Short answer: There is no station at Braunton. Take the Tarka Line from Exeter to Barnstaple, then the bus. The better option is the bike: the Tarka Trail is flat, traffic-free and runs from Barnstaple straight through Braunton, which makes this one of the easier north Devon villages to reach without a car.
Most north Devon villages are a bus ride from Barnstaple and that is that. Braunton has the Tarka Trail running through it — a flat, surfaced, traffic-free path on the old railway line. You can hire a bike at Barnstaple, where the Tarka Line from Exeter terminates, and ride in. It is level the whole way.
Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple on the Tarka Line, then the bus out towards Braunton, Croyde and Saunton. Services are reasonable in season and thin out in winter and on Sundays — check the last bus back before you commit to a late lunch.
Braunton's parking is cheaper than Croyde's and it is ten minutes from Saunton, which is why people stay here. If you are busing in anyway, you skip the whole car park question that dominates a summer day on this coast.
The toll road out to Crow Point is cash only and it is a drive. Without a car it is a long walk across the burrows with no facilities at the end. Beautiful, and not a bus trip.
Braunton is one of the better north Devon villages to do car-free, mostly because of the Tarka Trail. The beaches need the bus and the bus needs checking, but the flat cycle route in from Barnstaple is a genuinely good way to arrive.
See the full Braunton guide, filtered by who's with you.
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