Bude sits on Cornwall’s north coast, closer to the Devon border than to most Cornish towns. That relative isolation is part of its appeal - it has avoided the overcrowding that hits places like Newquay and St Ives in peak summer. What you get instead is a compact town with genuine surf beaches, a tidal sea pool from the 1930s, a canal system dating to 1823, and a heritage centre housed in the former home of a Victorian inventor. It is also home to one of the internet’s most celebrated tourist attractions - a plastic tunnel outside a supermarket.
This guide covers what is worth doing in and around Bude, from beach days to coast path walks and a detour to the old market town of Stratton.
Bude Sea Pool
The Bude Sea Pool is a semi-natural tidal pool at the eastern end of Summerleaze Beach. Built in 1930 with funding from the Thynne family, it measures roughly 88 by 43 metres and holds around 4 million litres of sea water. The sea replenishes it at high tide twice a day, which means the water is clean and constantly refreshed.
Swimming here is free, open year-round, and requires no booking. The pool is deep enough for proper swimming but sheltered enough for children - a combination that the open Atlantic rarely provides. Water temperature ranges from about 11 degrees Celsius in April to around 18 degrees in late summer.
The pool is maintained entirely by the Friends of Bude Sea Pool, a volunteer-run charity that took over management in 2012 after the local authority withdrew funding. Over 400,000 pounds has been spent on repairs and restoration since then, all funded through donations and fundraising. If you swim here, dropping something in the collection box is a reasonable thing to do.
The Beaches
Summerleaze Beach
Summerleaze is Bude’s main beach, reached by walking down from the town centre past the canal. It has a large stretch of sand at low tide, a breakwater that shelters part of the beach from the strongest swells, and the sea pool at its eastern edge. There is a pay car park at the top of the beach. Summerleaze works well for families - it is lifeguarded in summer and the river section near the canal entrance stays shallow.
Crooklets Beach
Crooklets sits north of Summerleaze, separated by a rocky headland. It is wider, more exposed, and popular with surfers. Several surf schools operate from the beach during summer, and the Bude Surf Life Saving Club is based here. The car park is close to the sand, and the beach has a cafe. Crooklets picks up more swell than Summerleaze, making it a better bet for riding waves but a little less sheltered for young swimmers.
Widemouth Bay
Widemouth Bay is about 3 miles south of Bude and draws surfers from across the south west. The beach is long and sandy with consistent waves and lifeguard cover from May to September. Surf hire and lessons are available on the beach. At low tide, the sand stretches a considerable distance and there is plenty of space even in August. Two car parks serve the beach - one at the north end, one at the south.
Widemouth is one of the most reliable beginner surf spots in Cornwall. The wide, gently shelving sand produces the kind of rolling whitewater that makes standing up on a board feel possible rather than aspirational.
Bude Canal
The Bude Canal opened in 1823, originally stretching over 35 miles inland to transport lime-rich sand from the beaches for agricultural fertiliser. The canal system was remarkable for using inclined planes to haul tub boats on chains up slopes - a method unique in British canal engineering. Only the first 2 miles remain navigable today, running from the harbour past the marshes to the village of Helebridge.
Walking the towpath is one of the most pleasant things to do in Bude. The surface is level and accessible, running alongside the Bude Marshes nature reserve. Herons, kingfishers, and moorhens are common, and otters have been spotted in the waterway.
You can kayak or canoe the canal as well. Several operators run guided paddles, and it is possible to launch your own craft for a small fee. The canal connects to the harbour and, in the right conditions, experienced paddlers can head out into Summerleaze Bay and along the coastline. For a relaxed family paddle, the 2.5-mile stretch to Helebridge and back is flat water all the way.
Surfing
Bude is one of Cornwall’s most accessible surf towns. Crooklets and Widemouth Bay are the main spots, but Summerleaze also works on smaller days. The town has several surf shops and schools, and board and wetsuit hire is easy to find.
Widemouth Bay is particularly well suited to beginners. The wide sandy beach and steady Atlantic swell produce consistent waves without the sharp reef breaks found further south. Surf schools operate from the beach during the season, running group and private lessons.
For more experienced surfers, the reef breaks at the northern end of Crooklets and around Northcott Mouth pick up bigger swells and offer more challenging conditions. Bude’s north-facing coast catches swell from a wide window, which means there are rideable waves on most days between April and October.
Bude Castle and Heritage Centre
Bude Castle was built in 1830 by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, a Cornish inventor and engineer who created the Bude Light - a lighting system that was later used in the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square. The castle sits on sand dunes overlooking Summerleaze Beach, and Gurney set it on a concrete raft foundation - reportedly the first use of this construction method anywhere.
Today the Grade II listed building operates as The Castle Heritage Centre, run by Bude-Stratton Town Council. Entry is free and the building is open daily from 10am to 4pm. Inside you will find exhibits on Bude’s history, shipwrecks, the local railway, and the Civil War, plus two art galleries with a rotating programme of exhibitions - more than 30 per year. Cafe Limelight in the conservatory looks out over the canal and Summerleaze Beach.
