Penzance attractions

This experience will introduce you to Cornwall’s most famous water sport – surfing. The Newquay coastline offers ideal waves and conditions for the sport, and expert instructors will help you master the basics in a short period of time. You’ll begin with heart-racing warm-ups on the sand before learning safety tips and practicing how to catch waves while lying on your stomach. Once in the water, your instructors will assist you with your moves and provide support to have you catching and riding the waves like a pro.

The Falmouth Ghost Tour aims to bring Falmouth’s darker history to life through skilled storytelling. As you move through the town, the guide will introduce you to people who once walked these streets — from shipwrecked sailors to the forlorn cannibals and the defiant ‘working girls’. The stories mix local history with eerie accounts to give context to the places you pass. Along the way, you’ll connect familiar streets and landmarks with the lives and events that shaped them. The tour offers an entertaining way to link the town’s present with its past, and it may change how you view Falmouth after dark. This is a narrative-led walking experience that focuses on the characters and incidents that make up the town’s shadowy side.

This storage service will let you cast off your luggage in a safe location so you can head out and explore Penzance's attractions without being weighed down. You can drop off up to ten bags of any size at the designated site during opening hours, and they will be securely stored until you're ready to collect them. You'll also have insurance included for extra peace of mind.

This award-winning storytelling tour will connect you to the Falmouth of centuries past. You will travel through the town with a guide who uses passion, imagination and an eye for the funny side of things to bring local history to life. Along the way, you will hear tales that illuminate Falmouth’s past and the people who shaped it. The stories will offer fresh perspectives on familiar streets and corners, turning ordinary places into moments of discovery. You will find the tone is often humorous, so history will be presented in an engaging and easy-to-follow way rather than as a formal lecture. By the end of the tour, you will have a clearer sense of Falmouth’s character across the centuries and a different view of the town you thought you knew. The experience aims to transform how you see the place through storytelling that is lively, inventive and attentive to local detail.

This two-hour trip provides you with the opportunity to explore the diverse terrain of the Newquay coastline from a whole new angle with a coasteering experience. You'll kick off your adventure with a safety briefing from your expert guide. Once all the equipment is set, you'll hop between rocks, take a dove from cliffs of different heights and swim your way into the deep Cornish waters. You'll also get to discover up close various caves, gullies and whirlpools as you wade through the waves.

At Newquay Surf School in Cornwall you will join a taster surfing lesson designed for total beginners. The session introduces the basics of the sport, from beach safety and paddling to popping up and riding a wave. Instructors will teach the core skills and give personal feedback as you practice, and the instructor-to-student ratio is 1:8, which offers focused guidance and good chances to stand up during the lesson. Alongside the coaching, all necessary equipment is provided and practical facilities are included. You will have access to changing rooms, a lock box for valuables and warm showers, and the lesson includes insurance. The overall experience will give you the essential skills and confidence to keep practising after the session.

You will start in the safe, calm environment of a swimming pool at Carn Brea Leisure Centre, with an instructor guiding you every step of the way. In this relaxed setting you will be shown the basic skills and equipment, and you can focus on enjoying those first breaths underwater. Whether you feel nervous or simply curious, this session gives you a clear, supported introduction to scuba diving. By the end of the session you will have earned an SSI Try Scuba recognition card. This is where your diving story begins. Many people choose to continue after their first experience, because once you see the world from beneath the surface it often changes how you view the sea.

Paddle along Newquay’s coastline with experienced instructors who know the area like the back of their hand. You’ll be guided from an activity centre near Towan Beach, where the safety and fundamentals of kayaking will be taught before you set off. The centre is just a short walk from Towan headland, so you’ll be close to the launch point. From the sea you’ll see the coastline from a different angle as you paddle into hidden bays tucked away from the paths above. You’ll pass the Gazzle’s deep caves, places steeped in the local history of pirates and smugglers, and you’ll also have the chance to see native wildlife. Inquisitive seals may even pop their heads up as you move past, adding to the coastal experience. Throughout, instructors will use their local knowledge to navigate the area and lead you on a rewarding kayak trip around Newquay’s shoreline.

