Penzance is one of the sunniest and friendliest of West Country towns and a 'gateway' to the mysterious Land's End Peninsula, the most inspiring region of Celtic Britain.

Penzance is a perfect base for exploring the spectacular south east coast of Cornwall. In and around Penzance you'll find a good selection of Hotels, Bed and Breakfast and Holiday Cottages, whilst nearby can be found many good quality camping and caravan sites and holiday parks.

The town's busy harbour is filled with moored yachts and pleasure craft and within its granite-walled dock larger fishing boats and commercial vessels load and unload. Close to the harbour is the unique Trinity House National Lighthouse Centre with its captivating exhibitions and displays.

Beyond the harbour is the open-air Jubilee Bathing Pool, designed in a nostalgic art-deco style. From the Jubilee Pool, Penzance's famous promenade, the longest in Cornwall, runs along the Mount's Bay shoreline.

Penzance is an ideal town to explore on foot. The main street is Market Jew Street, a busy shopping area with a flanking terrace that leads gently uphill to the handsome classical building of the Market House. Behind Market House is Market Place from where the other shopping streets of Causewayhead and Alverton Street lead off. From here also, the old world Chapel Street winds down between attractive buildings that include the lavishly-painted and ornamented Egyptian House, the 14th century Turk's Head Inn, the Admiral Benbow restaurant and the final flourish of the tall tower of the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

Penzance's south-facing aspect and mild climate has nurtured the sub-tropical Morrab Gardens and the peaceful Penlee Memorial Park. Both lie between the centre of the town and the seafront. The refurbished Penlee House Art Gallery and Museum in Penlee Park has an outstanding collection of works of art and has archaeological and local history sections. The Cornwall Geological Museum, at St John's Hall in Alverton Street, has one of the best geological displays in Europe, as befits a town at the historic centre of Cornish mineral mining. The Wharfside Shopping Centre, part of the Penzance regeneration scheme, is here in the centre of town.