Porth Beach is on the eastern outskirts of Newquay, on the north coast.

This west-northwest facing beach is wider than it is long and the tide is channelled between Porth Island to the north and the headland to the south.

The sand is fairly coarse and on the south side is quite gravelly.

No sand dunes seem to be present

The Porth Stream enters under a road bridge and is channelled westward alongside the promenade at the northern end of the beach but can flow through the training walls and cut through the beach. The Porth Stream has some wetland vegetation upstream of the road bridge, but is cut off from sand supply by the road, which also separates the valley from the north-eastern side of the beach.

At the southern end of the beach there is a relatively small discharge of water through a culvert. The south-eastern side of the beach is bounded by residential properties between the beach and the road.