The SSI Try Scuba programme gives you an introductory scuba experience in the bay around the Roseland Peninsula. You’ll be in confined open water and closely supervised by an instructor, so you can relax and focus on your first breaths underwater. Because these are confined open-water try dives, additional equipment and supervision are provided to keep the session safe and comfortable. As a short course, it lets you experience what scuba diving feels like under professional guidance. You’ll be able to breathe underwater and get a sense of moving beneath the surface while your instructor looks after you. At the end of the session you’ll earn an SSI Try Scuba recognition card, and you may well want to continue with further dives after trying it for the first time.

The SSI Scuba Skills Update is a refresher course designed to help certified divers regain confidence after a break from diving. You’ll return to the water under the guidance of an SSI Professional in a controlled environment, so you can focus on skills rather than worrying about conditions. During the session you’ll review and practise the scuba skills you learned in your Open Water Diver program. Your instructor will guide you through each skill and offer feedback as you repeat them, helping you feel comfortable and competent with your equipment and procedures. This course is ideal to take just before a dive holiday, so you spend less time thinking about your technique and more time admiring the marine life when you get out on dives. Please note this experience is intended for already certified divers who want to refresh their skills in a supervised, controlled setting.

This self-guided audio tour takes you to Lizard Point in Cornwall, the most southerly part of Great Britain’s mainland, and guides you along a short section of the South West Coast Path. It suits photographers of all levels, from novice to experienced, and leads you through a mix of popular viewpoints and quieter, secret spots. Along the way you’ll encounter coastal ruins, jagged rocks and areas of rough terrain, so dress appropriately for walking and variable weather. As you move through the route the commentary will give practical, hands-on advice to improve your shots. You’ll learn best practices for shooting landscapes and seascapes, suggested times of day and year for key locations, useful vantage points and compositional tips. The tour also offers guidance for other genres, with particular attention to wildlife photography. The aim is to help you make the best use of your time on location, whether you’re scouting for a future trip or capturing the moment on the day. The format lets you pause and explore at your own pace while listening to location-specific suggestions.

This self-guided audio tour explores West Cornwall’s ancient landscape, whose history reaches back more than 4,500 years to the Bronze Age. As you follow in the footsteps of some of the area’s earliest inhabitants, you’ll hear about what drove them to settle, farm and build here and about aspects of their day-to-day lives. The commentary is designed to bring the archaeology and landscape to life as you move between sites. The route begins at Portheras, an impressive round barrow where cremated remains were once laid to rest, and finishes at the celebrated stone circle of Tregeseal East. Along the way you’ll pass both well-known and lesser-known monuments, including Carn Kenidjack, which dominates the skyline and offers wonderful views of the western coastline. You’ll also come to an unusual inscribed stone that is possibly the burial place of St Just. The experience focuses on the places themselves and the stories they reveal about people who lived here thousands of years ago.

Your experience takes place in a secret Cornish cove where expert instructors have spent years finding and pioneering a coasteering route that stays entirely within one remarkable bay. The route is led by those instructors, who guide you through the cove so that all the action happens in this single, sheltered location. As you move through the route you’ll clamber up through a hole in the rock known as Smeagol’s Perch and then leap into its crystal-blue plunge pool. The setting is under-the-radar, so you won’t see other coasteer groups down there; along the way you’ll encounter plenty of natural wildlife and even some friendly seals. The emphasis is on exploring the cove’s rock features and clear waters with knowledgeable instructors who know the area intimately, giving you a close, immersive coastal experience.

This self-guided walking tour lets you explore Falmouth at your own pace. Set on the strategic edge of the English Channel, Falmouth’s story is tied to the sea. As you move through the town, you will learn how the harbour established in the early 1600s helped shape its development. Along the way you’ll hear how this natural deep-water port became a busy shipping hub and how Falmouth served as an important naval station. The route will bring maritime stories and local history together, so history enthusiasts, culture buffs and curious travellers alike may find things that interest them. The tour is entirely self-guided, so you can pause and explore as you wish. Entrance fees for any optional stops en route are not included. However, no additional paid tickets are required for you to complete the tour.

This taster session at Loe beach gives you the chance to try E-Foiling for the first time in ideal conditions. You’ll receive a short land-based introduction to the E-Foil controls so you can get comfortable before heading out onto the water. Once underway, you’ll experience the unique sensation of silently flying above the water as you balance and steer the board. Loe beach’s calm setting makes it well suited for beginners, and the shore is peaceful and dog friendly so friends or family can relax nearby. Spectators may enjoy watching the action from the beach while you try out the E-Foil and get a feel for the equipment and how it handles on the water.