Short answer: St Ives in half-term week: do the outdoor banker in the morning, keep the indoor fallback ready, and check winter opening hours before driving anywhere. Half term runs 26–30 October for most schools.
St Ives half term is the town reclaimed: galleries without queues, beaches without towel wars, and the branch-line train doing the parking for you.
The dates: half term for most Cornish schools is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026 (a few academy trusts take the week before as well), and most English counties share the same week — so expect other families about, but nothing remotely like summer.
Have the wet plan ready before you need it — the too-windy fallback plan is the one to bookmark, and ice cream — yes, in October covers the refuelling.
Two things catch families out this week: winter opening hours (many attractions and cafés drop days or shorten hours from late October — check before you drive) and the 5pm-ish sunset, which means the beach or walk goes in the morning and the cosy thing goes after lunch. The compensation is space: car parks that are war zones in August are half empty now. Halloween events pop up everywhere this week — worth checking individual attractions' pages.
Everything else — filtered by who's with you — is in the St Ives guide, and the county-wide Bonfire Night guide covers what the week rolls into next.
See the full St Ives guide, filtered by who's with you.
Plan your day near St Ives →