Compare St Ives car hire

A beloved holiday destination, St Ives is a picturesque Cornish port town in the far south of England. Its golden beaches, scenic coastal walks, surfing spots and art galleries such as the Tate St Ives draw holidaymakers in their droves to the ‘jewel in Cornwall’s crown’.

Hiring a car and hitting the road is one of the best ways to explore this spectacular area, offering much more freedom than local buses and trains.

If you’re arriving in St Ives by train, coach or bus, collect your hire car from nearby Penzance, where you’ll find Enterprise, Europcar and local car hire companies. From here, it’s around a 25-minute drive to St Ives along the B3311.

You can also collect a hire car from Newquay Airport (NQY), which is about an hour away from St Ives by road. Hertz and Europcar both operate here.

If you’re staying outside St Ives, it’s best to use the park-and-ride service, especially if you’re travelling during the summer holidays. The town’s narrow roads are often congested in peak season and parking spaces can be hard to come by. Leave your car at St Erth station and enjoy stunning coastal views from the train as you chug into St Ives.

Driving is a quicker and more flexible way to explore the areas around St Ives. That said, you should still allow plenty of time for journeys around here – Cornwall doesn’t have any motorways and the main road through the county is the A30, which ends in Penzance.

St Ives is connected by B roads, so drive with caution on these narrow country lanes. Drivers here use their horn to alert approaching cars at blind bends, and often need to reverse to allow another car to pass.

Be sure to set aside a day for the coastal St Ives to Sennen drive. Take it easy and soak in the glorious sea views along the B3306, which winds through the clifftop fields of western Cornwall. The journey takes under an hour each way, so there’s plenty of time to stop en route for a leisurely lunch break and a walk to stretch the legs.

On the way, make a stop at Zennor, a traditional village in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that has a church dating back to at least 1150.

The famous Land’s End sign, near the south-western tip of mainland Britain, is a short drive from Sennen. From here, you can head back to St Ives the same way or continue around the peninsula, stopping at Mousehole, a particularly pretty fishing port.

Fair fuel policy

A fair fuel policy (also known as full-to-full or same-to-same) means you’ll only pay for the fuel you use. All car rental deals compared on TravelSupermarket come with a fair fuel policy, so you can book your hire car safe in the knowledge there will be no nasty surprises at drop-off. More information on TravelSupermarket’s commitment to fair fuel policies can be found here.

No hidden fees

All rental deals compared on TravelSupermarket include mandatory fees (for example, one-way and young driver surcharges) in your rental quote at the time of booking, meaning you’ll know the full price of your car hire upfront.