B&Bs in Penzance

Table of Contents

• At a glance: What should you know about renting a B&B in Penzance?
• B&Bs in Penzance: find your perfect retreat
• Exploring Penzance: our top recommendations
• Activities: What are the top things to do and see in Penzance?

• Small, host-run stays: Most B&Bs here are family-run townhouses and guesthouses within walking distance of Chapel Street, the promenade and the harbour, with parking and breakfast included.
• Where to base yourself: The seafront suits first-timers, Newlyn suits seafood lovers, and Marazion puts St Michael's Mount on your doorstep across the bay.
• Guests rate them highly: Our best-reviewed Penzance stays sit at 9.3+ and above, praised for generous breakfasts, quiet rooms and hosts who share local walking tips.
• Come for the long days: May to September brings warm evenings, open lidos and ferries to the Isles of Scilly, while autumn is quieter and cheaper.
• Plenty on the doorstep: The Jubilee Pool, Penlee House, Newlyn's fish market, the Minack Theatre and the coast path to Mousehole all start close by.

Penzance B&Bs are mostly Georgian and Victorian townhouses on the streets climbing away from the promenade, plus a handful of guesthouses with sea views over Mount's Bay. Rooms are small-scale and host-run. Browse everything on offer across holiday lettings in Penzance, or widen the search to B&Bs in Cornwall. The features guests ask about most are:

• Cooked Cornish breakfast with local eggs, hog's pudding and Newlyn fish
• Off-street parking, which is scarce near the town centre
• Sea-facing rooms looking towards St Michael's Mount
• Walled gardens and terraces for late, light evenings
• Drying space and boot storage for coast path walkers

Book early for August and for the weekend of the Golowan festival, when rooms go quickly.

What are the best areas to stay in Penzance?

For a first visit, base yourself between the promenade and Chapel Street, where the Jubilee Pool, the harbour and the best restaurants are all within a ten-minute walk. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Guests staying in Penzance consistently rate the welcome above everything else: hosts who carry bags up steep staircases, cook breakfast to order and mark up walking routes on a map before you set off. Ratings of 9.3+ are common, with sea views, quiet rooms and easy access to the promenade named again and again.

Here are our top-rated B&Bs from the past year:

1. Torwood House - 9.4+: A garden-facing bed and breakfast in Penzance, praised for its generous breakfasts and views over the bay.
2. Penmorvah - 9.3+: A long-standing Penzance B&B with a sheltered yard, parking and a short walk to the seafront.
3. Dunedin Guest House - 9.3+: A welcoming Penzance guesthouse with parking and WiFi, popular with walkers and Scilly-bound travellers.

Penzance sits at the head of Mount's Bay in west Cornwall, the last town before Land's End, with Newlyn, Mousehole and Marazion all within a few miles.

🥗Where to eat in Penzance?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, The Shore Restaurant is the best rated restaurant in Penzance. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests' recommendation: Our guest traveller Charlotte recommends the Argoe in Penzance: a small harbourside dining room in Newlyn where the charcoal-grilled fish comes off boats moored a few steps away.

1. Swim at the Jubilee Pool
2. Cross to St Michael's Mount
3. Walk the coast path to Mousehole
4. Watch the Newlyn fish market
5. Wander Chapel Street
6. Sail to the Isles of Scilly
7. See a play at the Minack

1. Swim at the Jubilee Pool

   The Jubilee Pool juts out from the promenade like the prow of a ship, an Art Deco triangle of white concrete filled by the sea. Swim lengths in the cool saltwater main pool, then move to the geothermal pool, warmed to around 30°C by water drawn from deep below Penzance. Sessions in the heated pool sell out fast in summer, so book ahead. Afterwards, the poolside café serves coffee and Cornish pasties with the whole sweep of Mount's Bay in front of you.

2. Cross to St Michael's Mount

   Three miles east at Marazion, a granite island crowned by a castle and chapel rises straight out of the bay. At low tide you walk across the cobbled causeway; at high tide a small boat ferries you over in minutes. Climb the steep path to the castle for its armoury, map room and terraced subtropical gardens clinging to the rock. Check the tide times before you set off, and allow a couple of hours so you are not hurried back across the water.

3. Walk the coast path to Mousehole

   The two-and-a-half-mile walk from the promenade through Newlyn to Mousehole is one of the gentlest stretches of the South West Coast Path, mostly level and paved. You pass the fishing fleet, the Newlyn Art Gallery and a run of seafront benches before the road narrows into Mousehole's granite lanes and tiny harbour. Have lunch by the water, then either walk back as the light drops or catch the bus into town. Stay for the harbour lights if you visit in December.

4. Watch the Newlyn fish market

   Newlyn lands more fish by value than any other port in England, and the working harbour is a spectacle in itself: trawlers unloading, gulls wheeling, ice trucks reversing along the quay. Guided market tours run on selected mornings and start very early, so book in advance. Even without a tour, you can watch the boats come in from the quayside and then buy monkfish, hake or hand-dived scallops from the fishmongers along the road back into Penzance.

5. Wander Chapel Street

   Chapel Street runs from the town centre down towards the harbour and holds most of Penzance's history in a few hundred metres. The Egyptian House, with its extraordinary painted 1830s facade, is the showpiece, but there are also antiquarian bookshops, galleries, old smugglers' pubs and the Penlee House Gallery & Museum a short walk away, where the Newlyn School painters hang. It is an easy hour's browsing, and a good rainy-afternoon plan when the bay turns grey.

6. Sail to the Isles of Scilly

   The Scillonian ferry leaves Penzance harbour for St Mary's, crossing open water in around two hours forty minutes past Land's End, with dolphins and seabirds often alongside. Day trips leave time enough for a swim, a walk around the island and lunch before the return sailing, though staying a night lets you reach Tresco or Bryher. Sailings are seasonal and weather-dependent, so book ahead and pack something waterproof for the deck.

7. See a play at the Minack

   Carved into the cliffs at Porthcurno, nine miles from Penzance, the Minack Theatre stages plays and concerts on an open-air stage with the Atlantic as its backdrop. Performances run through the season, and the site is open for daytime visits when nothing is on, with terraced gardens and a café above the turquoise water of Porthcurno beach. Bring a cushion and a jumper for evening shows, and combine the trip with a swim below. Explore cottages in Sennen Cove nearby too.