Hiking Base: Penzance or Falmouth or?

Hi Jay, my vote is for Falmouth. It's a lovely place right on the coast, with a lot to see and do there, with lots of restaurants and good hotels, and the area is just beautiful. Falmouth has many hotels, restaurants, pubs and beautiful beaches. There is a level promenade to walk along. There are galleries, the Maritime Museum, boat trips and you can take the ferry to St Mawes. Falmouth is on a branch railway line but is easy to change in Truro, I believe (I rented a car when I was there, so I'm not sure about that, but I remember someone saying that). Falmouth also has the wonderful Pendennis Castle, Henry VIII's coastal fortress, which was really interesting.

I think it's a bit more central than Penzance, depending on where you're going to. At any rate, I found it a very good base to stay in so that I was able to access places I wanted to visit in Cornwall.

I don't know if you're able to add more on, but I would also suggest traveling to Devon, which was one of my favorite places on that trip. It was just magnificent, especially heading through the wilds of Dartmoor National Park, and it was much less crowded than Cornwall. And Dartmoor was just a wonder, with such beautiful scenery. There were rolling hills, huge granite tors, and gorgeous green valleys as far as the eye could see. Plus interesting places like St. Pancras Church in Widecombe-in-the-Moor. I first heard about this church after reading an article about Bill Bryson, who named it as one of his favorite churches. It is an old medieval church in the middle of a small village, and was a real gem.

Assuming that you want to prioritise coastal walking (and that’s the best choice in Cornwall), then I would say Penzance is the better choice. It would be very easy to organise a walk along the SW coast path from say Hayle to Porthleven over several days from a base in Penzance, taking advantage of the curve in the coast around Land’s End. You could at a push also do it based in St Ives, which is beautiful and has many more eating out opportunities but also big crowds across the Summer and especially in August.

I would also not rule out staying in Newquay or Padstow as a base either. Both will give you access to fine north coast walking. Newquay has had a bit of a reputation as a more down market resort, which I think is undeserved and these days has some excellent restaurants right up to Michelin star. Padstow is another very busy place full of high quality restaurants but perhaps a little less well connected for coastal walking.

Late August/early September coincides with the August Bank Holiday, the schools stagger back (depending on the inset days) during that first week of September.
So I would push it out just by a week or two, at least for Cornwall- if you can.
If it's like the Lake District then as soon as the schools go back then the snowbirds start arriving, so while it will quieten down it will still be fairly busy.

Newquay on the north Cornwall coast would be another very good option- excellent bus services (and by September the Mid Cornwall Metro Phase 1 should be open- so many more trains than now), and wonderful coastal walking both north and south of there.
If you want somewhere a bit quieter then Wadebridge would be another good alternative for it's bus network, plenty of pubs/restaurants, whether it has 20 I'm not sure).

I like both Penzance and Falmouth, but I think I would go with Penzance. You can walk to nice places like Marazion (where St Michael's Mount is) or Mousehole. However, I'm sure you know that the Southwest Coast Path encircles all of Devon and Cornwall so anywhere you go on the Cornish coast will have coastal hiking. Another potential option is St Austell- I haven't been yet but we are planning a trip there later this year and have been looking at some of the coasting hiking opportunities. Plus you can visit the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

I've not been to Lyme Regis but both Cromer and Whitstable are great. I love the Kent coast, and the north Norfolk coast is one of my favourite places in the UK. You can easily do the North Norfolk Coastal Path which goes from Hunstanton to Cromer- it's only about 50 miles. We did it over five days back in 2020 and it was magical.