Rail to Trail: A journey to Cornwall's famous hike

My journey began in Haarlem, the small Dutch city I call home.  While I could write an entire article explaining why Haarlem is an essential stop on any Interrail trip to the Netherlands (stay tuned, maybe I will!), here are a few places I visited in the weeks leading up to my trip that helped get me in the spirit of the South West Coast Path. 

• Queens Tearoom, a short walk from Haarlem Station, feels like a portal across the English Channel. In addition to its indulgent afternoon tea offering, Queens is famous for its scones, homemade with a secret family recipe. 

• Haarlem’s Grote Markt is alive in full force on Saturdays, when food vendors take over the space between the Grote Kerk and Town Hall. I always urge travellers to stop by a stand called “De Echte Notenspecialist” to pick up dried fruits, chocolates, and nuts as a snack on their upcoming train ride.  

• Just a short bicycle ride from Haarlem is Zuid-Kennemerland National Park, a vast and mesmerising landscape of dunes and forest, crisscrossed by walking and cycling paths. It might not be as hilly as the Cornish coastline, but I went on a few walks (and swims!) here to train for hiking the South West Coast Path.

After a sunny ride on the Eurostar through the Belgian and French countryside, I arrived in London, the usual first stop among Interrailers coming to Great Britain from continental Europe.

London is one of those cities that can overwhelm a short-term visitor — so once I met up Erica, we decided to go on a Tour-du-Friends across the city, visiting the neighbourhoods of different pals who have settled there over the years.

• The evening we arrived in London, a friend who lives in Soho treated us to a pre-dinner walk around Leicester Square, Chinatown, and Piccadilly Circus — a healthy dose of city life before our retreat into the wilds of Cornwall. 

• The next morning, we joined two more friends for a morning pick-me-up at Dharma Coffee in Richmond, followed by a walk on the Thames Towpath and browsing at the Open Book. 

• Erica and I capped off our time in London with a picnic on Hampstead Heath. We weren’t alone — the park was dotted with travellers and locals alike, all appreciating the sight of the sunset over the Heath’s oak and birch trees. 

Our five-hour journey from London to Cornwall flew by in a haze of green patchwork fields and seaside views from our window. Considered to be one of the most scenic train rides in Europe, the journey through some of England’s most beautiful landscapes left Erica and me feeling elated — and admittedly a little jittery — about our upcoming trek. 

• After disembarking our train in St. Ives, we fuelled up with the first of many Cornish pasties we’d consume during our time in England’s southwest. In a way, it was like tasting history — the savoury pastry, a Cornwall specialty filled with cheese, potato, onions and other ingredients, has been enjoyed as far back as the 1200s.   
• Across the street from The Cornish Bakery is St Ives Bookseller. Two book lovers, Erica and I were drawn inside like literature-seeking moths to a flame; I left with a book called Cornish Folk Tales to read on the Path.  
• We arrived in St. Ives on the summer solstice, and it only felt right to spend as much time in the sun as possible. Our server at St. Eia, a restaurant that sources many of its ingredients from nearby farms and dairies, recommended catching the sunset at Porthmeor Beach — it didn’t disappoint.

Strictly speaking, St. Ives and Penzance are not far from one another — by train, it takes only a half-hour to go from one town to the other, each situated on opposites sides of the “neck” of the Penwith Peninsula. However, this is where our rail journey transformed into a trail adventure. Over the course of five days, Erica and I walked 65 miles (about 105 kilometres) along the rugged Cornish coastline, past easy-going surf towns and ancient stone rings, herds of wild Dartmoor ponies and the remains of a shipwreck. 

By the time we'd arrived in Penzance, we’d fully acclimated to our days of walking the path — an early breakfast, a long day of walking with a stop for a trailside lunch, and finally dinner at cosy B&Bs along the coastline. It was bittersweet to return to regular life — but Penzance managed to quickly charm us with its own kind of magic. 

• Our stay in Penzance coincided with Golowan, a 10-day festival that falls around the same time as the Feast of St. John and the midsummer solstice. I highly recommend anyone making the journey to Penzance keep an eye out for festivities and celebrations throughout the year — during our time in the small city, we got an up-close look at local traditions such as the arrival of “Penglaz the Obby Oss” and the serpent dance.  
• Whether you’re hiking along the South West Coast Path or simply visiting Penzance for a few days, take time to walk the coastline to Newlyn, a neighbouring town known for its fishing industry. In Newlyn, we stopped at Duke Street Cafe to try a classic cream tea — afternoon tea with scones, clotted cream and jam. Local tip: in Cornwall, jam is spread on the scone first, followed by a dollop of clotted cream. 
• On the other side of Penzance lies the town of Marazion — also on the South West Coast Path — and its main attraction: St Michael’s Mount. When the tide is low, you can walk across a causeway to reach the tidal island — otherwise, boats are available to ferry visitors back and forth.  

On the journey back to London, I found myself noticing details I had missed the first time around — for example, the Westbury White Horse, the shape of an ivory-coloured equine carved into the Wiltshire hillside in the 1700s. Spending five days doing the slowest possible form of Slow Travel, walking from place to place, seemed to leave me more attuned to the details outside my train window. 

• This time around, Erica and I used colourful Kentish Town as our home base — after spending the previous week in the Cornish countryside, the bubble-gum pink and turquoise houses lining the neighbourhood’s streets provided a cheerful re-entry into city life.
• From our accommodation in Kentish Town, we walked about 30 minutes to Holloway Road, lined with many locally-owned shops and restaurants. For dinner, we opted for Sambal Shiok, a Malaysian restaurant known for its mouth-watering curry laksa, followed by a stop at Topa Pintxo Bar a few doors down.  
• Before I caught my train back to the Netherlands, Erica and I popped into Kentish Town’s Lilac Cafe for a bittersweet coffee and breakfast before saying our farewells.  

As my train crossed back over the Dutch border, I looked up from what I was reading — a book called Dark, Salt, Clear by Cornwall writer Lamorna Ash — and thought about our experience hiking the South West Coast Path.

What stood out most vividly was not what we saw but who we met — the two women from Germany hiking the path together, just like Erica and me. The four friends in their 60s, men born and raised in Cornwall, who’ve been chipping away at sections of the South West Coast Path together since 2020.

The people Erica and I met made the trip come alive in unexpected ways. And despite the bittersweetness of returning home, I know there will be plenty of ways to capture this spirit of connection in everyday life — striking up conversation with a vendor at Haarlem’s Saturday market, helping a tourist find the right train platform at Amsterdam Centraal.

This will be enough until I can return to the path once again.

Rachel Schnalzer (right) is a senior writer at Eurail, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In June, she travelled from the Netherlands to Cornwall to hike part of the South West Coast Path with her friend Erica (left).