Wedding guests
Venues on the Roseland, around the Fal and on the north coast, often at the end of narrow lanes, with guests staying in Truro hotels.
Wedding transport
Truro minibus hire with a driver who knows the A30, the A39 and the narrow lanes down to the Fal and the coast, for wedding guests, festival crowds heading to Newquay, school parties bound for the Eden Project, holiday groups arriving by train and families flying in and out of Cornwall.
Truro is Cornwall's only city, and it sits almost exactly in the middle of the county. The three spires of Truro Cathedral rise above a compact centre of Georgian terraces, slate roofs and granite paving, and the city grew up where two small rivers meet to form the tidal Truro River, which flows south into the Fal estuary.
That central position is what makes Truro useful for group travel. The north coast at Newquay and Perranporth is about half an hour away, Falmouth and the south coast about 25 minutes, and St Ives and Penzance under an hour to the west. Few places in Cornwall are more than an hour and a quarter from the city, so a group based here can see most of the county without changing hotels.
The roads around Truro shape every plan. The A30, the county's main spine, passes a few miles north of the city at Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross. The A39 heads south to Falmouth and north towards Newquay, and the A390 links Truro with Redruth to the west and St Austell to the east. Off these routes, the lanes narrow quickly, often to a single track between tall Cornish hedges.
Truro is also the county's working centre. Cornwall Council's main offices are at New County Hall on the western side of the city, the Royal Cornwall Hospital is at Treliske, and the shops, theatre and restaurants draw people from across the county. That mix brings conference delegates, students, hospital visitors and shoppers alongside the holidaymakers.
An example for 14 friends staying in Truro and travelling to the festival in Newquay each day. Your plan will differ.
Send the festival dates, the Truro address you are staying at and the number in the group. For 14 people with day bags, we usually suggest a 16 seater minibus, which leaves two seats for coats and bags.
Check the festival's official travel page for the drop-off rules for private vehicles, and tell us which days you are going and whether you want to visit the beach at Fistral or Watergate Bay as well as the main site.
We confirm the drop-off point, the pickup time at the end of each day and the driver's contact details, and send them to the group organiser.
Collection from the Truro address in the early afternoon, then about 30 to 40 minutes to Newquay, longer in festival traffic on the A392 and the roads into the town.
Pickup at the agreed point after the headliners finish, with the driver waiting rather than the group queuing for taxis, and back to Truro in about 40 minutes.
Gardens, harbours and headlands in every direction. Times are approximate from the city centre in normal traffic.
Because Truro is central, most day trips from the city are short drives, which leaves more of the day for the places themselves. The difficulty is not distance but parking: Cornwall's harbour towns were built long before cars, and in summer their car parks fill by mid-morning. A minibus with a driver solves that by dropping the group close to the centre and collecting at an agreed time.
| Destination | Road time (approx.) | Why groups go |
|---|---|---|
| The Eden Project | About 30 minutes | The biomes in a former clay pit near St Austell, with coach parking for groups. Book entry in advance. |
| The Lost Gardens of Heligan | About 30 minutes | Restored Victorian gardens and a jungle valley above Mevagissey. |
| Falmouth | About 25 minutes | The harbour, Pendennis Castle and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. |
| St Ives | About 45 minutes | Beaches, galleries and Tate St Ives. Town streets are very narrow, so we drop at the edge. |
| St Michael's Mount, Marazion | About 40 minutes | The tidal island and castle, reached on foot at low tide or by boat. |
| Padstow | About 45 minutes | The fishing harbour on the Camel estuary, busy with food lovers in summer. |
| Plymouth | About 1 hour 15 minutes | The Hoe and the Barbican, over the Tamar Bridge. |
Summer parking in St Ives, Padstow and Mevagissey is very limited for larger vehicles, so we agree drop-off and pickup points before the day.
The sizes Truro groups book most, with the trips they suit.
