Short answer: Harbour parking in Brixham is tight and the breakwater spaces are narrow. Berry Head has parking at the top of the headland, and St Mary's Bay has free parking about ten minutes' walk from the beach — the best-value option in town.
Brixham is a working fishing port squeezed into a steep-sided bay, and there is simply not much flat ground. Parking around the harbour is limited and the three-hour maximum car parks fill quickly in season. Reviewers describe the spaces at the breakwater car park as narrow as well as paid, so take your time getting in.
St Mary's Bay, south of the town, has free parking about ten minutes' walk from the beach through grassland. It is muddy in winter and the beach itself is down over a hundred steep steps, so it is not for everyone — but if you want a free space and a proper walk, this is the one.
You can drive up to the Berry Head nature reserve and park at the top, which puts you next to the Guardhouse Café and the fort ruins with almost no walking. The alternative, and the nicer one, is to walk out from town along the coast path — about forty-five minutes each way with the whole bay in view.
If parking has landed you further out than you wanted, the breakwater is the consolation. Half a mile of flat, level walkway out to a lighthouse, easy going for anyone with mobility difficulties, benches along it and seals showing up close in more often than not. It is one of the few genuinely accessible walks on this coast.
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