You ask: "is it mostly flat?"

As I said in my earlier post: "Some of the SW coastal path makes for very tough walking. A LOT of up & down, quite rocky at times."

Visualise this: the path tracks the coastline. Every few miles there's a cove or inlet. This means you are repeatedly clambering down from the high cliff route to the cove or inlet and up the other side. Repeatedly. Several times each day. 12 miles a day is certainly doable if you're fit and have good knees.

There's a good photo on this page of the kind of up-and-down: http://gualalaarts.org/Groups/Lectur...oast-Path.html

You'll also want to study contour lines on the Ordnance Survey map with great care.

There's a good photo on this page of the kind of up-and-down: http://gualalaarts.org/Groups/Lectur...oast-Path.html
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Gyhtson, that's some stunningly beautiful up-and-down! OK, definitely going to bring the hiking poles! We are fit and have good knees but I always feel a little more confident with my stride on terrain like this with poles.

Clearly I've got a whole lot more research to do. And I will be getting some of the guides on Amazon. Thank you all for this preliminary guidance. I can tell that it will be a remarkable walk, whichever parts we do. I'll be back in a couple weeks once I get some reading done. (going hiking in Vermont next weekend!)

My husband and I recently returned from Cornwall, where we hiked 100 miles on the Southwest Coast path, from St. Ives to Falmouth. We've been to Cornwall several times before and had done some day walks on the coastal path in Cornwall and also Dorset. This was our 11th long distance walk in Europe, the 6th in the UK, all self-guided.

Our walks have always been combined with other travel and for many reasons, I've always used a company to book and organize our walking tours. For this trip we used Celtic Trails https://www.celtictrailswalkingholidays.co.uk/. (We also used them for our Offa's Dyke walk in 2016.)

We began the walk on September 26. We walked over 12 days... spent two nights in St. Ives before we started walking (walked the coastal path to Lelant and back to St. Ives on the train) and took a rest day in Mousehole to explore more of the surrounding area with friends who had a car. We also spent two nights based at the same B&B in Marazion with a taxi shuttling us.

Except for our second-to-the-last day (supposed to be 13 miles), all our days were 10 miles or less. The walk from Mousehole to Marazion was all on paved pathways... in beautiful sunshine, a few hours. Other days we managed to walk only a mile an hour. We had probably 2-1/2 days of rain, a few days of glorious sunshine. The scenery is incredible and it's almost impossible to get lost. But there was a LOT of mud on parts of the trail, which makes for very slow going. You need very good rain gear.

As someone else said, there can be a lot of up and down, sometimes very steep, sometimes having to use your hands on rocks. We were glad to have our poles. I had a very bad fall on a steep, muddy decline on the day we walked into Coverack. On the next day (our 13-mile day), the trail was diverted away from the coast for several miles and we heard from other walkers that the path toward Helford was horribly muddy. We bailed out at the half-way point and took a taxi to Helford. With the extra time for the diversion, we wouldn't have made it to Helford in time for the ferry crossing anyway.

I'm glad we did the walk, but I think you could also enjoy basing in two places and doing day walks. Mousehole or Marazion would be interesting alternatives to Penzance and we loved Falmouth. There's also much else to see and do besides what's there on the coast, as well as inland walking trails that would enable you to do circular walks.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have--

Kathy

Glad you enjoyed your trip to Cornwall, Kathy.

I like your warnings about the state of some of the footpaths - some of them are so heavily walked that it doesn't take much rain to turn them into mud baths.

And the suggestion of using a base or two and doing inland walks is also a good one. There are lots which take in local pubs too which might interest some here!

Kathy, thank you so much for this valuable information!

I am now thinking that we'd stay a couple days on the St. Ives side (so we could go to Port Isaac and Tintagel more easily), and then a couple days on the Penzance side. St. Ives sounds lovely, especially learning about all the artists who found inspiration there, and I feel like it deserves at least half a day to wander around.

Hikrguy just said to me yesterday that if we need to decide if we're going to do this for next year. My vote is yes

You'll enjoy just wandering around St. Ives. The Tate Modern museum has just re-opened and the Barbara Hepworth sculpture garden is worth a visit too.

