are close to any of those places, you can easily walk between the main beaches as well as the shops and restaurants of the town centre.
The hotel we stayed at on our weekend break was the St Ives Harbour Hotel & Spa overlooking Porthminster Beach. While the hotel had a fantastic location, we were disappointed with the service and the small, dated room that was not worth the price.
Approximately 275 miles from London, St Ives is about a 5 hour 30 minutes drive from London. You can also travel to St Ives by train in about 5 hours, taking a Great Western Railway (GWR) train from London Paddington, with one change.
The airport for Cornwall is Newquay (NQY) and the flight from London takes approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. Airlines offering flights to Newquay are Ryanair from London Stansted and Eastern Airways has flights from London Gatwick.
England Travel Inspiration
Looking for more inspiration for the summer holidays in England? Find ideas for day trips and weekend breaks from London with these round-up posts;
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Camber Sands Beach, East Sussex
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This post was updated on 21 January 2025 with more photos and updated visitor information for planning a weekend break in St Ives Cornwall. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, so if you do click through and make a purchase I may receive a small amount at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!
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