Cornwall rewards smaller vehicles. Many of the best beaches, wedding venues and holiday cottages are reached down lanes with high hedges on both sides and few passing places, and a full-size coach simply cannot get there. Most Truro groups travel in an MPV or a minibus, and we look at the destination before we suggest a size.
Coaches still have their place. The Eden Project, the main attractions and the airports all take larger vehicles, and a school party or a big wedding is often better in one coach with a driver than in several minibuses. For anything down a narrow lane, we may suggest two smaller vehicles instead.
| Vehicle | Seats | Luggage | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Seater MPV | 8 | 5 large cases or a week's beach kit for a family | Newquay Airport runs, Cottages down narrow lanes | Fits the tightest lanes to the coves. |
| 12 Seater Minibus | 12 | Cases with spare seats, or boards strapped inside | Surf and walking groups, Wedding guests | A good size for the Roseland lanes. |
| 16 Seater Minibus | 16 | Day bags, or cases with a few seats spare | Boardmasters days, Hen and stag weekends in Newquay | The most-booked Truro size. |
| 33 Seater Coach | 33 | Hold under the floor | School trips to Eden, Larger wedding parties | Best on the main roads and at big attractions. |
Truro's role as Cornwall's capital brings a wider mix of groups than a seaside town.
Many of the groups we carry from Truro are not from Truro at all. They have come for a wedding, a family holiday or a festival, arrived at the station or the airport, and need getting to a cottage or hotel somewhere in mid Cornwall. The city is simply the easiest place to meet.
Venues on the Roseland, around the Fal and on the north coast, often at the end of narrow lanes, with guests staying in Truro hotels.
Wedding transportTrips to the Eden Project, the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth and the Royal Cornwall Museum in the city.
School trip transportNights out in Newquay and Falmouth, and surf lessons or coasteering days on the north coast.
Party transportMeetings at New County Hall, conferences in the city and site visits across the county.
Corporate travelStation and airport transfers to cottages, plus days out to the gardens and beaches.
Family travelCornwall is long and thin, so our nearest other areas are over the Tamar.
Groups often start or finish a Cornish holiday in Devon, Somerset or Dorset. A family might fly into Exeter, spend a week near Truro and finish with a few days on the Jurassic Coast, and one vehicle can carry the group and its luggage between each stop.
Cornwall has one airport of its own. For wider choice, groups travel up the A30 and M5.
Cornwall Airport Newquay, at St Mawgan on the north coast, is about 30 minutes from Truro and the obvious choice when it has the flight. It handles UK routes, including London, and a smaller number of European routes, many of them in summer only. It is a small terminal, so drop-off and pickup are quick.
For more destinations, Exeter Airport is about 1 hour 40 minutes away, just off the A30 on the eastern side of Exeter, with holiday flights and connections. Bristol Airport is about 3 hours away, south of Bristol, and has the widest choice in the South West, including many summer holiday routes. Our airport transfers page explains how we plan around flight times.
The biggest is Boardmasters, the surf and music festival held each August above Watergate Bay and on Fistral Beach in Newquay, about 30 minutes north of Truro. Many festival-goers stay in Truro rather than camp, and travel up and back each day. The festival publishes its own rules for private vehicle drop-off, so check them before you travel. Our festival transport page explains how we plan festival runs.
In June, the Royal Cornwall Show fills the showground near Wadebridge, about 40 minutes north-east, with farming, food and crafts. Roads around the showground are busy for the three days, and coach and minibus parties are given their own arrangements, so check the official travel guidance for that year.
Closer to home, Truro's City of Lights lantern procession lights up the city centre on an evening in November, with roads in the centre closed for the parade. Falmouth hosts a sea shanty festival in early summer and a sailing week later in the season, both of which bring crowds to the harbour. Check the official dates for each event, as they change from year to year.
The habits that keep a Cornish day out running to time.
Cornish roads are slower than the map suggests. Main roads like the A30 and A39 are quick outside the holiday season, but the last few miles to a beach, cove or village are often down lanes where two vehicles cannot pass. Local drivers know where to wait and where to reverse, and plan routes that avoid the worst of them.
