Start from 36 curated places around St Ives, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Porthminster Beach Cafe
The white art-deco beach restaurant sitting on Porthminster sand, doing Mediterranean- and Asian-leaning seafood with the bay laid out in front of you. It's the town's destination lunch and dinner, open year-round; the curry and the whole fish are the long-standing orders.
Porthmeor Beach Cafe
The buzzy cafe under the Tate on Porthmeor, running from build-your-own breakfasts through tapas to evening drinks. Origin coffee, a wide veggie and seafood small-plates list, and the best sunset terrace in town for watching the surfers.
Trails & outdoors
The Island (St Ives Head)
The short loop around the grassy headland at the edge of town, topped by St Nicholas Chapel. Under a mile, paved and grass paths, and the reward is a full circle of views over both beaches, the harbour and out to the Atlantic.
Knill's Monument
An easy-to-moderate two-mile climb up Worvas Hill through Steeple Woods to a tall stone obelisk above town. The path winds past old mine workings and stiles to a summit with wide views over the bay to Godrevy Lighthouse.
Things to do
Seal Island - St Ives Boat Trips
Hour-long skippered boat trips from the harbour out to Seal Island to see the grey-seal colony, with the skipper narrating the coastline and wildlife along the way. The reliable, family-friendly way onto the water from St Ives.
St Ives Surf School
A long-running surf school on Porthmeor Beach recognised as a centre of excellence, running lessons for all levels plus coasteering along the rocks. Friendly instructors, gear included, and a genuinely good first-time-surfing experience on a town beach.
Landmarks & sights
Tate St Ives
The modern-art gallery built on the old gasworks site above Porthmeor Beach, showing 20th-century and contemporary work tied to the St Ives art colony. The curving top-floor cafe looks straight out over the surf, and entry pairs with the Hepworth museum on one ticket.
Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
The studio and garden where sculptor Barbara Hepworth lived and worked until her death, left largely as she kept it. Over thirty bronze, stone and wood pieces sit among the planting she chose herself, and the workshop still holds her tools and half-finished blocks.