Living in Cornwall

Beyond Falmouth

Penryn

Penryn is the home of the Cornwall Campus, but you’ll find that most students pass their time in nearby Falmouth. Penryn is a small, developing town, 15 minutes by bus from Falmouth. Penryn comes equipped with its own Costcutter, pharmacy, doctor’s surgery, bank and post office, plus its own swanky local bar, Number 20. It’s great for your bare essentials but not the kind of place to go shopping crazy. It’s a nice hang-out spot, with places like Miss Peapod’s Cafe, that offers Salsa classes, Yoga, live music and just a nice, tranquil vibe.

Truro

It’s the gateway to London and everywhere else in the UK, and also great if you want to experience a whiff of the city in Cornwall. Truro's home to a good selection of restaurants and pubs, cinemas and art galleries, including the Lemon Street Gallery. Every Wednesday and Saturday there's a farmer's market on Lemon Quay, selling the finest in local produce and some of the best brownies in Cornwall!

In terms of shopping, it's definitely the place to be; some people visit Truro purely for the Topshop! There are also loads of high street stores such as Accessorize, Waterstones, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer, plus pretty much anything else you could want, from arts supplies to electronics.

As for music, every year Event Cornwall puts together MusicTruro, which sees plenty of talent strutting their stuff to cater for any music taste around venues in the big city, and there are two clubs there, as well: L2 and Office.

For details on how to get to Truro, see Transport.

St Austell

St Austell is famous for the Eden Project. Housing many plants from all over the world, it also has some fine scenery, intricate architecture (and a lot of car-parks, all named after fruits; don't go forgetting whether you're in Apple, Banana or Orange ... ). Eden doubles as a summer venue for some big-name acts; the acclaimed Eden Sessions have featured Kasabian, Paul Weller, Amy Winehouse and Florence and the Machine and plenty more since 2002. 2012 saw, among others, Chase & Status, Example and Plan B, and the line-up so far announced for 2013 includes The XX, Kaiser Chiefs and Eddie Izzard. The surroundings there can elevate any gig from the pretty good to the properly memorable.

Newquay

Aside from its airport, Newquay's well known for its clubbing. There’s a lot of diversity in the available places, with nightlife catering for every mood from chilled out and quiet, to crazy fun. Bertie’s nightclub has seen the likes of Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills.

There's plenty of adrenaline-based outdoors fun to be had in and around Newquay, too; you can find out more on our Outdoors page.

It’s pretty easy to get down to if you don’t want to drive. Just put six friends in a taxi and you’ll pay about a tenner each, not bad for a mini-holiday ...

St Ives

It's about 45 minutes away by car, but well worth it (especially so if you give it a miss in late July and August). Like Falmouth, it has plenty of interesting, independent shops and loads of small, down-an-alley galleries. It also has five fantastic beaches and a feel that's even more artistic and creative than Falmouth (amongst its galleries, of course, is Tate St Ives, but it's also home to the Leach Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum). On the downside, its seagulls are positively feral and work in gangs: a couple swoop in to distract you, another sneaks in and swipes your pasty. Don't say we didn't warn you.  

Non-specifically out of town, Sand Bar (Praa Sands, on the south coast), Blue Bar (Porthtowan), Sandsifter (Godrevy), and the Watering Hole (Perranporth) – all on the north  – offer food and live music in variously ravishing beachside locations. Club 2K in Penzance sees top DJs and live bands travelling down from London, Brighton and Bristol.