Newquay to Holywell Bay: South West Coast Path Day 18 Guide

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There hadn’t been any bad weather showing in the overnight forecast, but the sudden peal of thunder followed by rain hammering onto the tent at 4a.m. suggested otherwise. It didn’t last long, but still made for a pretty damp time packing everything away a few hours later.

Lauren’s foot pain from yesterday hadn’t improved as much as we might have hoped from 10 hours of being horizontal, but with a couple of ibuprofen and a lot of stoicism, she was at least still able to walk this morning. We’d been far from confident about that the day before!

That overnight storm had brought some heavy surf with it, and waves were rolling over the beach and onto the footpath as we passed. It was a big change from the calm conditions of the night before, but even though it was still a bit breezy, the sun was out and the clouds were busily breaking up.

We’d stayed at a campsite in Porth overnight, on the outskirts of Newquay, which meant the first order of the day was making it into the centre of town for breakfast. I’d hadn’t expected much from this first hour of the day, but was pleasantly surprised: while it was definitely still an urban walk, we stayed beside beaches most of the way: first Porth, then the spectacularly-named Lusty Glaze, Tolcarne, and Great Western.

Passing the train station that yesterday I’d at least half-expected might be marking the end of our walk, we stopped at Saltd for breakfast, and what a damn fine choice that turned out to be.

Not only did they make the best flat white I’d had on the walk so far by quite some margin, my bagel was excellent, the vibes were great, and there was even a wall socket so I could charge my power bank while we ate. If you’re walking through at breakfast or lunch time, you should definitely stop in there.

Much like the walk into town, the rest of the path through Newquay was surprisingly scenic. It left the main road almost immediately, sticking to back roads and pedestrian trails alongside Towan Beach.

The highlight of this section was passing a single house on a tiny island connected to the mainland by a footbridge: apparently you can stay there, if you’re looking for somewhere very unusual for your next holiday.

Like most trails, the waymarking tends to be at its worst in large towns and cities: this was no exception, but a combination of frequent glances at my map and keeping a keen eye out for acorn stickers in obscure places kept us (mostly) on the right track.

Newquay was more attractive than I’d expected, at least in the downtown area and near the water: I’d happily come back and spend a few days there, not least because accommodation prices seemed more reasonable than most other places in the area.

For now, though, we rounded the harbour with its scenic views back over the beaches we’d just past, then headed up past the distinctive stone Huer’s Hut, so-named for the “huers” who would shout to local fishermen through a megaphone when they saw shoals of pilchards passing by.

The only shouting going on this morning was from a family who’d climbed up onto the roof of the hut: leaving them to it, we continued on to the Towan headland. The path doesn’t go right out to the end of the headland, but you can easily follow the road for the short extra distance if you’d like.

This little section felt unexpectedly wild and isolated given we were still on the edge of a major town, but things soon got busier again as we finished our little detour and started walking just above pretty Fistral Bay. This is arguably the most popular surfing beach in the country, although not today: the huge waves meant red flags were flying all along this section of coast.

After walking the length of the beach on a narrow strip of footpath beside an expansive golf course, we found ourselves on the edge of the Pentire headland, where the path takes a mile-long loop out onto the low cliffs.

We’d been taking things slower than usual today, which combined with the relatively flat trail had meant that Lauren’s foot pain hadn’t been as bad as we’d feared. After five miles it was starting to flare up again, though, so she made the sensible call to just walk across the neck of the headland and head to a nearby cafe for a cake and coffee instead.

If you’re also looking to reduce your distance on this section, cutting out the headland like this would be a good way to do it.

I carried on past the carpark and fancy-looking Lewinnick Lodge, and out towards the tip of the headland. The wind was noticeably stronger here, which combined with the thundering surf below and thickening cloud overhead to give things quite a desolate air. Even more than the Towan headland a little earlier, it was hard to believe I was so close to a large town.

