W hatever your tastes, South Devon has a resort for you. If you yearn for a beach town packed with entertainment, there’s the area around Torbay and the English Riviera. Or you can get away from it all in the comparative peace of the beautiful South Hams, or pocket-sized Bigbury-on-Sea. There’s also Salcombe for sailing, and Dartmouth and Brixham for those looking for Devon’s salty seadog past.

1 DAWLISH
This sedate 19th-century town is ideal for those seeking a quiet holiday. It was a favourite of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, who set part of Nicholas Nickleby in the town. One distinctive feature of Dawlish is the great railway embankment built along the coast by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1846 that gave Victorian city children their first ever view of the sea. It separates the beach and the resort.
Don’t miss the ornamental gardens, known as The Lawn, through which the Dawlish Water brook runs to the ocean. It is home to Chinese swan geese, East Indian ducks, and other exotic wildfowl.

2 TEIGNMOUTH
Long since eclipsed by its rival Torbay, Teignmouth has undergone a revival in popularity in recent years and house prices have soared. A theatre, pier and cinema top the attractions of this traditional resort. The sweeping expanse of inviting dark red sand affords safe bathing right in front of the town, although you should watch out for strong currents at the southern end. Behind the seafront and its modern amenities, the town has a fine array of 19th-century houses and a working harbour, although most of the moorings in the estuary are now given over to pleasure craft.

3 TORQUAY
The poet Tennyson once described Torquay as “the loveliest village in Britain”. But when the railway arrived in 1848 bringing hundreds of visitors, a tree-lined seaside metropolis blossomed around the old harbour. It is now more akin to a city. This is the heart of the English Riviera – some people even compare it with Mediterranean resorts like Monte Carlo. Beaches are comparatively small here, but the town offers nightlife and popular entertainment as well as an excellent shopping centre.
Among the major attractions are Torre Abbey and the Oddicombe Beach cliff railway. The station is famous for its links with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, but don’t expect to see the original Fawlty Towers – that was filmed in Berkshire.

4 PAIGNTON
Paignton is a family resort, boasting no less than three splendid beaches: Goodrington Sands, Broadsands and the town beach. You will also find several small coves such as Saltern and Elberry, as well as easy coastal walks and a harbour which dates from Paignton’s days as a fishing village. Traditional attractions to suit all tastes and pockets are available, with Paignton Zoo (as seen on BBC1’s The Zoo Keepers), the Quaywest outdoor water park and the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway perennial favourites.

5 BRIXHAM
Brixham is the gem of the Torbay district. Despite the massive influx of visitors, the harbour has lost none of its charm and remains surprisingly unspoilt.
In fact, as well as being a tourist magnet, this town is still very much a working port, with trawlers sharing the water with leisure craft. Pride of place in the harbour is a replica of the Golden Hind, the ship in which Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world. A statue just next to the harbour marks the landing of William of Orange in 1688.

6 DARTMOUTH
Once the leading trading port of Devon, Dartmouth has been one of Britain’s most important harbours since the Middle Ages. Crusaders set sail from here in the 12th century; Sir Walter Ralegh patronised the port during the great Elizabethan age of discovery; and in 1944, a flotilla of 400 boats departed for the D-Day landings.
The unspoilt waterfront of timbered three-storey houses, the 17th-century Butterwalk and the cobbled quay at Bayard’s Cove, all evoke the great days of tall sailing ships. There are many pleasure-boat trips on offer, both out to sea and up the estuary of the River Dart. Dartmouth Castle, completed on the orders of Henry VIII in 1537, is also worth a visit.

7 SALCOMBE
This yachting Mecca not only has one of the warmest climates in Britain but also some of Devon’s most evocative coastal scenery. Salcombe lies at the mouth of a series of creeks that offer boats sheltered berths. While the town itself has grown up around its harbour activities, the best beaches are to be found on the opposite side of the estuary at East Portlemouth; Sunny Cove really is as its name suggests.
Even the gardens have a decidedly sub-tropical appearance, with the coastal paths and cliff tops a haven for numerous rare species of brightly coloured butterflies and birds.

8 BIGBURY-ON-SEA
This low-key bungalow resort faces one of the biggest sandy beaches in South Devon. At every other tide, the sands uncovered by the sea form a causeway leading to Burgh Island, the setting for Agatha Christie’s Evil Under The Sun. The world’s only ‘sea tractor’ ferries visitors to and from the island when the tide is in.
Coastal walks from Bigbury are superb; a short walk leads to the popular family resort of Challaborough Bay with its sprawling static caravan sites and curving beach, and to the east, a ferry will take you over the River Avon to the unspoilt village of Bantham and its equally glorious dunes and sands.