Out & about in Falmouth & Truro

St Mawes' and the Roseland Peninsula's seclusion and calm are nicely complemented by Falmouth and Truro, both easy to reach, both offering plenty - and varied - days and nights out … 

Falmouth

Falmouth's got a unique, off-centre feel that probably comes from a combination of being an important port (for centuries), a university town (there are two; art and design often bring people here, and many stay) and, well, from just being Cornish, too.

So visit the National Maritime Museum and Ships & Castles Leisure Centre; make sure you try some of the fantastic places to eat and drink, from the authentically historic waterside Chain Locker pub to the award-winning Harbour Lights fish and chip shop and Rick Stein's brand new restaurant and oyster bar. Nose around the town's many one-off independent shops, explore Discovery Quay, pick your way through the many small, private art galleries (and don't forget the multiple-award-winning Falmouth Art Gallery, too, just above the Library). The harbour is frequently a spectacle in its own right. Being naturally the world's third deepest means enormous cruise ships, tankers and cargo vessels often slide in and out of port, and one of the most striking sights in the lush, tree-lined creeks of the Fal is such moored mammoths, like whales washed up in millponds.

Bikes, buses, boats …

Why not make it up as you go along and get the best out of the fantastic variety nearby? Hop on your bike, take the small ferry across the Percuil to Place Point (the new ferry runs on used cooking oil from our kitchen!) and cycle back through the Roseland's lanes to get back for a beer at sundown. Go village-hopping by bus, take the boat up river where it stops at The Smuggler's Inn for one of the best cream teas you've tasted; take your bike on the Falmouth ferry and explore beaches and gardens all day; take the same ferry to Falmouth, but then jump on the lovely single-track branch-line to Truro, which brings us to …

Truro

Its striking, newly-scrubbed and restored cathedral means Truro's a city; it's got some of the shops to match that description, too, as well as the Royal Cornwall Museum, the Hall for Cornwall (for music, theatre, comedy and dance, all year) as well as some great bars, bistros, pubs and restaurants. It's a city you can easily walk around without getting lost, and it rewards time spent on foot, with small alleys, interesting cobbled side streets and loads of beautiful and striking Georgian buildings. It's not just a great place to visit, it's easy to get there too, being at the other end of the Falmouth branch-line, on the main Paddington to Penzance route, a few miles south of the main A30, and easily accessed by main roads from Falmouth and St Austell.