It only took about 20 minutes to walk around the headland, so I soon found myself reunited with Lauren at the Fern Pit Cafe. Sitting on the cliff above the River Gannel estuary, the Coast Path runs straight past the cafe’s outdoor seating, which was all the incentive I needed to stop for a coffee as well.

A set of steep steps lead down from the cafe to the edge of the estuary, which will have a lot, a little, or hardly any water in it at all depending on the tide. The cafe runs a seasonal ferry across to the other side around high tide in summer, but otherwise you can usually cross on foot, depending on how wet you’re happy to get. More detail on all of that in the logistics section below.

More by good luck than good management, we’d arrived about an hour before low tide, and the estuary looked more like a beach than a river. It was being treated like one as well, with families set up with wind breaks and towels on the banks and splashing around in the puddles nearby.

A narrow footbridge spanned almost all of the water in the main channel, and we could easily jump the last few feet onto the sand. From there, it was just a case of picking a dry route between the puddles, onto the bank, and briefly up the access road before cutting across into the dunes.

Based on the guidebook, I’d expected either a ferry ride or a significant detour to get across the estuary: being able to stroll straight across without even getting wet feet felt like quite the win.

The terrain was quite different on this side of the river, especially the first part where the path stayed a little further from the coast than usual. All dunes, tussock, and bracken, it was a nice change, and we had it mostly to ourselves: other than a few other walkers, there was hardly anyone around either on the trail or the vast beaches below it.

The sandy theme continued for the rest of the day, as we rounded first Pentire Point West and then Kelsey Head, with the unusually-named Polly Joke in between. This was a particularly lovely, sheltered beach, and one of the few places we saw more than two other people at once.

The cloud that had been building up earlier had disappeared out to sea, so we were once again bathed in sunshine as we gazed out over wide, empty Holywell Bay and towards the end of our walking for the day.

Seemingly dozens of different trails led through the dunes as the Coast Path turned away from the coast and towards Holywell: I’ve no idea if we were only the right one, but given we could see the village straight ahead, it didn’t matter in the slightest.

Pausing briefly to watch the free entertainment of people trying to balance several plastic pint glasses while walking hundreds of yards from the bar to the beach, we headed to said bar ourselves. I only needed to balance my glass as far as the nearest table, which felt like a much safer option.

There’d been a little bit of up and down as we’d followed the narrow path around the headlands, and some brief wading through sand dunes as we headed into Holywell Bay, but nothing to get excited about in terms of difficulty.

In fact, thanks to the short distance and minimal elevation change, this had been one of the easiest days of the walk if you don’t count Lauren’s foot pain. Even the dead-flat days around the Taw estuary had felt more challenging, since they were almost entirely on hard tarmac instead of soft trails. Today had been a hell of a lot prettier as well.

We’d planned to stay at The Meadow Holiday Park, just behind the beach bar, but those plans were soon foiled. I’m not quite sure what was going on with it, but the place seemed almost abandoned, with the gate shut, the office unmanned, and nobody answering the phone.

There was a big Parkdean holiday park a bit further up the road which would usually have been plan B, but today we had another option. A couple of friends with a campervan were coming to walk with us for a few days, and they showed up at the bar soon after we’d arrived.

After a bit of discussion we piled into their van and headed for Tollgate Farm instead, a few miles away out the back of Perrenporth. It turned out to be a large, expensive, and fairly charmless sort of a place, with an equally charmless golf club the only place nearby serving dinner, but it didn’t matter: the facilities were good, and we were just happy to be able to hang out and chat with friends for a change.

We were also happy to be able to use their campervan as a windbreak: the breeze had picked up again, and with rain and wind in the forecast for the next few days, our long stretch of great weather looked to be coming to a rapid end.

Planning

Started at: Porth Beach Holiday Park (0.1 miles/0.2km off-trail)

Finished at: Tollgate Farm (0.8 miles/1.3km off-trail near Perrenporth)

This relatively large campground was the first one I didn’t walk to, thanks to our friends with a campervan, and it’s not one I’d particularly suggest seeking out. Not only is it quite a way off-trail if you’re walking there, but we found it to be unusually officious and expensive, and quite cramped.

