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Things to Do in and Around Newquay: A Family Day Out

Quick answer: Newquay is Cornwall’s biggest resort town and one of its best family bases — a proper zoo in a garden valley, a string of famous beaches from Fistral to Watergate Bay, an aquarium and a pirate adventure for wet days, and a steam railway and an Elizabethan manor within a short drive. Our family’s favourite version of a Newquay day: the zoo in the morning, then over the hill to Perranporth for a low-tide afternoon in the rock pools and warm stream-fed shallows. The full menu, the honest practicalities, and how our day actually went — below.

Newquay wears more hats than any town in Cornwall: surf capital, family resort, night-out town, harbour village. For a family day out that variety is the point — whatever the weather and the tide are doing, something within twenty minutes is doing it better. This guide covers the town’s headline attractions, the beaches, the wet-weather fallbacks and the day trips just beyond it, and then walks you through the day our family actually had — zoo first, tides checked, Perranporth after — because the shape of that day is one you can borrow.

Table of Contents

  1. Newquay in a nutshell
  2. Newquay Zoo
  3. The beaches: Fistral, Watergate and the town sands
  4. Wet-weather and other attractions
  5. Day trips just beyond town
  6. Getting there and parking
  7. Personal insights and experiences
  8. FAQ
  9. References and resources

Newquay in a nutshell

Cornwall’s largest resort sits on a run of north-coast cliffs with beaches tucked beneath the town itself — you can be looking at surf from the high street in two minutes. It has the county’s only proper zoo, its biggest aquarium, its own airport with direct flights from London and beyond (see our guide to reaching Cornwall), and more accommodation than anywhere else west of Plymouth. It’s busy in August, unashamedly commercial in places, and genuinely good at families — the infrastructure that comes with being Cornwall’s big resort means parking, food and facilities all actually exist, which is not something every lovely Cornish cove can say.

Newquay Zoo

Tucked into the leafy Trenance Gardens valley on the edge of town, Newquay Zoo is a manageable size for young legs — a real morning’s worth rather than an exhausting all-dayer — and it has had recent investment that shows. The highlight for us was the tropical house: small but superbly done, a sweltering wrap of heat and humidity with birdsong and frog calls all around you, close enough to genuinely imagine being lost in a jungle. Lemurs, red pandas, penguins and a walled garden of smaller curiosities fill out the visit, the education talks are pitched well for children, and Trenance Gardens themselves — boating lake, mini railway, playgrounds — sit right outside the gate if the day needs stretching.

The beaches: Fistral, Watergate and the town sands

  • Fistral — Britain’s most famous surf beach: big Atlantic swell, surf schools by the dozen, and world-class competition in the autumn. Watching the line-up from the dunes is free entertainment even if nobody in your party gets in.
  • Watergate Bay — two miles of sand ten minutes up the coast, with a polished beach-resort scene at the back of it; our surf hotels guide covers why it books out.
  • The town beaches — Towan, Great Western, Tolcarne, Lusty Glaze — sheltered, sandy and right beneath the town, with Towan’s little tidal island and its famous private footbridge. At low tide they join into one long family sand.
  • Porth — flat, sheltered and shallow: the local pick for small children.
  • Holywell Bay — big dunes and Poldark scenery fifteen minutes south-west.
  • The Gannel — the estuary behind the town: green, calm, tidal, lovely for a walk when the coast is wild. For picking the right sand for your crew, our family beaches guide goes deeper.

Wet-weather and other attractions

  • Blue Reef Aquarium — on Towan beach itself; a solid couple of rainy-day hours of sharks, rays and rockpool tanks.
  • Pirate’s Quest — a theatrical walk-through pirate adventure in the middle of town; pantomime-piracy done properly. (For the real and much darker history, our pirates of Cornwall guide has the Killigrews and the corsairs.)
  • Newquay Harbour — the quiet, older corner of town: working boats, crabbing off the wall at high tide, and fish landed a few steps from where it’s eaten.

Day trips just beyond town

  • Lappa Valley — a steam railway that carries you to a hidden valley of boating lakes, mazes and play; a full family day, fifteen minutes inland.
  • Trerice — a small, perfect Elizabethan manor (National Trust) in the lanes south of town: quiet gardens, a famous barn of old lawn games, and a genuine breather from resort energy.
  • Perranporth — over the headlands to the south-west: a vast beach with a stream braiding across it, rock pools and mine-riddled cliffs at its western end, and a proper little town behind it. This is our pick, and the second half of this article is about why.

Getting there and parking

Newquay is one of the easiest places in Cornwall to reach: its airport has direct flights from London and several regional cities, the branch railway line connects to the mainline at Par, and by road it’s about twenty minutes off the A30 — our reaching Cornwall guide covers the options properly. Parking honesty, from someone accustomed to seaside-village parking misery: it’s better than you’d fear. The zoo’s own parking was easy even in August. At Perranporth we used the Station Road car park — first one you meet entering from that end of town — and found spaces at peak time, with the beach car park also showing a few gaps. School-holiday middays are still the crunch; arrive by mid-morning or be patient.

Personal insights and experiences

Our version of this day, from a camping trip last August, three generations along: Newquay Zoo for the morning — where the tropical house stole it for me; small, but stand still in that heat with the birdsong and the frogs and you could honestly believe yourself lost somewhere equatorial — then over to Perranporth to eat. We arrived too early for dinner, and here’s the habit I’d pass on to any visiting family: I always keep an eye on the tide times, and the tide was due out. So we walked down to the beach instead, and Perranporth at low tide is a marvel. A stream fans out across the huge beach in braided channels — shallow, spread thin, and warmed by the sand, so my granddaughter paddled happily in clear warm water while parents towed small children along the faster middle channel on bodyboards. My son and I worked the rock pools under the western cliffs — small fish, crabs, water so clear it barely seemed to be there — under mine openings and a barred cave mouth in the cliff that turned out to have real smuggling history (that story’s in our rock pooling guide and our pirates article). Then up into town for that meal — The Green Parrot, which is a Wetherspoon, and very nice regardless of what anyone expects that sentence to mean: an old, refined feel inside, lacquered wood and high-backed chairs, and a set of fantastic pictures of the area’s heritage on the walls that I spent longer looking at than the menu. Zoo, tide, pools, dinner: it’s a day I’d repeat without changing a thing.

FAQ

Q: Is Newquay good for a family day out?
A: Yes — it has the most family infrastructure of any Cornish town: a zoo, an aquarium, sheltered town beaches, wet-weather options and easy parking by Cornish standards.

Q: How long do you need at Newquay Zoo?
A: A solid half day. It’s a manageable size for younger children, and Trenance Gardens next door can stretch the visit with a boating lake and playgrounds.

Q: Which Newquay beach is best for children?
A: Porth and the town beaches (Towan, Great Western) are the sheltered picks; Fistral is the surf spectacle. Always swim between the flags where lifeguards operate.

Q: What can you do in Newquay when it rains?
A: Blue Reef Aquarium, Pirate’s Quest and the zoo’s tropical house cover a wet day well, with Lappa Valley and Trerice within a short drive.

Q: Is Perranporth worth combining with Newquay?
A: Absolutely — it’s a short drive south-west, and at low tide the huge beach, warm stream-fed shallows and rock pools under the cliffs make one of the best free family afternoons in Cornwall. Check tide times before you go.

References and resources