Short answer: Tavistock is the western gateway to Dartmoor and the moor starts minutes away. Bellever Forest is the sheltered way in, with river swimming, wild ponies and £5 all-day parking. Open access is free everywhere, but the car parks fill early and the weather changes fast.
The town sits on the western edge of the moor, which means you are on it within minutes rather than driving across half a county. It also means you have a proper town to come back to — a market, places to eat, and somewhere dry when the weather beats you, which the villages in the middle of the moor cannot offer.
The gentlest way onto the moor. Forestry tracks under trees, the East Dart running through it with places children can swim in summer, wild ponies around the edges, and £5 all-day parking. The trees matter: when the wind is up on the open moor, Bellever is still walkable.
Access across most of Dartmoor is free and unrestricted, which is unusual and is the real appeal. The limits are practical rather than legal: the car parks at the popular points fill early, particularly at weekends, and there is nothing at most of them — no toilets, no café, no signal.
It can be bright in Tavistock and low cloud with sideways rain on the moor twenty minutes later. This is not an exaggeration people make to sound hardy; it is the single most common reason a Dartmoor day goes wrong. Take waterproofs regardless of what the sky over the town is doing.
The National Trust gorge north of Tavistock, with the Devil's Cauldron and the White Lady waterfall. Two car parks and two loops — pick the end before you set off. Steep, rocky and slippery when wet, which is also when the falls are best.
Buckland Abbey has gardens, woodland and indoor rooms, and the pannier market in Tavistock is covered and open Tuesday to Saturday. Both are better plans than driving up onto the moor to look at cloud.
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