My husband and I are anglophiles, who have visited most areas of the British Isles; the one area we haven't explored is Cornwall. We are now in our mid 70's and have a little trouble with stairs and hills, though we stayed with our son in California and survived two weeks of both, so it's not impossible (just not desired.) So--we have read some previous threads on Cornwall and see that Penzance and St. Ives are both recommended for people like us, namely those who are a bit nervous about driving on the "wrong" side. We don't want to cause an accident because of lapsing into automatic pilot like we do at home.

Our needs are: town with rental apartments, not too many hills (I understand that the Doc Martin town, which we'd love to see, is all steep hills), lots of beautiful scenery, and access to trains and busses. Any suggestions other than the two I mentioned in paragraph 1? Thanks.

Both Penzance and St-Ives are hilly apart from the areas right on the shoreline.

If I had any sort of mobility problems -- I definitely would not choose St Ives. I'm out for a while and will post more later . . . but hopefully annhig will see your thread (She is a fodorite who lives in Cornwall)

Do you have another suggestion?

Port Isaac (Doc Martin) is very hilly and those hills getting into and out of the main part of the town (where most all of those scenes you remember were shot) are very steep for someone walking so you heard right.

St Ives? Once you walk DOWN the hill to the waterfront no problem since like every waterfront that one is flat and that's about the only part of the place that is.

You can get around using public transport and if you are really that nervous about driving on the left then perhaps you need to consider the buses and trains.