Big Trail Adventures
Landscape on the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives

Self-guided · South West · England

South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives

Your walk from Bude to St Ives

Bude to St Ives along the north Cornwall coast — past Bedruthan Steps, through Padstow and Newquay, and down to the artists' town that stops most people in their tracks. The South West Coast Path at its most Atlantic.

Build your tripSee your route
Distance
182 km
Ascent
3,321 m
Stages
4 – 11 days
Grade
Strenuous

This stretch is the Cornwall most people picture when they think of the coast path — 182 kilometres of surf beaches, fishing villages and Atlantic cliffs, from Bude down through Tintagel and Padstow to the artists' town of St Ives. It's still proper coast-path walking, but the villages come more often and the pubs are easier to find than further north.

It's a good stage for anyone wanting the classic Cornish scenery without the isolation of the section before it — surf towns, chef-led harbours, and beaches that are worth stopping for.

Trail Essentials

Start
Bude
Cornwall
End
St Ives
Cornwall
Distance
182 km
113 miles
Total Ascent
3,321 m
10,896 ft
Difficulty
Strenuous
Hilliness
Hilly
Time to Complete
Explorer
9 days
~20 km/day
Hiker
8 days
~23 km/day
Fastpacker
7 days
~26 km/day
Trail Runner
5 days
~36 km/day
When to Walk
Best Good Avoid
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

Bude to St Ives — the stage in numbers.

Here's how this section looks for most walkers. Everything here is a starting point — the planner below rebuilds it around your own pace and dates.

Distance
182 km / 113 miles
Total ascent
3,321 m
Start
Bude
Finish
St Ives
Days walking
4–11 days
Difficulty
Strenuous
Best months
May–Aug
Part of
South West Coast Path

A typical 9-day schedule

Walked at our hiker pace, this is where most of our customers finish each day. Take more days and we'll split the longer stages; take fewer and we'll lengthen them by using the stops in between. We know every option along the route, so your days end up the right length whatever pace you choose.

Suggested day-by-day itinerary for the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives
DayStageDistanceAscentWalking
1Bude toCrackington Haven16.5 km440 m5½ hrs
2Crackington Haven toTintagel18.5 km563 m6½ hrs
3Tintagel toPort Isaac14.0 km389 m5 hrs
4Port Isaac toPadstow20.6 km306 m6½ hrs
5Padstow toPorthcothan21.6 km257 m6½ hrs
6Porthcothan toNewquay16.7 km278 m5 hrs
7Newquay toPerranporth26.7 km276 m7½ hrs
8Perranporth toPortreath19.5 km440 m6½ hrs
9Portreath toSt Ives28.2 km372 m8½ hrs

How the trail unfolds.

Your trail divides naturally into three parts — not by day, but by what the Atlantic has made of this coast. Slate cliffs and legend in the north, estuary sand and surf towns through the middle, and a last long run through tin country to the painters' town of St Ives.

01

Bude to Port Isaac

The High Slate Coast

Folded cliffs, the highest ground on the Cornish coast, and a castle half on an island — the wildest walking comes first.

Your opening days are the hardest walking of the whole stage, and arguably the best of it. Beyond Widemouth Bay the cliffs start folding — literally, at Millook Haven, whose zigzag chevron strata rank among the Geological Society's great geosites — and keep rising to High Cliff, at 223 metres the highest in Cornwall. You drop into Boscastle, its harbour walls built in 1584, climb out past the ancient strip fields at Forrabury, and come to Tintagel, its castle ruins split between mainland and island, Arthur or no Arthur. Old slate quarries line the cliffs to Port Isaac, where the Fisherman's Friends still sing on the Platt.

02

Port Isaac to Holywell

Estuary and Surf

The cliffs relent, the Camel opens, and sand takes over — surf towns, dunes, and a ferry nearly seven centuries old.

The coast eases after Port Isaac, though it takes its time. You round Port Quin, its 1830 cliff-edge folly allegedly built for gambling parties, cross the Iron Age ramparts of The Rumps, and stand where Laurence Binyon wrote For the Fallen, at Pentire Point in 1914. Then the Camel Estuary opens and a ferry that has run to Padstow since 1337 carries you over. Sand does most of the rest: Trevose Head's 1847 lighthouse, Bedruthan's rock stacks — a giant's stepping stones, the Victorians decided, Watergate Bay's surf, Newquay's beaches, and the dunes at Holywell, its holy well inside a sea cave.

03

Holywell to St Ives

Tin Country

Engine houses on the cliff edge, Woolf's lighthouse offshore, and an art town waiting at the end of the sand.