If you have a car, Penzance and St. Ives are less than 30 minutes drive! The peninsula is very narrow there! The driving/parking in St. Ives is a bit tricky so from Penzance you could also drive to Lelant (20 min) where there's a "park and ride" lot and then take a neat train along the coast into St. Ives. Or walk along the coastal path from Lelant to St. Ives, 4 miles, and take the train back to your car.

I guess my point is that down at the far west end of the peninsula, you could pretty easily get around that area from one base (St. Ives or Penzance).

A second base like Falmouth would open up a different part of Cornwall for you. Or a second base to the north

By the way, day trips from St. Ives to Tintagel or Port Isaac would be quite long. It's 1 hour 20 minutes from St. Ives to Port Isaac and further to Tintagel by car (not much different from Penzance). The driving can be very slow (and tricky) on the small roads in Cornwall.

Kathy

Following on what Kathy has said, if you fancy seeing Port Isaac and Tintagel, it's also worth considering staying further north along that coast because it gives you access to two places which are little mentioned here, but are still very worth seeing - Morwenstow, which is towards the northern border of Cornwall, and Hartland point which is the other side of it.

Morwenstow is famous as being the home of the Rev Hawker, who scandalised victorian Oxford where he was training to be a clergyman by marrying a woman twice his age; as a result when he took holy orders he was "banished" to this remote Cornish parish, where he set about trying to tame his parishioners some of whom enjoyed the then notorious Cornish pastime of wrecking. He had a hut built out on the cliffs [which you can visit] from which he could watch out for passing ships and he would rescue survivors from the beach and bury those not so fortunate. He also wrote the words to the Cornish anthem "Trelawny" and was known to conduct his services to any passing animals if he parishioners didn't turn up. It's a lovely spot for a ½ day excursion with a great walk out onto the cliffs and back. BTW, after the death of his first wife Hawker further scandalised his contemporaries by marrying a woman half his age - he was never one for following convention.

Hartland point is where the north-facing coast of Devon meets the west facing one and is notable for its fantastic rock formations as well as a harbour which was rebuilt no less than 5 times before they gave up. The pub is ok but nearby Hartland Abbey is fun and good for a nice cream tea. It might be a bit far for you, but I thought I'd mention it for the sake of others who are reading this thread and might be interested in the delights of North Devon.

Regarding what to do with your car if on a day trip in St. Ives, there's also a train stop with parking at Carbis Bay, closer than Lelant, making the walk along the path to town less than half the distance but still an enjoyable walk, 1 or both ways. I stayed on the main road above for a week http://www.thurlestoneguesthouse.co.uk/ and got everywhere I wanted to go - on foot, by local bus & train. A memorable week.

Don’t misread Cornwall and think it’s about the north & south coast - St Ives & Penzance are a very short drive from each other and St Ives is almost as far from Port Isaac, Tintagel etc as Penzance is. Instead, think of two halves of Cornwall as a South-west half (which includes both St Ives & Penzance) and then the bit that’s further north & east on the map starting from Padstow on the north coast. (This bit could be divided into north/south coasts as it’s thicker at that end...)

Anyway Padstow would be a better choice for your northern sights.

Anyway Padstow would be a better choice for your northern sights.>>

I've forgotten which time of year you are planning to come [your OP says summer/fall] so apologies if you have already firmed this up. Places like Padstow, St Ives, and Port Isaac are mad in the school summer hols [mid July to end August] so need to be booked asap to get the best deals and best choice of accommodation. The traffic can be pretty horrendous too. June and September are much better from both points of view.

thank you all for the detailed information! I didn't realize that St. Ives and Penzance are so close and an easy drive; this would definitely make it easier to stay in one place and then do as suggested and stay somewhere more northwards.

Annhig, it looks like we would come at the end of June and early July (up until July 4th-ish) which is on purpose to miss all the kids off on summer school holiday.

I think the first step is to get a workable map and book.

I appreciate all of your generous efforts to help me with figuring out a framework to this trip!

that time of year would be perfect hikrchick.

It is still quite popular though with couples like you so I wouldn't leave it too long to start looking seriously at accommodation.