Big Trail Adventures
Landscape on the South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth

Self-guided · South West · England

South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth

Your walk from St Ives to Falmouth

St Ives to Falmouth around the tip of Cornwall — past Pendeen, through the old mining country of the Penwith peninsula, around Land's End, and along the sheltered southern coast to one of England's finest harbour towns.

Build your tripSee your route
Distance
166 km
Ascent
2,830 m
Stages
4 – 10 days
Grade
Strenuous
5.03 verified reviews

“An amazing and very memorable experience”Bhagyashree & Akhil · Tour du Mont Blanc

Read the reviews

This is the stage with Land's End in it — 166 kilometres around the very tip of Cornwall, through old mining country, past the mainland's most south-westerly point, and on around the Lizard to Falmouth's deep-water harbour. The scenery does a lot of the talking: engine houses on the cliffs, granite headlands, and a coastline that changes character completely once you turn the corner onto the sheltered south coast.

It's a stage people walk for the landmarks as much as the walking itself, and it delivers — Land's End, the Lizard, Britain's most southerly point, all inside a few days.

Trail Essentials

Start
St Ives
Cornwall
End
Falmouth
Cornwall
Distance
166 km
103 miles
Total Ascent
2,830 m
9,285 ft
Difficulty
Strenuous
Hilliness
Hilly
Time to Complete
Explorer
9 days
~18 km/day
Hiker
8 days
~21 km/day
Fastpacker
6 days
~28 km/day
Trail Runner
4 days
~41 km/day
When to Walk
Best Good Avoid
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

St Ives to Falmouth — 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
166 km / 103 miles
Total ascent
2,830 m
Start
St Ives
Finish
Falmouth
Days walking
4–10 days
Difficulty
Strenuous
Best months
May–Aug
Part of
South West Coast Path

A typical 8-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 3: St Ives to Falmouth
DayStageDistanceAscentWalking
1St Ives toPendeen22.9 km542 m7½ hrs
2Pendeen toPorthcurno24.7 km455 m8 hrs
3Porthcurno toPenzance18.2 km324 m5½ hrs
4Penzance toPorthleven22.6 km259 m6½ hrs
5Porthleven toLizard22.6 km384 m7 hrs
6Lizard toCoverack16.8 km295 m5 hrs
7Coverack toHelford22.2 km339 m6½ hrs
8Helford toFalmouth15.8 km232 m4½ hrs

How the trail unfolds.

Your trail divides naturally into three parts — not by day, but by rock. Granite carries you round Land's End and its mining coast, Mount's Bay softens everything to sand and harbour towns, and then serpentine takes over — holding the Lizard until the Helford's oak creeks deliver you to Falmouth.

01

St Ives to Mousehole

The Granite West

The wildest walking of the stage: moorland, cliff-edge engine houses, and granite headlands all the way round Land's End.

Your opening days are the wildest of the stage. Beyond St Ives the coast turns to granite headland and boggy moor, with Zennor — its church holding the carved mermaid chair just inland. Then the mining coast: Geevor, Levant, and the Crowns engine houses at Botallack, clinging to the foot of the cliffs, all Cornish Mining World Heritage Site ground.

You round Cape Cornwall, marked by its lone mine chimney, turn at Land's End, and pass the Minack Theatre, carved into the cliff above Porthcurno by Rowena Cade from the 1930s. Mousehole — called "the loveliest village in England" by Dylan Thomas — is where the granite lets you rest.

02

Mousehole to Mullion Cove

Mount's Bay

The cliffs stand down for a while: harbour towns, a tidal island crowned by a castle, and long miles of sand.

The walking eases and the towns return. Newlyn still lands one of England's biggest fish catches, the promenade carries you into Penzance, and at Marazion St Michael's Mount sits offshore, reached by a cobbled causeway at low tide. Past Praa Sands the engine houses return at Rinsey and Wheal Trewavas before Porthleven's harbour.

Then a stranger stretch: Loe Bar, the shingle bank sealing off Cornwall's largest natural lake, the church half-buried in the dunes at Gunwalloe, and the clifftop at Poldhu where Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal in 1901. At Mullion Cove the rock changes — and everything changes with it.

03

Mullion Cove to Falmouth

The Lizard and the Helford

Serpentine cliffs, mainland Britain's most southerly point, and a slow, green finish along the Helford's oak-lined creeks.

Serpentine country now — dark green rock, polished like snakeskin, at Kynance Cove — and at Lizard Point you stand on mainland Britain's most southerly ground. The cliffs keep you company past the Devil's Frying Pan, a collapsed sea cave near Cadgwith, through Coverack to Porthallow, the official halfway point of the entire South West Coast Path.