The final days belong to the miners, then the painters. From Perranporth's three miles of sand you climb into gorse and heather stitched with mine workings — Wheal Coates' Towanroath engine house, built 1872, stands on the cliff above Chapel Porth, part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. Beyond Portreath the cliffs run high and empty to Godrevy Point, where the 1859 lighthouse — Virginia Woolf's, more or less — holds its island offshore. Then Gwithian's wide sands, the birdlife of the Hayle Estuary, and the long curve of St Ives Bay into a town that swapped pilchards for painters; Tate St Ives and Hepworth's studio are the proof.

Build your trip

Customise your South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives.

Pick your pace, party size and dates. The itinerary, distances, nightly stops and the price all update live — no commitment until you're happy.

  • Days sized to your walking speed
  • Each night ends at a stop with accommodation
  • Pricing reflects party size and seasonality
  • Save and share the itinerary with your group
Hiker · 4.0 km/h
2 walkers
Bude to St Ives
Days
9
Distance
182 km
Walking
59 hrs

Your day-by-day itinerary updates live in the Your itinerary section below.

Trip total
£2,880
£1,440 per person · 9 nights · party of 2
See my trip
Your live itinerary

Build your itinerary above.

This is the itinerary you're building. Change the pace, party size or start date in the planner above and every stage, distance and date updates here.

This route. These nights.
One clear price.

You are booking the itinerary above: your walking days, your overnight stays and the support that carries you between them.

Your South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives adventure
Configure your trip in the builder above and it will appear here.
Per Person
—
Trip Total
—
Deposit Today
—

Organising this trail for friends? Build a group trip with individual payments

  • Full refund if unhappy with any changes
  • Confirmation within a few days
  • ABTOT financially protected
Not quite ready?
Prefer to talk? 0131 560 2740 hello@bigtrailadventures.com

We'll start planning your trip right away. Not happy with anything? We'll adjust it or refund you — no questions asked.

ABTOT Member 5690

The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT) provides financial protection under The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 for Big Trail Adventures (member 5690). Protection is provided for non-flight packages. Full details in our booking conditions.

And that price covers far more than the places you sleep.

Your South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives is planned from first step to final check-in. The stays, luggage, navigation, local knowledge and a real team behind you are all part of the same trip.

What's included?

Self-guided, but properly supported. You turn up, you walk, you eat well, you sleep well. We handle the logistics.

  • Custom itinerary planned around your pace

  • Comfortable accommodation booked for you

  • Daily luggage transfer where available

  • GPX + day-by-day route notes

  • Big Trail Adventures app for door-to-door navigation

  • On-trail route support

Not included

  • Travel to Bude and from St Ives
  • Lunches and evening meals (we'll recommend the best places)
  • Travel insurance

Your Trail Book.
The trip in your pocket.

This is not a generic guidebook. We build a private Trail Companion for your dates, your direction, your overnight stops and every day of your South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives.

01

Trail Book

08:12
A day in the Trail Companion: Hendaye to Ibardin with distance, ascent, estimated time, route map and elevation profile

Wake up knowing the whole day

Your exact South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives itinerary — from the place you sleep to the next front door, with the turns people miss and the stops worth making.

02

Trail Book

13:36
Live navigation in the Trail Companion, showing the route on the map with distance remaining and the elevation still to climb

See the trail respond to your pace

Follow your stage offline, see what remains and get a live estimate based on the pace you are actually walking. Your GPX is already cut into each day, ready for Garmin, Coros, Suunto, Apple Watch, Komoot or OS Maps.

03

Trail Book

14:32
The private share link, showing walking progress on the map for friends and family at home

Let home follow the adventure

Family and friends see where you are and when you last updated — no app, no account.

Explore the Trail Book

Where you'll stay

Where you'll sleep

Cornish B&Bs, surf-town guesthouses and harbour hotels line this stretch — Boscastle, Padstow and Newquay all have their share of good beds. We book somewhere that suits a coast walker's evening: close to the path, good breakfast, no fuss about wet gear.

  • Harbour B&Bs in Boscastle, Port Isaac and Padstow
  • Rooms near Newquay's beaches for a proper rest-day town
  • Drying space for boots and waterproofs after cliff walking
  • Good seafood within easy reach most evenings

Every trip is planned around your dates and party, so we can't promise you a specific inn — but we can promise the kind of welcome that makes a walking holiday feel like a proper holiday.

Self-guided, fully supported

A self-guided South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives, explained.

Self-guided means the walking is yours and the logistics are ours. You set off on the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives when you want, walk at whatever pace suits you, and stop where you like — there is no group to keep up with and no leader setting the schedule. Everything that makes an independent long-distance walk hard work to organise is handled before you arrive.

There are no fixed departure dates. Choose your own start day, tell us how many nights you want, and the planner rebuilds the 182 km route around it.

