East Devon has some of the most varied coastline in England. In a half-hour drive from Hole Mill you can reach a deep red sandstone cove, a working fishing village with shingle to swim from, the long pebble sweep that gave Pebble Bed Heaths its name, and at least two beaches where you are likely to be the only person there. This is our short, honest list — not every beach in East Devon, but the ones we go back to.
1. Branscombe Beach (1 mile from Hole Mill)
Our local. A long pebble beach at the foot of the South West Coast Path, with a National Trust thatched coastguard cottage, a small café (open March–October, closes 4 pm out of season), and the mouth of the Branscombe valley behind. It is rarely crowded — even in August you can walk five minutes east along the shingle and find an empty stretch under the chalk cliffs.
The swimming is excellent. The shelf drops away quickly, so within a few strides of the shore you are out of your depth, and on a calm day the water is gin-clear. Watch the tide if you walk east toward Hooken — the section under the cliffs is impassable at high spring tides.
There is a wood-fired beach sauna at the eastern end of the beach run by Jurassic Sauna. Book a slot for sunset, walk down from Hole Mill, sweat for an hour, then plunge into the sea. It is one of the great Devon experiences.
Practical: Dogs allowed all year. Parking at the top of the lane (small fee) but most guests walk.
2. Beer Beach (5 miles)
A working fishing village three miles east along the coast path. Boats are winched up the shingle by tractor, lobster pots stack against the sea wall, and there are two pubs and a fishmonger directly opposite the beach. Swimming is good — calm because of the chalk headland that shelters the cove — and the pebbles are smaller than Branscombe, which makes the water feel a few degrees warmer.
There is a kiosk selling bait, deck chairs and inflatables in summer. Mackerel boat trips run from May to September from a stand on the beach — about £15 a head for two hours, you keep what you catch, and the fishmonger will gut and fillet your mackerel for free if you ask nicely.
Practical: Pay-and-display car park at the top of the village. Dogs allowed all year on the western half of the beach; restrictions on the eastern half in summer.
3. Sidmouth (8 miles)
The Regency seaside town. Sidmouth has two beaches: the main town beach (red shingle, with the long curving esplanade behind it and a row of white Regency hotels) and Jacob's Ladder, reached by a wooden staircase down from the Connaught Gardens at the western end of the seafront. Jacob's Ladder is the better swim — sandier at low tide, more sheltered, with a small café and a row of beach huts.
Sidmouth is the place to come for proper seaside infrastructure: cafés, ice cream, deck chairs, public loos that work, an independent bookshop on the high street, and the best fish and chips on the East Devon coast (Taylor's, in Old Fore Street).
Practical: Multiple pay-and-display car parks. Dogs banned on the main town beach 1 May to 30 September; allowed on Jacob's Ladder all year.
4. Ladram Bay (12 miles)
The single most photographed cove in Devon, and once you have stood on the shingle and looked at the red sandstone sea stacks you will understand why. Ladram Bay sits between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, accessible only on foot from the South West Coast Path or through the Ladram Bay Holiday Park. The water is the deepest, clearest red-sandstone-bottomed sea you will see anywhere on this coast — drop a snorkel in and you can see fish hovering between the boulders.
This is the best beach in East Devon for wild swimming. The stacks shelter a natural pool of calm water even on rough days. You can swim out to the rocks (about 100 m at low tide) and circle them.
Practical: No public car park — park at Otterton Mill (lovely lunch spot anyway) and walk the 30-minute coast path. Or come from Sidmouth via the cliffs (about an hour's walk each way).
5. Budleigh Salterton (14 miles)
A long, gently curving pebble beach backed by a low promenade with a row of beach huts and a wide, flat expanse of pebbles where the River Otter meets the sea. The town itself has the quietest seafront on the East Devon coast — no arcades, no big signs, just an Edwardian-feel main street and a lot of well-kept gardens. The Fairlynch Museum is worth twenty minutes for the Tudor lace-making history.
The beach is more open than Branscombe or Beer, so there is less shelter when the wind is up, but the tidal flats at the river mouth are a brilliant place to spot wading birds — egrets, oystercatchers, sometimes a kingfisher.
Practical: Pay-and-display car parks. Dogs allowed all year (this is rarer than you would think for a town beach in summer).
6. Weston Mouth (3 miles, on foot)
The wildcard. There is no road to Weston Mouth — you can only reach it on foot, either west along the coast path from Branscombe (about an hour) or down through the Donkey Sanctuary fields from above. It is a long, isolated pebble beach with sea cliffs at both ends, no facilities of any kind, and on most days no other people.
Bring everything you need: water, food, sun protection, and something soft to lie on (the pebbles are sharp). Swimming is excellent in calm weather. You will leave feeling like you have escaped England.
Practical: Free if you walk in. No facilities. Phone signal is poor.
7. Charmouth and Lyme Regis (25 miles)
Just over the Devon–Dorset border but worth the drive for fossil hunting. Both beaches sit at the heart of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. After a winter storm or a low spring tide, ammonites the size of a dinner plate wash up on the dark grey shingle at Charmouth.
If you want a guided fossil walk, book one with the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre — they run two-hour walks for around £10 a head and you keep what you find. Lyme Regis itself has the Cobb (the curving harbour wall made famous by Jane Austen and John Fowles), the Town Mill, and Hix Oyster & Fish House for lunch.
Practical: Pay-and-display in Charmouth and Lyme. Big car parks but they fill up by 11 am on summer weekends.
If we had to pick three? Branscombe for any walk-from-the-door swim, Ladram Bay for a still day, Beer for a working-village afternoon. All three are within easy reach of Hole Mill, and you can do all three in a long week without rushing.