Guest Blog Post
Dartmouth is a good size for a weekend. The town sits on a steep hillside above the River Dart, close enough to the sea that you can walk to it, and small enough that you can leave the car parked from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Two days give you time for the river, the castle, a stretch of coast path and a couple of long meals, without feeling like you are ticking things off.
This is a rough plan for those two days, plus a note on the one bit people tend to leave until last: where to sleep.
Friday evening: the embankment and Bayards Cove
Arrive before dark if you can. The embankment is where the town shows off, with boats swinging on their moorings, Kingswear stacked up on the far bank and the passenger ferry crossing back and forth. Walk south along the water to Bayards Cove, the small cobbled quay with the remains of a Tudor fort at the end. It is a five minute stroll and it sets the tone.
Dinner is easy. Dartmouth has more good places to eat than a town of its size has any right to, from pub kitchens to fish counters to restaurants that book out on busy weekends. If you are visiting during the Food Festival in October or the Regatta in late August, reserve ahead. Otherwise, a short walk through the lanes behind the quay usually turns up a table.
Saturday: castle, coast path and the river
Start with the walk out to Dartmouth Castle. It follows the river for about a mile, past Warfleet Creek, to where the castle guards the narrow mouth of the Dart. Go inside for the gun tower and the views back up river. In summer there is a small ferry from the town quay if you would rather save your legs for later.
From the castle, the South West Coast Path climbs towards Little Dartmouth and Start Bay. You do not have to go far. Half an hour along the cliffs gives you the open sea, the headlands and, on a clear day, the long curve of the coast down to Start Point. Turn around whenever you like.
Back in town, spend the afternoon on the water. The passenger ferry to Kingswear takes a few minutes and drops you by the steam railway station, where trains run along the Dart and the coast to Paignton. Or take one of the river boats up to Dittisham or Greenway, Agatha Christie’s old holiday house, which the National Trust now opens to visitors. The river is quieter than the sea and the views are different again: wooded banks, creeks and the odd heron.
If the weather turns, the Flavel has a cinema and a theatre programme, and the galleries and independent shops around Foss Street fill a wet hour or two without trouble.
Sunday: a slow morning and a beach
Have a long breakfast. Royal Avenue Gardens on the front is a good place to sit with a coffee and watch the harbour wake up. Then, depending on the season, either drive the ten minutes to Blackpool Sands for a swim or a walk along the shingle, or stay put and let the kids crab off the embankment, which is as much of a Dartmouth tradition as anything.
Leave in the afternoon. Nobody does this town justice in a rush.
Where you stay changes the weekend
All of the above works from almost anywhere in Dartmouth, but the stay still shapes the trip. A room on the harbour front puts you two minutes from dinner and the first ferry. A bed and breakfast up the hill swaps that short walk for a view over the rooftops and the river. A place across the water in Kingswear gives you a quieter night and a ferry ride to start each day. None of these is the wrong choice. They are just different weekends.
That is also why a stay in Dartmouth works well as a gift. Rather than picking the hotel for someone, you give them the choice. A weekend away gift voucher from Hotelgiftcard covers independent hotels and B&Bs as well as the larger names, so the person receiving it can decide between the harbour front, the hill or the far bank themselves, and pick the dates that suit them.
One thing to know before you buy: the voucher is not handed over at reception. The stay is booked online through hotelgiftcard.com before arrival, and the voucher value is applied at that point. That is what lets a small harbourside B&B take part without any tie-in with the voucher company, and it is why the range runs to more than 38,000 places to stay across the UK. For Dartmouth, where most of the best places to sleep are independently run, that matters.
Book early for Regatta week and the Food Festival, when the town fills up. For the rest of the year, a few weeks ahead is usually enough, and the harder decision will be the one at the top of this article: harbour, hill or across the river.
“Sponsered”
