Short answer: Exmouth has the easiest toddler beach in Devon — two miles of flat sand with a level promenade behind it. The Maer has a fenced children's play area and never gets muddy. The one serious warning is the estuary mouth, where the currents make the water genuinely unsafe.
If you have a two-year-old and want one Devon beach day that is not a battle, this is it. Two miles of flat sand, a long level promenade running behind the whole length, plenty of parking along the front, and a town immediately behind rather than a village up a hill.
Reviewers describe it as a brilliant place to take kids with huge space for sandcastles, a safe beach, ample dining and parking. There is even a donation cupboard where you can borrow buckets and spades if you forgot yours — and where you can leave your own at the end of the week.
Take this seriously. Where the Exe meets the sea at the western end, the currents run hard and swimming there is genuinely unsafe. There are signs and they are not decorative. Stay on the lifeguarded middle section, and do not let a toddler paddle at the estuary end.
The open sandy common behind the seafront is a former golf links, which means it never gets muddy and works all year regardless of the weather. There is a fenced children's play area — the fence being the point at this age — and seasonal public toilets.
At Sandy Bay, and one of the better paid days out in Devon for this age group. A deer train ride where children feed the deer and llamas, falconry displays, ferret racing, small animal handling sessions and a large indoor museum. Reviewers describe spending the best part of a day there.
The indoor half is what makes it work when the weather turns.
Parking is plentiful and expensive rather than scarce, which means you can arrive later than at Woolacombe or Croyde and still get in. Dogs are banned from the main beach May to September, and the eastern end near Orcombe stays open all year if you have one.
Time the beach around a falling tide. Firm wet sand is far easier to push a buggy across than soft dry sand, and shallow pools left behind by the receding water are safer and warmer than the sea itself.
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