This beautiful and windswept corner of Cornwall was once the playground of DH Lawrence, Barbara Hepworth, Virginia Woolf and even Henry VIII. Rachel de Thample heads west to find out why.
1 Seafood
St Ives has some fine restaurants, with local seafood (Newlyn scallops, line-caught mackerel, Cornish crab) the star of most menus. Alba is set in the old lifeboat house, right on the harbour, but the views are, if anything, surpassed by its menu of unforgettable dishes such as gurnard with new potatoes and spinach in a creamy broth. The two-course early supper (6.30pm-7.30pm) is great value at £12. The Seafood Café, where you can choose fresh fish from the counter, is ideal for a light lunch, while The Mermaid, in the old fishing quarter, serves a hearty fish pie. The Porthminster Café, bang on the beach, is a handsome spot to watch the sun go down.
2 Beaches
Beautiful beaches frame much of this small seaside town. Porthminster Beach is particularly stunning with its long swathes of soft, creamy sand. Rise early, before it's blanketed with beach towels, and enjoy the Cubist jumble of slate rooves you can see across the bay. Swimmers should go to Porthgwidden Beach, a sheltered little cove north of the harbour, while surfers are drawn to the golden strip known as Porthmeor Beach, which stretches beneath the Tate St Ives art gallery and offers the best waves in town.
3 Coastal walks
Make sure you bring your hiking boots as there are some stunning coastal walks. The best starts near Porthmeor Beach and runs north along the cliffs for seven miles, taking you to the village of Zennor, once home to DH Lawrence. You can pick up guidebooks and maps in St Ives. Once in Zennor, head to The Tinner's Arms for a pint of Zennor's Mermaid and a hefty Ploughman's with a sampler of Cornish cheese. If you're too tired to walk back, you can order a taxi at the bar, but check out the village's Wayside Folk Museum first.
4 Surfing and scuba diving
If you've never surfed or dived, make your visit to St Ives the time to learn. Both St Ives Surf, on Porthmeor Beach just in front of the Tate, and the Gwithian Academy of Surfing, on the northernmost part of St Ives Bay, will teach you basic surf techniques in a few hours. Dive St Ives is the place to go if you want to dive among the remains of local shipwrecks.
5 The Tate & Barbara Hepworth
On the eve of the second world war, artists flocked to St Ives, transforming the fishing village into thriving artistic enclave. Tate St Ives showcases important works created during this period, including the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth: a museum and sculpture garden set in the house where she lived, worked and died is near the Tate. Here, you can peek into her workshops, where paint is still splattered on the floor and some of her sculptures sit unfinished.
6 Art classes
St Ives is inspiring; even if you're not an artist, you'll start itching to draw or paint. To satisfy this desire, St Ives School of Painting offers life-drawing classes on Mondays and Wednesdays that you can join without booking. Classes cost £6 and are held from 7.30pm till 9.30pm in a paint-flecked studio up a tiny flight of stairs. You can pick up your charcoal and pencils from Craftys Country Store on Fore Street. The School also runs three-day painting workshops.
7 Galleries and artists' studios
The narrow, cobbled lanes of St Ives are brimming with art galleries. Sloop Craft Market is a little enclave of studios displaying an eclectic mix, from papier-mâche sculptures to driftwood clocks. New Millennium and Belgrave galleries are both good for contemporary Cornish painting, while St Ives Ceramics is the place for pottery, particularly the Japanese-inspired works of Bernard Leach. The tiny and cluttered Wills Lane Gallery is also well worth a look.
8 The Godrevy Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf used this landmark as inspiration for her 1927 novel, To The Lighthouse. On the 20-minute drive there from St Ives, you come across the charming, wooden-built Godrevy Café, plonked right on the beach. Sit in the upstairs balcony if you can and enjoy simple local fare - crab sandwiches, apple juice, grilled mackerel - while watching the sun set gently over St Ives.
9 St Michael's Mount
Drive south towards Penzance and you'll start to see St Michael's Mount emerging from the sea. The medieval castle perched on this majestic island definitely deserves a day trip, during which you can learn all about Edward the Confessor and Henry VIII's links to the place. At low tide, you can reach the island by the causeway that links it to the mainland. The trip from St Ives takes half an hour when the roads are clear.
10 Sennen Cove
Just before the coast of Cornwall bends round to Land's End, there's a beautiful blonde beach: Sennen Cove. The main draw is a wonderful restaurant, The Beach, where you can linger at lunchtime with a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, a bowl of moules marinière and fat chips with sea salt. Nearby is the dark wood and brick Round House and Capstan Gallery, where you can view Cornish modern art.
11 Minack Theatre
In 1929, Rowena Cade was searching for a place to stage a production of The Tempest. Unable to find a suitable venue, she created her own stage by moving granite slabs down the hill in her cliff-side garden, perched above the sea at Porthcurno. These days, this stunning Greek-style theatre - on the south coast, three minutes from Sennen Cove - holds summer productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, Puccini and Shakespeare. If you go to an evening show, take a picnic to enjoy on the glorious beach beforehand.