Splitting the costs between four of us for a small campervan and a hiking tent, it cost £18.40 per person to stay there, which was the most we’d paid so far. When enquiring why the price was so high, we were dismissively told it was “the location”, despite it not being on the coast and over a mile from Perrenporth.

The facilities, at least, were pretty good, with hot push-button showers and clean toilets, plus a laundry room if we’d wanted to use it, and paid Wi-Fi. There were apparently sometimes food and coffee vans onsite, but not on the day we stayed there: there’s a small camp shop at reception, and otherwise it’s a ten-minute walk down the road to the golf club for dinner.

This wasn’t the worst place we stayed by any stretch, but it was far from the best. As with the site we’d stayed at the night before, I got the impression that this place doesn’t get a lot of walkers and isn’t particularly interested in catering for them.

Given that you have other alternatives closer to the trail (below), I’d suggest looking at those first if you plan to camp.

Transport and Parking

The number 85 bus runs in both directions between the Newquay bus station and Holywell Bay, about once an hour during the day from Monday through Saturday. The bus runs past the train station and alongside the Coast Path as far as Tolcarne Beach before it turns inland, so you can pick it up at a few other stops as well if you don’t want to go to the bus station.

The bus also stops in Crantock village on its way towards Holywell Bay, so if you wanted to cut out the walk through Newquay and the River Gannel crossing for some reason, you can: just walk down Beach Road from Crantock to pick up the path on your left.

There are regular direct services from Newquay train station to London during the summer months, as well as local trains to towns like Par and Plymouth year-round.

There are several paid carparks in Newquay: the closest ones to the trail are a couple near the train station and a few near the harbour, including Belmont Long Stay carpark which charges a bit over £6 for 24 hours.

There’s also parking at Polly Joke beach (use the National Trust carpark rather than the private one: the latter may be closer, but there are a lot of reports of non-working machines and penalty notices), and two carparks in Holywell Bay. The National Trust one is cheaper for long-stay parking than the one beside the beach bar.

River Crossing

My guidebook listed several different options for crossing the River Gannel on the outskirts of Newquay, depending on the time of year and height of the tide.

None of those options were the one we used, which was by far the easiest: waiting until an hour or two either side of low tide and using the small pedestrian walkway/bridge to cross the only channel that still had water in it. The bridge is right alongside the Coast Path, on the bank of the river below the Fern Pit Cafe: there’s a photo of it up above.

If you’re not there at the right time and can’t/don’t want to wait for the tide to drop, your alternatives are:

• Take the ferry if it’s running. It only operates around high tide, between 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. during summer months (mid-May to mid-September). It costs £1.80 per person, payable by card or cash onboard.
• Use the Penpol footbridge, a bit under a mile up-river from the Fern Pit Cafe. From the cafe, follow Riverside Crescent, which becomes Riverside Avenue, Pentire Crescent, and finally Penmere Drive before dropping down to the river at Trevean Way. Or just plug the tidal footbridge into Google Maps. This footbridge is usable about 3-4 hours either side of low tide.
• Use the Trenance footbridge, about half a mile further on from the turn-off for the Penpol footbridge. Stay on Penmere Drive until it joins the A392 (Gannel Road), then keep going until just before you get to the A3058 roundabout (Trevemper Road). There’s a little footbridge here on your right, where the river is much narrower than further west. This is usable most of the time.
• Keep going even further along the A392, over the next roundabout and along the A3075 (Trevemper Road), turning right at the first (unmarked) lane. Where the lane turns left at the end, turn right then immediately left to follow the marked bridleway towards Crantock and back to the path. This road route is always usable.

On the other side of the river, options 2, 3, and 4 above all converge at Penpol, where you can follow the river to get back onto the path at the Crantock beach carpark.

Waymarking and Navigation

The waymarking was a mixed bag on this section, thanks mainly to much of the walk being through an urban environment. We got briefly lost leaving Porth after missing a turn-off to the right, and then had a bit of choose-your-own-adventure as we made our way through Newquay.

