Short answer: You can do Boscastle for well under £50 because the harbour, Willapark, the blowhole and Valency Valley walks are free. The fixed costs are parking (£1.50 an hour, £7.20 for 24 hours, free after 4pm) and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic at £8 adults, £5 ages 6 to 17, open to 31 October. Two adults spend £23.20 on both, leaving £26.80 for food.
A Boscastle day out for £50 or less is easier than in most Cornish harbours, because the best parts cost nothing: the harbour, the cliffs, the woods and the waterfall viewpoints are all open countryside. What costs money is parking, the museum, and where you eat. Here is how the sums work for two adults, with a note for families.
The National Trust looks after the harbour and the land around it, and the countryside is open from dawn to dusk. You pay nothing to:
Our Boscastle walks guide has the routes in detail.
Most people use the Cobweb car park (PL35 0HE), run by Cornwall Council. Charges apply from 9am to 4pm: £1.50 for an hour, £5.70 for up to four hours, £7.20 for 24 hours and £17.60 for a week. It is free from 4pm, and you can pay by card, contactless, cash or the JustPark app. Our parking guide has the full breakdown, and the pay machine on the day is the final word. The toilets by the car park charge 20p, per the National Trust.
The useful trick for a tight budget: arrive after 4pm for an evening walk and pay nothing, or buy four hours at £5.70 and walk everything above for the price of a sandwich.
The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic (4.5 from 2,860 Google reviews) charges £8 for adults and £5 for children aged 6 to 17, according to the museum's website. Under-5s are free, and the site does not say which price applies at exactly five, so ask at the desk. There are no other concessions. It is open daily from 10am (last entry 4:30pm) until 31 October 2026, then closes for the winter. Our museum times and prices page has the rest. Dogs other than assistance dogs are not allowed, and the building is not step free.
Boscastle splits into cheap and expensive quite sharply. Food prices change and most places do not publish them online, so read the board before you order.
The Napoleon Inn (4.6 from 791 Google reviews) is a steep walk up from the village centre. Reviewers praise the home-made pies, haddock and chips, and gluten-free choice. At the Cobweb Inn (4.4 from 1,582 Google reviews), a reviewer called a chilli and a ploughman's "very well priced".
The Rocket Store (4.6 from 627 Google reviews) is the harbour's seafood restaurant, and a reviewer described it as "very expensive on the whole". It is worth knowing about, not a budget item. The Wellington (4.6 from 896 Google reviews) by the harbour serves lunch and dinner too, but a sit-down meal there is better treated as a treat than a budget stop.
Using only the published prices above:
After October the museum drops off. Two adults who park for four hours (£5.70) and stick to the free walks have £44.30 of a £50 budget left for the Napoleon, a bakery pasty lunch or anything else. If you want to spend the saving, St Nectan's Waterfall (4.6 from 4,357 Google reviews) charges £11 per adult and £6 for children aged 5 to 15 on its official site, and its car park is £3 for the day. Two adults come to £25 including parking. Our St Nectan's Glen guide has the detail.
A little. Children's museum entry is £5, and the free walks do the heavy lifting. A family of four (two adults, two children aged 6 to 17) would pay £16 plus £10, so £26 for the museum. With £7.20 parking that is £33.20, leaving £16.80 of a £50 day for food. That is tight, so pasties from the bakery eaten on the quay are the best-value lunch. Or skip the museum and spend the day on the free walks, which leaves £42.80 after the same parking. At St Nectan's, two adults and two children aged 5 to 15 would pay £34 for the waterfall, plus £3 parking.
Yes. Go Cornwall's 95 bus between Bude and Wadebridge stops at the Boscastle car park and the bridge, and runs about every two hours on Saturdays. It does not run on Sundays until Easter 2027, so check the timetable first. The harbour car park is free from 4pm, which suits a late walk to Willapark. In the other direction, Tintagel is the next village along the coast. Our Tintagel day out for £50 or less picks up the same idea, and the Boscastle town page lists everything else we cover here.
Walking the harbour, Willapark, the blowhole point and the Valency Valley path costs nothing, and the National Trust says the countryside is open from dawn to dusk. You pay for parking, the museum and food.
The museum's website lists £8 for adults and £5 for children aged 6 to 17, with under-5s free. It closes for the season on 31 October 2026.
The Cobweb car park charges from 9am to 4pm and is free from 4pm. A 24-hour ticket is £7.20 and four hours is £5.70. Check the pay machine on the day.
Boscastle Bakery for a pasty, Sharon's Plaice for fish and chips, and the National Trust cafe for cakes and ice cream are the cheapest options. Reviewers also rate the Napoleon Inn's pub meals.
The official site lists £11 for adults and £6 for ages 5 to 15, with under-5s free, and the car park is £3 for the day. It is a muddy walk, not suitable for pushchairs.
Times, prices and dates are the businesses' and organisers' to change, so check before you travel. Spotted something we've got wrong? Tell us and we'll fix it.
See the full Boscastle guide, filtered by who's with you.
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