Squeezed into a ravine on either side of the River Pol, Polperro's color-washed cottages and narrow, twisting streets look like something out of a theme park. Only... they're not. They're the real deal. The Cornish tourist board touts the Saxon and Roman bridges, the famous House on Props, the old Watch House, and the fish quay as some of the major attractions. But just walking through Polperro is a treat.
Paris has the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay. Madrid has the Prado. In Polperro, the "must see" is the world-famous Heritage Museum of Smuggling and Fishing. It houses a remarkable collection of exhibits and 19th-century photographs, as well as memorabilia dating from the 1700s when both smuggling and fishing were big business along the Cornish coast.