12 Cornish tipples
Cornwall has plenty of wonderful ways for you to wet your whistle. The café in the Tate serves Cornish Orchards organic apple juice, made with local varieties such as Cornish Longstem. You can drink to the county's burgeoning wine industry with a bottle of Camel Valley Bacchus - Cornwall's answer to Sancerre - at the Garrack Hotel Restaurant. For a pint of local bitter, head to The Union or the Sloop Inn.
13 Clotted cream
If you had clotted cream with your morning cereal, the Cornish would think nothing of it: this thick, glossy cream is offered with nearly everything. For a taster, go to Bistro for a cream tea or, better yet, try its chocolate rumpy bumpy cake with a dollop of clotted cream. At Pengenna Pasties next door, you can buy a picnic-pack of scones, homemade jam and clotted cream. The pastel-coloured ice-cream parlour on the wharf, the Ice Queen, serves Roskilly's Cornish Velvet, an organic vanilla-clotted-cream-flavour ice cream.
14 Stylish guesthouses
Jamie's, run by Jamie Robertson and his artist wife Felicity, is a 1920s' villa with sweeping views and wholesome organic breakfasts. Primrose Valley Hotel, run by Andrew and Sue Biss, is an Edwardian villa on Porthminster Beach. They have a cosy bar serving hand-selected wines and a good breakfast that champions local food. Blue Hayes is a hotel popular for its spacious cream-and-blue suites and wonderful harbour views.
15 Gardens
The county's balmy climate is an attraction in its own right. So why not pack a picnic and drive to a garden to admire the lush vegetation it nurtures? Trengwainton, Godolphin House & Gardens and Trewidden are all near St Ives, and each offers a profusion of flora for you to recline beneath.
Address book
- Alba Restaurant Old Lifeboat House, The Wharf. Tel 01736 797222; alba-restaurant.co.uk
- Barbara Hepworth, Museum & Sculpture Garden Barnoon Hill. Tel 01736 796226; tate.org.uk
- Beach Restaurant, Sennen Cove, Land's End. Tel 01736 871191
- Belgrave Gallery, 22 Fore Street. Tel 01736 794888; belgravegallery.com
- Bistro, 7 High Street. Tel 01736 791988
- Blue Hayes Private Hotel, Trelyon Avenue. Tel 01736 797129; bluehayes.co.uk
- Craftys Country Store, 54 Fore Street. Tel 01736 795340
- Dive St Ives, 25 The Wharf. Tel 01736 799229; divestives.com
- Garrack Hotel & Restaurant, Burthallan Lane. Tel 01736 796199; garrack.com
- Godolphin House & Gardens, Godolphin Cross, Helston. Tel 01736 763194; godolphinhouse.com
- Godrevy Café, Godrevy Towans, Gwithian, Hayle. Tel 01736 757999
- Godrevy Lighthouse, Gwithian, Hayle. Tel 01872 552412
- Gwithian Academy of Surfing Prosper Hill, Gwithian, Hayle. Tel 01736 755493; surfacademy.co.uk
- Ice Queen, 7 The Wharf. Tel 01736 795761
- Jamies Wheal Whidden, Carbis Bay. Tel 01736 794718; jamiesstives.co.uk
- Mermaid Seafood Restaurant, 21 Fish Street. Tel 01736 796816
- Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Penzance. Tel 01736 810181; minack.com
- New Millennium Gallery, Street-an-Pol. Tel 01736 793121; newmillenniumgallery.co.uk
- Pengenna Pasties, 9 High Street. Tel 01736 794100; pengennapasties.co.uk
- Porthminster Café, Porthminster Beach. Tel 01736 795352; porthminstercafe.co.uk
- Primrose Valley Hotel, Porthminster Beach. Tel 01736 794939; primroseonline.co.uk
- Round House & Capstan Gallery, Sennen Cove, Land's End. Tel 01736 871859; round-house.co.uk
- St Ives Ceramics, 1 Fish Street. Tel 01736 794930; st-ives-ceramic.co.uk
- St Ives School of Painting, Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West. Tel 01736 797180; stivesartschool.co.uk
- St Ives Surf School, Porthmeor Beach. Tel 01736 794633
- St Michael's Mount, Marazion. Tel 01736 710507; stmichaelsmount.co.uk
- Seafood Café, 45 Fore Street. Tel 01736 794004; seafoodcafe.co.uk
- Sloop Craft Market, Back Road. Tel 01736 796051
- Sloop Inn, The Wharf. Tel 01736 796584; sloop-inn.co.uk
- Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach. Tel 01736 796226; tate.org.uk
- Tinner's Arms, Zennor. Tel 01736 796927
- Trengwainton Garden Madron, Penzance. Tel 01736 363148; nationaltrust.org.uk
- Trewidden Garden, Bolitho Estates, Penzance. Tel 01736 366800
- Union Inn, Fore Street. Tel 01736 796486
- Wayside Folk Museum, Zennor. Tel 01736 796945
- Wills Lane Gallery, Wills Lane. Tel 01736 795723
Prices correct at time of publication.