Then the sea goes quiet. You turn in along the Helford, past Frenchman's Creek — Daphne du Maurier's, cross by a ferry that has run for more than 300 years, and follow the wooded northern shore to Falmouth, where Pendennis Castle looks out over the third-deepest natural harbour in the world.

Build your trip

Customise your South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth.

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
St Ives to Falmouth
Days
8
Distance
166 km
Walking
53 hrs

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

Trip total
£2,338
£1,169 per person · 8 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth adventure
Configure your trip in the builder above and it will appear here.
Per Person
—
Trip Total
—
Deposit Today
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Organising this trail for friends? Build a group trip with individual payments

  • Free cancellation to 60 days
  • Confirmation within 24 hrs
  • 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 St Ives and from Falmouth
  • 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth.

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 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 and old fishing-cove inns carry you around the tip — from Zennor's cliff pubs to Cadgwith's thatched harbour and Falmouth's grander hotels at the finish. We book places with genuine local character, not chain hotels.

  • Character B&Bs in Zennor, Mousehole and Cadgwith
  • A proper harbour hotel to finish in Falmouth
  • Drying space after the exposed Land's End and Lizard cliffs
  • Good pub dinners in the old mining and fishing villages

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 3: St Ives to Falmouth, explained.

Self-guided means the walking is yours and the logistics are ours. You set off on the South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 166 km route around it.

You walk
166 km from St Ives to Falmouth, South West England — alone, as a pair, or with your own group. No guide, no strangers.
We plan
A 4 – 10 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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

Reviews from walkers

What it's like to travel with us.

Every review here comes from someone who actually travelled with us — we only ask once the trip's over, and we don't edit what they say.

From walkers on our other trails.

Different routes, same team doing the planning, the bookings and the hand-holding — so these say a lot about what to expect here too.

“An amazing and very memorable experience”

We had a really wonderful experience and are very happy that we went ahead with the trek. It was challenging at times, but overall it was an amazing and very memorable experience. The scenery, the trails and the whole journey were absolutely beautiful. Bhagyashree did have some issues with her knee during the trek, which made a few sections difficult. We didn't let that stop us — we completed most of the trek and, wherever necessary, adapted our plans and took a bus or train for certain stretches rather than putting too much strain on her knee. Managing the trek despite the knee issue made the achievement feel even more special.

Thank you once again for all your help and guidance in planning the trek. Will definitely recommend Big Trail Adventures to all.

Bhagyashree & Akhil · Tour du Mont Blanc · August 2026

“Solo or in a group, I would do this again tomorrow!”

One of the best experiences I have had. I did this solo and felt supported all the way with the BigTrailAdventures team, especially in inclement weather. The vistas were incredible and overnight accommodation was faultlessly organised. Pushing myself during the day ( I ran rather than walked the trail), and then being fed and watered in a hotel in the evening was a treat.

The planning was exceptional and all details were covered.

There is a special time every day when you are overcome with the beauty of the nature that you are seeing, the sweeping vistas and the gratitude for being able to experience this. It rejuvenates your soul.

Lisa · Coast to Coast · May 2026

“Awesome support from start to finish”

The hike, which challenged me in different ways each day, was great. There was so much to see in every direction. The Highlands are simply stunning, clouds and all. The stays were good for the most part, some better than others (one night my room was above the kitchen so it was quite noisy until late into the night and the haunted Inn was a bit much for me :)). The Rowardennan Hotel and Craig Nevis guesthouse were my favorites. All of them offered great breakfasts and most had dinner options with good selections as well.

The planning was amazing. No glitches, except for one minor one at the start where the luggage van changed their drop off location without my knowledge. Thankfully Craig was there in the morning and quickly figured out where they were and even dropped off my luggage for me. Everything else was planned and executed perfectly; my itinerary for each day included great detail of what to expect. The app was awesome and my friends and family loved tracking me every day with the GPS. I had read that the West Highland Way is very popular in spring (when I initially had planned to go) and late summer. It took a lot of back and forth communication about potential dates but Craig very patiently worked it all out. All communication was prompt and thorough. I very much appreciate all the support I received prior and during my adventure!! Thank you Craig!

There are so many moments I will carry with me for a long time, like my first glimpse of the Highlands, all the water everywhere, the coos, day 2 along Loch Lomond when I wished I was a mountain goat and was grateful that it did not rain, arriving at Kingshouse after 19 miles, midges (haha), and so much more.

Nicole · West Highland Way · August 2026

Things walkers ask us.

How fit do I need to be?

On the Hiker pace this stage runs to 8 walking days averaging around 21 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth walking holiday?

Yes. Every South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 – 10 days built around the pace you choose, accommodation booked in your name along the 166 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth without a guide?

Yes — the South West Coast Path Stage 3: St Ives to Falmouth 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 166 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 3: St Ives to Falmouth?

Most people take 4 – 10 days for the 166 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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