3 Days in Cornwall, England | Our New Year’s Winter Road Trip from Bath ⎮ A Ferry, An Island, A Jail! – Travel guides for couples; romantic escapes, city breaks + worldwide adventures

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This guide forms part of our complete United Kingdom Travel Guide, featuring scenic road trips, iconic destinations, practical travel advice and honest first-hand travel experiences from across the UK.

This feature article is part of our 3 Days in Cornwall: Ultimate Guide. We travelled from Land’s End, Penzance and Mousehole to St Michael’s Mount, Falmouth, and our favourite, St Mawes. Along the way, we experienced Bodmin Jail, the King Harry Ferry, Tamar Bridge and Dartmoor. Follow our Cornwall road trip with personal experiences and practical visitor tips. Read the complete three-day Cornwall guide here.

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St Michael’s Mount, Mousehole, St Mawes, Land’s End, Eden Project & Bodmin Jail on Our Family Escape Through Cornwall

3 Days in Cornwall:

Whenever the opportunity arises, we make every effort to visit Cornwall when we’re back in England. This particular trip was a little different.

It was New Year’s Eve, winter had well and truly arrived, and we’d booked ourselves a three-day mini getaway with our grandsons and mother-in-law.

Was December the perfect time for a Cornish beach holiday? Definitely not.

But Cornwall has never been just about beaches for us. We love the harbours, villages, history, dramatic coastline and road trips just as much, and winter gave us the opportunity to experience some of our favourite places without the enormous summer crowds. However, we also had two young boys to entertain!

So, early on New Year’s Eve, we loaded up and left Bath behind.

Driving from Bath to Cornwall

Our destination was the Marazion and Perranuthnoe area of West Cornwall, close to St Michael’s Mount.

From Bath, we’re looking at a journey of approximately 190 miles, depending on our exact destination and route. Under good conditions, we’d allow around four hours, although traffic, weather and stops can easily push that higher.

Our route took us southwest from Bath, eventually joining the A38 towards Plymouth before reaching one of those landmarks that always tells us we’ve arrived.

The Tamar Bridge. Crossing the River Tamar from Plymouth into Saltash feels like a gateway to Cornwall. From here we continued west along the A38, before following the main Cornish roads towards Truro and eventually West Cornwall. When we reached Truro, we knew we were getting close.

By the time we arrived at our rental cottage, however, Cornwall had decided to remind us that this was definitely winter. The wind was howling. We were very pleased to get inside.

New Year’s Eve in Our Cornish Cottage

Our Cornish Cottage turned out to be a lovely base for exploring this part of Cornwall. Once we’d unpacked and settled in, there was one important New Year’s Eve job remaining.

Snacks. We found the nearest shop and stocked up with everything we needed for the evening. There were no elaborate New Year’s Eve parties on this trip. We were perfectly happy spending the evening together in our cottage, enjoying the food, celebrating and seeing in another New Year.

Once we’d officially made it into January, we crashed for the night. We had a busy day ahead.

Day 1: St Michael’s Mount

New Year’s Day arrived and we were excited to start exploring. Our first destination was one of Cornwall’s most famous sights; St Michael’s Mount

Normally, the view across Mount’s Bay towards the island is picture-postcard Cornwall. This morning? Not quite.

The wind was still extremely strong. Regardless, we’d come this far. We parked, made our way across the beach and headed towards the island, only to discover that the gates were closed. That’s winter travel for you.

Weather and seasonal opening schedules can quickly change plans in Cornwall, and this was a perfect example of why we always recommend checking current access information before setting out. We weren’t too disappointed.

We’d still enjoyed seeing St Michael’s Mount surrounded by dramatic winter weather, and it gave us another reason to return.

Shortly afterwards, we were back in the vehicle and heading towards our next destination.

Mousehole: And a Cornish Pasty

We made our way along the coast to Mousehole, one of Cornwall’s most picturesque fishing villages. This was much more our pace for New Year’s Day.

We spent some time exploring the village, walking around the harbour and enjoying the narrow streets and traditional cottages. And, naturally, there was food involved.

A Cornish Pasty.

It would have seemed almost disrespectful to come all the way to Cornwall and not have one. Mousehole was exactly what we needed, a relaxed day after our New Year’s Eve journey, with no pressure to rush from attraction to attraction.

We eventually returned to our cottage knowing the following morning would be considerably busier.

Day 2: Our Big Cornwall Road Trip

Day two was our big road-trip day. We had an ambitious itinerary and several places we really wanted to revisit. One of them was particularly important.

St Mawes.

We made our way towards the King Harry Ferry, one of our favourite ways of travelling across this part of Cornwall.

The vehicle ferry crosses the River Fal between Feock and the Roseland Peninsula, saving us from driving the longer route around through Truro. There’s also something wonderfully Cornish about driving onto a ferry as part of a road trip. Once across, we continued towards St Mawes.

Back to St Mawes

Anyone familiar with our Cornwall travels will know how much St. Mawes means to us. My husband spent many childhood summers here with Cornish family members, swimming from the quay and participating in local regattas.

Returning always brings memories flooding back. Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to be a leisurely St Mawes day. We were working to a tight schedule.

We stopped at a café near the quay, took some time to enjoy the harbour and made our way over to St Mawes Castle. Even a short visit was worthwhile. Then we were back in the car.

We had somewhere considerably further west to reach.

Land’s End: The Edge of England

Our next major destination was Land’s End.