You walk
182 km from Bude to St Ives, South West England — alone, as a pair, or with your own group. No guide, no strangers.
We plan
A 4 – 11 day itinerary built around the pace you pick, with sensible daily distances and the ascent spread properly across the route.
We book
Walker-friendly B&Bs, inns and small hotels along the trail, reserved in your name with breakfast included.
We move your bag
Door-to-door luggage transfer between every stay, so you walk with a daypack.
You navigate
GPX files for every stage plus written route notes — the trail is waymarked, and we flag the few places people go wrong.
We stay reachable
One number for the whole trip, answered by someone who has walked the route.

Your trail, whether you come alone or bring everyone.

We remove the awkward parts at both ends: quiet reassurance for a solo walker, and no unpaid-invoice chasing for the friend who gets a group moving.

Going solo

Independent, not unsupported.

We lend solo walkers a satellite GPS tracker. It updates automatically, even away from phone signal, so you can walk freely while the people at home follow your progress.

  • Fixes your position from satellites, not phone masts
  • Posts automatically every 30 minutes — nothing to remember
  • Keeps working in the glens, on the cliffs and out of signal
Walking solo with us
15:00
The satellite GPS tracker page, showing the day's route and the walker's live position on the West Highland Way
A group trip page showing each walker's payment progress

Bringing friends

Lead the adventure. Don't become the treasurer.

Plan a private South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives with us and get one shared trip page. Every walker pays their own deposit by card and adds their own details—no bank transfers or payment spreadsheet.

How group trips work

Trail Companion and satellite tracking comparison

Shares your position over the mobile network. You update it when you want to. Needs a phone signal to send anything

Groups of six or more

Bringing a group? Everyone pays their own share.

Book the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives as a private group departure and we'll give you your own trip page. One organiser agrees the trip with us; every walker then pays their own deposit by card and fills in their own details. No collecting bank transfers, no spreadsheet of who's paid.

Start a group tripHow it worksEnquire for a group
A group trip page listing walkers and showing which deposits have been paid

Things walkers ask us.

How fit do I need to be?

On the Hiker pace this stage runs to 9 walking days averaging around 20 km a day with steady cliff undulations. You should be comfortable walking a full day with a daypack.

When should I walk it?

May through September is best. May–June is peak wildflower and seabird season. July and August are busy — book accommodation months ahead. September gives long light and quieter beaches.

Do you include luggage transfer?

Yes — bags up to 20 kg are moved between accommodations every walking day. A few remote overnights need a short taxi transfer, which we plan and book for you.

What kind of accommodation do you book?

Small family-run B&Bs, harbour inns and walker-friendly hotels — en-suite where the village allows, breakfast included, drying space for boots.

Is this a self-guided South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives walking holiday?

Yes. Every South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives trip we run is self-guided: you walk the route on your own, at your own pace, with no group and no guide. We do the planning and the logistics — an itinerary of 4 – 11 days built around the pace you choose, accommodation booked in your name along the 182 km route, your main bag moved between stays each day, GPX files and route notes for every stage, and a real person on the end of the phone while you're out there. You choose your own start date; there are no fixed departures.

What's the difference between a self-guided and a guided South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives trip?

On a guided trip you walk with a leader and a group to a fixed schedule. Self-guided means the day is yours: start when you like, stop for lunch where you like, walk fast or slowly, take a rest day. The route is waymarked and you navigate with the GPX and notes we provide. Everything that makes a trip complicated — accommodation, luggage transfer, the shape of each day — is arranged for you before you arrive.

Can I walk the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives without a guide?

Yes — the South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives is a signed long-distance route and thousands of people walk it independently every year. What most walkers want help with isn't navigation, it's the 182 km of accommodation, the bag transfers, and getting the daily distances right. That's exactly what we take off your hands, while you still walk it under your own steam.

Who books the accommodation and moves my luggage?

We do, both. We book walker-friendly B&Bs, inns and small hotels in your name at each overnight stop, with breakfast, and arrange door-to-door luggage transfer between them so you walk with a daypack. You'll get a full itinerary with every address, check-in detail and transfer time before you travel.

How many days do I need for a self-guided South West Coast Path Stage 2: Bude to St Ives?

Most people take 4 – 11 days for the 182 km. Our planner lets you set your own pace and number of nights, so you can stretch the trip out with shorter days or compress it if you're used to back-to-back big days — the itinerary, accommodation stops and price all update as you change it.

Craig, founder of Big Trail Adventures

Not sure this stage is right for you?

Tell Craig your dates, party size and preferred pace. He'll come back with a route that fits — or suggest a neighbouring stage if this one's not the match.

Email Craig

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