Short answer: Take the train to Paignton and the bus round to Brixham, or the seasonal ferry across the bay. Once here, the harbour, the breakwater and Berry Head are all on foot — and Brixham's parking is tight enough that arriving without a car is a genuine advantage.
Brixham has no station. Paignton is the nearest mainline stop and buses run round the bay from there. In season there is also a ferry across Torbay, which is a considerably nicer arrival than a bus and gives you the town from the water.
Bus timetables in Devon thin out sharply from October and change between summer and winter. Check the operator's current timetable before you plan a day around a connection rather than trusting an old printout or an app that has not refreshed.
Brixham is a working fishing port squeezed into a steep-sided bay and there is simply not much flat ground. The harbour car parks are three-hour maximum and fill fast, and the breakwater spaces are narrow. Arriving without a car removes the town's main frustration.
This is the point about Brixham. The three best things here are all free and all on foot from the harbour.
St Mary's Bay is south of town with free parking ten minutes' walk from the beach — reachable on foot from Brixham but a longer walk, and then over a hundred steps down. Man Sands is effectively car-only and even then involves three miles of lane and an uneven mile on foot.
Buses round to Paignton and Torquay make the rest of Torbay accessible — Paignton for the pier and the steam railway, Torquay for Kents Cavern, the model village and the cliff railway. Between them that is several days without touching a car.
Everything is on the harbour. Rockfish on the fish quay, the Old Market House and the Prince William are all within a few minutes, and Brixham Cafe is the cheap option with upstairs seating most people miss.
See the full Brixham guide, filtered by who's with you.
Plan your day near Brixham →