Short answer: Canonteign has the bigger drop, an excellent café and a flatter lower route as well as the climb — better if walking is a concern. Becky Falls has three graded trails and animal talks included, which suits families with children. Both charge, so pick one.
Children and a family day: Becky Falls. Scenery, and anyone who would rather not climb: Canonteign. Both charge admission and doing both in one day is a lot of money for two waterfalls twenty minutes apart.
Ancient woodland with three trail options, so you can match the walk to the group rather than committing everybody to the hardest version. Animal talks are included in the ticket, which gives you a fixed point in the day and a sit-down. The path to the falls themselves is rocky — the easier trails avoid the worst of it.
The bigger spectacle, about twenty minutes from Exeter and a similar distance from Bovey. The advice that matters is to take the right-hand path up, and that there is a flatter lower route if the climb is not wanted. The café is genuinely good rather than a tea urn in a hut.
After rain. Both improve substantially with water in them and both can look underwhelming at the end of a dry fortnight. Winter and early spring are when they are at their most impressive, which is also when the woodland is quietest.
East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve is free, has four car parks and a riverside bird hide, and gives you river and woodland without an admission charge. It has no waterfall, but if the day is really about being among trees beside water, it does the job for nothing.
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