Short answer: Sidmouth faces south, so the sun sets over the red cliffs to the west of the town rather than out to sea. Connaught Gardens on the clifftop above Jacob's Ladder is the easiest good viewpoint, and the western end of the esplanade catches the last of it.
Sidmouth sits in a gap between two enormous red sandstone headlands, facing roughly south. The sun sets behind the western cliff rather than into the sea, which shortens the evening but gives you something else: the light hitting the red rock as it goes, which is genuinely spectacular and quite unlike anywhere else on this coast.
The easiest and best viewpoint. The clifftop gardens above Jacob's Ladder are free to walk around, well kept, and high enough to see over the town in one direction and down the coast in the other. The Clock Tower café inside has sea views from the tables, though it closes well before sunset — closed Tuesdays entirely.
Walk up here in the last hour of light and you get the red cliffs on both sides of the bay lit up.
Jacob's Ladder itself sits under the western cliff, which means it loses the sun earliest — but the light on the cliffs behind you as it goes is the point. Reviewers describe the colours of the red cliffs as absolutely mesmerising, and that is at its strongest in the evening.
Flat, level and easy, running the length of the front. From the western end you look back east along the beach with the far cliffs catching the last light. It is the low-effort option and it works.
The empty one east of town, reached by a twenty to thirty minute walk down from the clifftop. One reviewer describes a late afternoon there on the last day of the year with an incredible sunset. It faces the wrong way for the sun itself, but the light on the cliffs and the emptiness make it the most atmospheric option — provided you are happy climbing back up in the dark.
Arrive half an hour before sunset and stay twenty minutes after it. The afterglow is usually better than the sunset itself, and almost everyone leaves the moment the sun touches the horizon — so the best light and the emptiest viewpoint arrive at the same time.
The red cliffs at Sidmouth are actively unstable with repeated rock falls, and sections of Jacob's Ladder beach have been fenced off. Do not stand at the cliff base in fading light where you cannot see the signage. Stay on the gardens or the esplanade.
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