There’s something about arriving here that always feels dramatic, but on a winter day with rough Atlantic seas, it was even more impressive. We walked out towards the coastline and stood looking across the Atlantic. The sea was rough.

Waves were crashing against the rocks beneath the cliffs, creating exactly the kind of wild Cornish scene we’d hoped to experience. This wasn’t summer Cornwall with calm beaches and families sitting in the sunshine. This was raw, winter Cornwall.

And we loved it. Of course, there was one photograph we couldn’t leave without taking.

The famous Land’s End signpost.

Photo taken, we climbed back into the car and continued our road trip.

Lunch in Penzance

By this point, we were ready for lunch.

Our next stop was Penzance, where we found somewhere to eat and enjoyed a welcome break from driving. Penzance is a great base for exploring this corner of Cornwall, with St Michael’s Mount, Mousehole and Land’s End all within easy reach.

We could easily have spent much longer here. But our schedule had other ideas.

A Quick Stop in Falmouth

Before returning to our accommodation, we squeezed in another place that holds plenty of memories for us.

Falmouth.

This was definitely a short visit rather than a full exploration. But sometimes that’s enough. Falmouth is one of those Cornish destinations we simply enjoy being around. Its maritime history, waterfront and enormous natural harbour give the town a character we love. After our brief stop, we finally headed back towards our accommodation. It had been a long day.

And we still weren’t finished with Cornwall.

Day 3: The Eden Project

After our final night in the cottage, it was time to begin the journey back towards Bath. But we’d planned two major stops along the way.

Our first took us towards St Austell. We were going to the Eden Project.

If you’ve never seen Eden before, the first sight of its enormous geodesic Biomes sitting within a former clay pit is extraordinary.

The attraction transformed a huge disused china-clay pit into a global garden and environmental project. Its enormous covered Biomes recreate very different environments, including the Rainforest Biome, where tropical plants grow beneath what feels like a gigantic transparent greenhouse.

It’s educational, impressive and completely different from anything else we’d done during our three days in Cornwall. Our grandsons, however, had another attraction on their minds.

Flying Over Eden

The Eden Project is also home to an enormous zip wire experience.

My husband decided this would be an excellent opportunity to take our grandsons on one of England’s fastest zip wire experiences, flying high above the Eden Project site. No surprise whatsoever… They had a wonderful time. It’s certainly one way to make sure the grandchildren remember their visit to an environmental attraction.

Once everyone was safely back on solid ground, it was time to continue. Our final major stop awaited.

Bodmin Jail

From the Eden Project, we headed towards Bodmin. We had purchased our tickets through Viator before arriving and were looking forward to seeing somewhere completely different.

Bodmin Jail opened in 1779 and has a long and sometimes grim history connected with crime and punishment in Cornwall. Today, the historic site has been transformed. Part of the former prison operates as an immersive visitor attraction, using original architecture, exhibits and multimedia experiences to tell stories from the jail’s past.

But there’s another fascinating twist. You can actually stay here. Part of the historic prison complex has been converted into the Bodmin Jail Hotel, incorporating former cells into luxury accommodation. It’s an extraordinary contrast.

A building once designed to keep people from leaving is now somewhere guests voluntarily pay to spend the night. Travel changes things!

Bodmin Moor and Jamaica Inn

Eventually, it really was time to head home.

From Bodmin, we continued east towards Bodmin Moor before making our way back towards Devon. The landscape changed again as we travelled across this atmospheric part of Cornwall. Along the route we passed the famous Jamaica Inn, the historic coaching inn made internationally famous by Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name.

From there, we continued towards Devon, crossing Dartmoor.

Dartmoor isn’t in Cornwall, it’s in neighbouring Devon, but it made a fitting final landscape for our journey back towards Bath. After one final stop for coffee, tea and yet more snacks, we settled in for the remainder of the drive.

Our 3-Day Cornwall Driving Route

Our trip covered a considerable amount of Cornwall in just three days:

Bath → Tamar Bridge → Truro → Marazion/Perranuthnoe → St Michael’s Mount → Mousehole → King Harry Ferry → St Mawes → Land’s End → Penzance → Falmouth → St Austell/Eden Project → Bodmin Jail → Bodmin Moor → Devon/Dartmoor → Bath

Looking at it written down, even we’re slightly surprised by how much we managed to squeeze in.

Would We Visit Cornwall in Winter Again?

Absolutely. Winter Cornwall isn’t the same as summer Cornwall.

We’re unlikely to spend our days swimming, sitting on beaches or enjoying long evenings beside the harbour. Some attractions operate reduced hours, the weather can change rapidly and as we discovered at St Michael’s Mount, sometimes places simply aren’t accessible.

But winter also gave us something different. We experienced crashing Atlantic waves at Land’s End, quieter fishing villages, dramatic skies and some of our favourite Cornish landscapes without peak summer crowds.

More importantly, we experienced it together.

Three generations of our family packed into a car, travelling around a county that has meant so much to our family for decades. We certainly packed a lot into three days in Cornwall. There were castles, harbours, pasties, ferries, wild seas, an enormous indoor rainforest, a high-speed zip wire and even a former prison.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. And knowing us, we’ll find another excuse to return to Cornwall again soon.

Explore these places in Cornwall England

Continue exploring Cornwall

Nearby attractions

Eden Project and Zipline

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3 Days in Cornwall, England | Our New Year’s Winter Road Trip from Bath ⎮ A Ferry, An Island, A Jail!