Short answer: Parking directly outside the aquarium on the quay is the most convenient and reasonably priced option. The town beach has pay-and-display right alongside it. Both fill on summer weekends — the harbour end is where to aim first, and the walk from anywhere in Ilfracombe is short.
Ilfracombe is a proper town rather than a beach village, and that works in your favour. There is more parking here than in Woolacombe or Croyde, it is generally cheaper, and reviewers consistently describe the prices as reasonable — which on this coast is worth saying out loud.
The harbour is where you want to be, and there is parking directly outside the aquarium on the quay. It is the best-positioned option in town: the boat trips, the Pier Tavern, the fish and chips and Verity are all within a minute of it.
Ilfracombe Beach, below the seafront, has pay-and-display immediately next to it, which is the easiest if the beach is your plan for the day. Wildersmouth is right in front of the town with shops a few steps away. Neither is far from the harbour if your first choice is full — the whole centre is walkable in ten minutes.
Two of the best spots here are better reached on foot anyway. Rapparee Cove, the sheltered swimming cove just east of the harbour, is off the coast path rather than a drive-and-park beach. Harbour Beach appears at low tide beside the quay and is about thirty seconds from a pasty.
Lee Bay, three miles west, is the quiet one and genuinely better as the destination of a walk than a drive. It is reached through fields or on the coast path, and hardly anyone is ever there.
If everything central is full, the sensible move is to drive out to Watermouth or Combe Martin for a couple of hours and come back at three, when the day trippers start heading home.
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