Beaches & Rivers of the South Hams

Watersports near Thurlestone, South DevonFor families there is great choice: sheltered coves and fine sand at Mill Bay and Hope Cove, or the sweeping, safe beach with award-winning Venus Cafe at Blackpool Sands; rock-pooling at Thurlestone; surfing on the magnificent beach at Bantham.  For visitors with dogs most of these and many other beaches welcome dogs such as Slapton Sands, Torcross, Beesands, East Prawle, and Rickham Sands. Find our more from our Beaches page.

SUP at FrogmoreWe have five beautiful estuaries in this area: the Kingsbridge-Salcombe estuary (technically a ria), and the Dart, the Avon, the Erme and the Yealm rivers which all make their way from Dartmoor and before they reach the sea they slow and widen, making gentle waterways for wildlife exploration and safe kayaking, swimming, paddle-boarding and canoeing.

Low carbon watersports

A Summer paddle with Singing Paddles Canoe Adventures offer trips on the Dart in 9 and 12 seat voyager canoes, ideal for family groups.  Singing Paddles has 2-4 hour sessions taking tours, learning paddling skills and playing games on and off the water. Dogs are welcome on these trips and go free of charge. During a paddle down these rivers you could expect to see White Cranes, Herons, Bitterns, and Oystercatchers close up.

Sea kayaking allows you to visit remote beaches and get up close to a variety of amazing wildlife and guided tours are offered by Sea Kayak Devon based in Dartmouth.

Stand up paddle boarding (SUP) is  is now a popular watersport and the gentle creeks around Kingsbridge and the estuaries of the Avon and Erme are perfect places for a spot of SUP. It can be enjoyed by all levels of abilities and ages. Lessons are on offer with Salcombe Paddleboarding near East Portlemouth, and Waterborn near the Kingsbridge Leisure Centre located on the Kingsbridge-Salcombe estuary.

Add a gentle yoga session on top of a paddleboard, for a specially relaxing experience. Donna at Simply Soulful Yoga offers session near Kingsbridge during the Summer season.

Watersports and Extreme Sports

How about trying something new and exciting during your holiday? There are plenty of estuary and seaside adventures in and around our waterways with several local companies offering lessons, hire and adventure days:

Coasteering can take you places along the coastline and around our beautiful estuaries that most other people don’t get to see. Our coastline has a perfect mix of lovely scenery, clean water and some fantastic coasteering terrain to explore. Go Coasteering organise groups from Salcombe and Start Point near Dittiscombe when the conditions are right.

South Devon is known as a great place for wild swimming.  There is a good selection of rivers and sandy beaches and the estuary rivers are good for swimming such as the Avon, Erme and Dart. However, you are advised to check tides (tide timetables are provided in your cottage) and beach safety on the Visit South Devon website

There are windsurfing, kite surfing and kayaking facilities at Blackpool Sands.

Fishing

There are many and varied fishing opportunities in South Devon.  For easy access there are miles of beaches and abundant seas, or for something more challenging there is rock fishing off Start Point and Bolt Head.  Many fishing trips are on offer at Dartmouth and Salcombe; or visitors can take out a permit to fish from the banks on the Dart estuary

Sailing and Boating

Sailing lessons near SalcombeSalcombe Dinghy Sailing operates from Whitestrand in the centre of Salcombe.  Here boats can be hired or you can take professional sailing tuition. Or the Island Cruising Club, based in the Salcombe and Kingsbridge estuary, is a sailing and sail training centre offering tuition or RYA courses for children and adults.

There are numerous ferries which cross the estuaries in the summer months, and river cruises operate for most of the year on the river Dart. Based in Dartmouth the Steam Rail and River Company have several sailings a day and also connect with the steam train to Paignton to make a full day out. Dogs are welcome on these trips. For a water adventure with a splash of history the Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle is the last remaining coal-fired paddle steamer in operation in the UK today and is running on her home waters of the River Dart once more from May until October.

  • Surfing, paddle boarding & wind-surfing

  • Canoe the gentle waterways of the river estuaries

  • Safe swimming and award winning beaches

  • Take an historic trip on a paddle steamer

  • Try more extreme watersports in South Devon

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