west cornwall

Placed on the west side of Mount's Bay, Penzance is the main shopping centre for the area, and is a pleasantly relaxed place. The town's most famous son, Sir Humphry Davy (inventor of the miners' safety lamp) looks down Market Jew Street, the main street. Off here run at a number of attractive Georgian and 19th-century streets, notably Chapel Street with its exuberantly Egyptian House, looking strangely art-deco with its jazzy lotus columns and cornices, but actually dating from 1835.

In the same street, Maritime Museum has a surprising interior, modelled on the for an 18th-century man-of-war, on four decks: it is neck-craningly low-ceilinged, and stashed with ship models, shipwreck items, diving gear and other nautical memorabilia. The Turks Head in Chapel Street is the best bet in town for a pub meal.

Beyond this the prominent church overlooks the harbour area, where there's a 1930s open-air sea water swimming pool (scarcely warmer than the sea), and from where the passenger ferry Scillonia makes the two-and-a-half-hour trip to the Isles of Scilly.

The National Lighthouse Centre, on the seafront, is an excellent place to find out everything about lighthouses; there is a reconstructive lighthouse keepers Room, complete with curved furniture. In leafy Penlee Park, the Penlee House Gallery and Museum includes some paintings by the Newlyn School.

From Penzance, carry on along the coast to Marazion.