Beer

What a great name for a village. Fishing boats and tackle are lined up on the shore in a very orderly way. They share the beach with holidaymakers and anglers. The café is great.

Sidmouth

Handsome hotels, many of them Regency and Victorian, and seafront buildings, line the roads and the esplanade. Peaceful gardens & clipped lawns lie at the eastern end.

Budleigh Salterton

This small town is sited where the River Otter reaches the sea. Its broad sweep of pink, pebbled beach is guarded by red sandstone cliffs.

Exmouth

Stylish and spacious, Exmouth has some grand gardens and parks. The cliffs that form the coast along here give way to miles of flat sandy beach.

Dawlish

The spine of this family resort is The Lawn, ornamental gardens through which Dawlish Water flows over a series of small weirs. The main Exeter to Plymouth railway line runs beside the sea on this stretch of coast and trains are frequently battered in winter storms. In Dawlish the sea can be reached by walking under the track. Turning left or right, a wide scenic footpath tops the sea wall beside the railway and above the deep-red shingle/sand beach.

Teignmouth

Like many of its neighbours, stone was shipped from here in the early 19^th century. Today ball clay from local quarries is exported and used to make crockery and bathroom fittings. The sea side consists of a long beach of dark red sand backed by a promenade. From the centre, the Grand Pier, opened in 1867, reaches out into Babbacombe Bay.

The River Teign flows out at the southern end of the beach and creates, on the land side, a shelter for pleasure craft and fishing vessels. Working sheds share the water’s edge with smart residential buildings.

The shore shelves steeply here and there can be treacherous currents. A passenger ferry crosses regularly over the estuary to Shaldon.