Short answer: Connaught Gardens on the clifftop are free, open all year and the best place in Sidmouth to sit with a view. The esplanade is level, and the Anchor Inn is the best pub in town.
The esplanade and Connaught Gardens, both free. Sidmouth is the most genteel town on this coast and it is close to empty between Christmas and New Year, which for a walk is exactly what you want.
A row of white Regency hotels facing the sea with red cliffs behind. Level, short, and the obvious place to stand.
Free, open year-round, on the clifftop above Jacob's Ladder. Well kept even in winter and the best sit-down view in Sidmouth.
East towards Weston — half a mile of empty beach reached by a twenty to thirty minute walk. Properly quiet.
Ring before you set off. Boxing Day hours are decided late, change year to year, and are the single thing most likely to be wrong online. A two-minute call beats a wasted drive.
The red cliffs at Sidmouth are actively unstable, and wet winter weather makes rock falls more likely rather than less. Sections of Jacob's Ladder beach have been fenced off after landslips. Keep well away from the cliff base wherever it is signed.
Much of Sidmouth's beach is pebble at the top and submerged at high water. If the plan is a beach walk rather than the esplanade, check the times first.
If you want to eat out, book now rather than in December. The places that do serve on Boxing Day fill weeks ahead, and the ones that do not take bookings have queues instead.
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