I made good use of the map on my phone during that section: coupled with keeping a close eye out for little acorn stickers on lampposts and road signs that were often a few feet above my eyeline, we mostly managed to stick to the official path.

We had no problems from Fistral Bay through to the loop around the Pentire headland where there were a myriad of paths that all lead out towards the tip of the peninsula. Again, my phone map mostly kept me on the official path, although I did find myself on a higher or lower trail at a few points. It makes little difference unless you’re a stickler like me. 🙃

From there, getting across the river was easy (although I did use my map to find the turn-off from Beach Road on the other side), and then it was pretty straightforward on the narrow path through the dunes and on to Holywell Bay. As I mentioned above, there are many tracks that lead from the beach into the village: I have no idea which is the official one, but they all end up in the same place.

I used AllTrails as my main navigation app for the entire South West Coast Path, and it worked well throughout. The Porth to Newquay section is covered here, while the Newquay to Holywell Bay section is here. The app is free to use, although I pay a couple of pounds a month for a subscription so I can download maps to my phone in advance.

Phone Service

I had good service with O2 for much of the day: basically, anywhere in or near Newquay was fine. Things got more patchy on the other side of the river, and I had no service at all in Holywell Bay, which wasn’t ideal for trying to call the number on the office window at the campsite.

As a backup, I’d also paid a few pounds for a data eSIM from Instabridge that let me swap between all three UK networks, EE, O2, and Vodafone/Three. It worked really well as a fallback option throughout my time on the Coast Path: whenever I needed data service but couldn’t get it on my usual SIM, I’d switch to the eSIM and choose a different network.

It didn’t let me make voice calls directly: I could have used an app like Yadaphone to make a call, but in this case we just went to the nearby beach bar and used their free Wi-Fi to make a Wi-Fi (VoLTE) call instead.

Facilities

If you’re starting in Newquay, you have endless options for breakfast. Like I mentioned earlier, we really liked Saltd (which is right on the path), but feel free to choose anywhere else that appeals. If you’re starting in Porth and want to eat there, SeaSpace Cafe is the way to go.

There are cafes, restaurants, and pubs near the path all the way through Newquay, and a few beach cafes and restaurants at the start (northern end) of Fistral Beach. Likewise you’ll find two or three options in Pentire, but I’d suggest checking out the Fern Pit Cafe: you have to literally walk through it to get down to the river crossing anyway, and it’s a lovely spot for coffee and cake at a minimum.

On the other side of the river, you can walk a bit off-trail into Crantock village where there are three pubs, a pizza restaurant, and a fish and chip shop. There’s also a pub just off the trail in West Pentire.

After that, you’ll just have to try and survive the three miles to Holywell Bay, where there’s a beach bar and a pub. I can’t speak for the dinner options at the beach bar, but both the pint when we arrived and breakfast the next morning were pretty good.

Accommodation

If you’re camping, you’ve got several options, albeit only in a couple of locations. Just off the trail in Crantock, on the southern side of the River Gannel, is both Quarryfield CaravanPark and Treago Farm. They’re both within a few hundred yards of the trail.

After that, you’re looking at the sites in Holywell Bay. You can try your luck at The Meadow like we did–hopefully you’ll have more luck rousing someone–or walk up the road a bit further to the large Parkdean holiday park. Even further up the road is Trevornick Holiday Park, another large but well-regarded site.

If you’re not carrying your own camping gear, some of the places mentioned above have pre-erected bell tents, cabins, lodges, and the like, and of course there are plenty of hotels and other standard accommodation as well.

If you’re only spending a night or two on the Coast Path, you could do a lot worse than basing yourself in Newquay and using buses at the start or end of the day, since the choices are better and prices lower than anywhere else nearby. Treheveras Guesthouse, St Bernards, and Tregarthen are all excellent options very close to the trail in central Newquay, but there are many others.

Otherwise, take a look at this cute little apartment in Crantock, or the Esplanade Hotel beside the Coast Path in Pentire.