The Tamar Bridge and the Torpoint ferry, on the way out of Cornwall to Plymouth, charge a toll for vehicles travelling east. The arrangements for paying change from time to time, so check them before you travel if you are driving yourself.
Avoid summer Saturdays for long runs. Holiday changeover day fills the A30 in both directions. A Friday or Sunday is often far quicker.
Start early in August. Car parks in St Ives, Padstow and the north coast beaches fill by mid-morning in the school holidays.
Send the venue's directions. Wedding venues and cottages down private tracks often have their own advice for larger vehicles.
Think about the King Harry Ferry. The chain ferry across the Fal saves a long drive round to the Roseland. We check it suits the vehicle and the timetable.
Agree a pickup time, not a place to wait. Most Cornish harbours have nowhere for a vehicle to wait, so the driver returns at a set time.
The places in the city that bring groups in, and how a vehicle gets close to each.
Truro's centre is small and largely pedestrian, with Boscawen Street, Lemon Quay and the lanes around the cathedral given over to shoppers. That makes it pleasant on foot but means vehicles set down on the roads around the edge. The walk from any of them to the main sights is only a few minutes.
Built between the 1880s and the early 1900s in Gothic Revival style, the cathedral was the first new Anglican cathedral in England since St Paul's. Its spires dominate the skyline from every road into the city. The cathedral sits among narrow streets in the heart of the city, where vehicles cannot stop. We set down nearby and give the group a short walk in, which also suits concerts, services and graduation ceremonies held there.
The county's main theatre stands on Lemon Quay in the centre, with touring musicals, comedy, concerts and pantomime. Coach parties come from across Cornwall for evening shows. For evening performances we agree a pickup time based on the published running time and a meeting point on a road nearby, as Lemon Quay itself is pedestrian.
On River Street, the museum holds Cornwall's own collections of archaeology, minerals and art, and is a regular stop for school parties studying the county's history. It sits on a street close to the centre, so we drop schools near the entrance and agree a collection time with the teachers.
In summer, boat trips run between Truro and Falmouth down the Fal, tide permitting, with some sailings starting from Malpas, just downriver. A group can take the boat one way and the minibus the other. Sailing times depend on the tide, so we confirm the departure point and time with the operator before planning the road leg.
Approximate times in normal conditions. Summer traffic on the A30 and around the resorts adds time.
Journeys within Cornwall are short in miles but vary a great deal with the season. A run to Newquay that takes half an hour in March can take much longer on a bank holiday afternoon, and we plan accordingly.
North via the A39 or the A30.
South on the A39, for the harbour and the university campus.
West on the A30, for the Isles of Scilly ferry and the Minack beyond.
To the far tip of the county.
Via the A390 and A38. See Plymouth.
Up the A30. See minibus hire in Exeter.
A30 and M5, with a break. See Bristol.
Yes. Eden is about 30 minutes east near St Austell and has coach parking. Book entry in advance and we will time the drop-off to suit.
Yes. Newquay is about 30 minutes away, longer in festival traffic. We follow the festival's drop-off rules and agree a late-night pickup point. See Boardmasters transport.
Usually, yes. Many Roseland lanes are narrow, so we check the venue's access and may suggest a 12 seater minibus or two smaller vehicles instead of a coach.
Yes. St Ives is about 45 minutes west. The town streets are very narrow, so we drop at the edge of the town and collect at an agreed time.
Usually about 30 minutes. We track the flight and meet the group in arrivals.
About 1 hour 40 minutes up the A30 in normal traffic, longer on summer Saturdays. See Exeter Airport transfers.
Yes. We meet near the station at a point a vehicle can reach, and can take the group on to a hotel or a cottage anywhere in Cornwall.
Tell us what the group is bringing when you book. Boards and bulky kit need more space than cases, so we may suggest a larger vehicle.
Send the date, where you are staying, where you want to go and how many are travelling, and we will reply with a vehicle and a quote. For weddings, include the venue and the hotels guests are using.