Falmouth

Falmouth's accommodation spreads across three distinct areas, each suiting a different kind of stay. Along the seafront at Gyllyngvase Beach sit the town's grand Victorian hotels and newer boutique spa resorts, many built to take advantage of sea views and the sheltered, south-facing microclimate that keeps this stretch of coast noticeably mild. These properties tend to offer pools, restaurants and easy beach access, and suit visitors who want a proper hotel stay with all the trimmings rather than a self-catering base.

Closer to the harbour and town centre, a smaller number of boutique hotels and townhouses occupy converted Georgian buildings, putting guests within walking distance of the docks, restaurants and the branch line station rather than the beach. These suit shorter breaks built around exploring the town on foot, sailing, or catching the ferry across to St Mawes.

Falmouth's guest houses and B&Bs, several of them individually run Victorian houses just back from Gyllyngvase Beach, offer a more personal alternative to the larger hotels, often at a lower price point and with a genuine local welcome from owners who know the town well. Many hold long-standing AA star ratings and gold awards for the quality of their breakfasts and rooms. Across all three categories, book well ahead for July and August, particularly around Falmouth Week in August, when the town's population and its accommodation both fill up fast; outside the summer school holidays, availability and prices both ease considerably, and the mild winter climate means a stay here in the shoulder seasons is rarely a washout.

Falmouth rewards a slow visit as much as a busy one, with the harbour, beaches and town all within easy walking distance of each other.

• National Maritime Museum Cornwall tells the story of small boats and the sea through galleries, a tidal zone and a lookout tower with views across the harbour to Pendennis and St Mawes.
• Pendennis Castle guards the harbour mouth on one side, a Tudor fort built by Henry VIII with underground tunnels, a Victorian gun battery and clifftop walks around the headland.
• Gyllyngvase Beach is Falmouth's main town beach, a sheltered sandy bay with a beach cafe, deckchair hire and safe swimming close to the seafront hotels.
• Discovery Quay and the docks are worth a wander for the working shipyard, harbour cruises and the pasty and coffee stalls that set up around the quay.
• Swanpool and Maenporth beaches lie a short walk or drive south of Gyllyngvase, quieter spots reached along the coast path with rock pools and a beach cafe at each.
• A harbour or river cruise up the Fal Estuary to Truro or across to St Mawes shows off the creeks, oyster beds and wooded shoreline that make this one of Cornwall's most sheltered stretches of water.
• Falmouth Art Gallery, free to enter, holds a small but well-regarded collection including Pre-Raphaelite and Newlyn School works in the handsome old library building.
• Kimberley Park and the town's subtropical gardens show off the palms, tree ferns and exotic planting that thrive in Falmouth's famously mild, frost-free climate.

Falmouth's food scene runs on what comes off its own harbour and estuary. Native oysters from the Fal, dredged from working sailing boats through the winter season, are a genuine local speciality and feature on menus across town, most visibly during the October Oyster Festival. Cornish pasties from the town's independent bakeries remain a lunchtime staple, and the wider county's ice cream, particularly Cornish clotted cream varieties, is sold from kiosks along the seafront.

The harbourside and Discovery Quay area hold a cluster of seafood restaurants and casual cafes making the most of the view, while Church Street and the surrounding lanes in the town centre are lined with independent coffee shops, bakeries and pubs, including long-standing harbourside inns serving local ales. Falmouth's own gin distillers and the wider Cornwall drinks scene, from cider to craft beer, feature heavily on local bar menus. A weekly farmers' and food market brings in produce from the surrounding countryside, and the town's mix of university students and year-round residents keeps the cafe and restaurant scene busier and more varied than many seasonal resort towns.

Camping around Falmouth means trading the town's hotels for the farmland and creeks that surround the Fal Estuary, and within a few miles of the harbour there is a genuine spread of options, from working farm sites with full touring pitches to small, simple certificated locations tucked down quiet lanes. Most sites sit inland of the coast around villages such as Maenporth, Mylor Bridge and the Restronguet Creek, giving easy access back into Falmouth by bike, bus or a short drive while keeping campers away from the town's more built-up seafront.

Facilities vary considerably by site. Larger touring parks offer electric hook-ups, shower blocks and on-site shops, while smaller farm sites and certificated locations, often limited to just a handful of pitches, keep things deliberately basic, sometimes without showers at all, in exchange for a quieter, more rural setting. Dogs are welcome at most of the sites in this area, reflecting Cornwall's generally dog-friendly camping scene, though it is always worth checking individual site rules before booking, particularly around lead requirements near farm animals.

Wild camping is not permitted anywhere in Cornwall, including around Falmouth, so all of the options below are established, currently operating sites. Book ahead for July and August, when Cornwall's camping and caravan sites fill quickly, and note that some of the smaller sites close over winter, reopening in spring; always check current opening dates and availability directly with the site before travelling.