St Ives or Penzance

There are a number of comparisons on the trip advisor website which might help. They are very different so it depends on what you are looking for. They are not so far apart, maybe do both?

St. Ives, by a long way.
St. Ives is a very pretty town with two beaches and lots to explore.
Penzance is more of a working town.
Whichever you choose, ask your hotel or B+B for the best and cheapest place to park overnight,

I would agree with prior comment that St. Ives is far more interesting for visitors. The closer you are to the harbor front in St. Ives, the more crass and commercial it becomes. But just a block or two off the main harborfront, the twisted little back streets are filled with shops, pubs and lanes worth enjoying. In St. Ives we stayed at the Primrose Valley Hotel. Quiet, small and lovely hotel steps from the beach and a short walk to the harbor front, with friendly service and cozy rooms. I would recommend it. Just be forewarned about the driveway approaching the hotel - the absurdly steep decline from the main road to the hotel's car park was like something out of a cartoon. If you survive that, you're good to go! (: Cheers and happy travels!

"When you are going to St Ives, you'll meet a man with seven wives ..." Sorry, couldn't resist.

Thank you for your friendly replies. I was leaning towards St Ives but there are always many lovely options when planning a trip. This forum helped generously when planning other trips and combined with trip advisor. Answers all my questions. Thank you

Christine: Watch out for pirates in Penzance. yeah, couldn't resist either.

And now that this was brought up, do check out the Pirates' orphanage there....

Well , when William Penn first settled in what became Pennsylvania , his two great aunts came over to join him and went into business selling pies , they created a scandal in that they grossly overcharged for the product . Historians call this scandal; " The pie-rates of Penn's Aunts " ; ---- )

And being from PA, specifically native Philadelphian, I can assure you that IS an old one :-)

And here I had the orphans typed and ready to go yesterday, but then deleted it...

Sorry , Larry , I couldn't resist .

And my wife just reminded me of a bad Isaac Asimov shaggy-dog story about an alien race form the planet of Penn (sic) who looked like formicidae and paid for everything with fool's gold....need I say it?

You can't go to Penzance unless you have "Pirates of Penzance" playing in your car.
That's a legal requirement, they will stop and check your car at the town limits.

Larry , Don't do it - I got the pyrites - but had to look up the formicidae !! That one is really pushing the limit !! By the way , I couldn't figure out the orphanage thing . Please don't leave me in agony .

Thanks for the funnies. Justbgotbhome frm work exhausted and now feel fantastic . We had joked about only going to cities that had a song attached . (As good a premise for a trip plan as anything else) In fact my husband can actually perform the complete "'I am the very model of a modern major general.....' And will do so. So far we have managed ' The Grand old Duke of York' , 'Overthe sea to Skye', 'the streets of London' , 'I love Paris in the springtime', .... Anyone have anything for Edinbugh.

Steven--Asimov used the Family name "Formicidae" in the description, to make sure that the reader didn't see "ants" until you had turned the page for the silly punch line.

The hook with the Pirates is that they were all orphans - which, once this got around and that they would let ships go if there were orphans on it, they somehow discovered that every ship they encountered was manned completely by orphans. There is a wonderful bit of word-play dialogue between The Pirate King and Major General Stanley wherein, on realizing his extended family is being accosted by "The Pirates of Penzance" asks them if they "...know what it's like to be an orphan", and their replies of "often" - pronounced "orfan" - are thus indistinguishable from "orphan", ultimately ending with Stanley triumphantly declaring "Yes -Then you said orphan once - frequently!")

Larry , Many thanks !