Compass Point and Coast Path Walks
Compass Point is an octagonal tower built in the 1840s on Efford Down, overlooking Summerleaze Beach and the breakwater. Modelled on the Tower of Winds in Athens, it was originally a coastguard lookout station with the points of the compass inscribed on each face. The tower is a Grade II listed building and has been moved back from the cliff edge more than once due to coastal erosion.
A popular circular walk takes in both the canal towpath and the coast path via Efford Down and Compass Point. The route starts from the canal near the tourist information centre, heads inland along the towpath, then climbs gently up Efford Down to the trig point. From there you drop down to the Storm Tower at Compass Point, then follow the coast path back above the breakwater and into town. The walk is moderate and mostly flat apart from the hill between canal and coast path, with no stiles.
From Compass Point, the South West Coast Path runs in both directions. Heading south takes you toward Widemouth Bay and eventually Crackington Haven. Going north leads to Sandymouth and Morwenstow - about 6 miles of dramatic cliff walking. The north section passes some of the most rugged coastline in Cornwall, with folded rock formations and relatively few other walkers.
The Bude Tunnel
The Bude Tunnel is a 70-metre covered walkway connecting the Sainsbury’s car park to Crooklets Road. That is all it is - a perspex-roofed passage designed to keep shoppers dry on the walk to their cars.
In 2018, an unknown person listed it on TripAdvisor as a Bude attraction with an extravagantly positive review. Thousands of tongue-in-cheek reviews followed, and the Tunnel briefly became the top-rated attraction in Bude on the platform. It has won a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award and has been covered by national newspapers.
The tunnel is free to visit (as you would expect of a supermarket walkway), and people genuinely travel to Bude specifically to see it. If you do go, the most honest review would be: it is a tunnel, it is made of plastic, and it is precisely as remarkable as that sounds. But the comedy of the reviews makes it worth reading a few on your phone while standing inside.
Stratton
Stratton is an old market town about 1.5 miles inland from Bude. King John granted it a charter for three annual fairs in 1207, and it was the most important town in north Cornwall for several hundred years - Bude was originally just its port.
The main attraction here is the Tree Inn, a 13th-century manor house that became a pub. During the English Civil War, Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville used it as his headquarters after the Battle of Stamford Hill in 1643. The pub displays a cannonball from the battle in a glass case. The Tree Inn is also the birthplace of Anthony Payne - the so-called Cornish Giant, who stood over 7 feet tall and served as Grenville’s bodyguard.
Stratton is worth half an hour of wandering. The streets retain their medieval layout, and there are a handful of independent shops and cafes. You can walk here from Bude along quiet lanes, or drive and park in the village.
Where to Eat
Life’s a Beach
Life’s a Beach (often shortened to LAB) sits directly on Summerleaze Beach at 20 Summerleaze Crescent. It has been family-run since 1999 and serves food throughout the day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The menu leans toward seafood and burgers with a casual, surf-town feel. The location is the real draw: you can eat with a direct view of the beach and the Atlantic. Booking is advised in summer.
The Deck
The Deck is a bar and grill at 19 Summerleaze Crescent, next door to Life’s a Beach. The style is chargrilled skewers, burgers, and fusion dishes - a mix of British classics and flavours from further afield. The hanging skewers are a signature dish. It has a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere and some dog-friendly tables. Like LAB, it fills up quickly in peak season.
The Barrel at Bude
For a pub meal, The Barrel at Bude is on the main street and serves real ales alongside a straightforward food menu. Stratton’s Tree Inn is also worth the short trip for a pint in a building with genuine Civil War history.
Other Options
Bude has a solid range of cafes, fish and chip shops, and takeaways clustered around the town centre and the beaches. The Bude Farmers’ Market runs on the first and third Friday of each month if you want to self-cater with local produce.
Getting to Bude
Bude has no railway station - the nearest is Exeter St Davids, about 50 miles east. Most visitors arrive by car via the A39 from the M5, or by bus from Exeter. The 6/6A bus service connects Bude to Exeter, though it runs infrequently. Once in town, most things are walkable. The beaches, canal, castle, and town centre are all within a 15-minute walk of each other.
If you are looking for places to stay in Bude, the town has a mix of hotels, B&Bs, holiday cottages, and campsites. Widemouth Bay also has several holiday parks and caravan sites.
More to Do Nearby
Bude makes a good base for exploring north Cornwall. Crackington Haven is a short drive south - a dramatic cove squeezed between high cliffs. Boscastle and its harbour are about 15 miles down the coast. Inland, Bodmin Moor is within an hour’s drive. And the coast path in both directions from Bude offers some of the quietest, most dramatic cliff walking in the county.
For more ideas across the region, see our full guide to things to do in Cornwall and our beaches guide.
