Okehampton Day Out for £50 or Less: How to Do It

Short answer: Okehampton Castle has free parking, open Dartmoor access is free and starts at the edge of town, and Bellever Forest is £5 for all day. The London Inn does good value burgers. The expensive bits are the National Trust properties, so pick at most one.

Free parking at the castle

Okehampton Castle has free parking, which is unusual for a heritage site and removes the cost most days start with. The castle is the largest ruin in Devon and the path up is steep. English Heritage charges for entry, but the parking and the setting cost nothing.

Free on the moor

• Open access across Dartmoor is free and unrestricted, and the moor starts at the town edge.
• The high northern moor above Okehampton is the wildest part of the park.
• Walks out from the town need no car park fee at all.
• Check the firing range times first — that is free too, and important.

The £5 one

Bellever Forest is £5 for all-day parking, with forestry tracks, wild ponies and river swimming in summer. For a full day out of the wind under trees, that is the best value on this side of the moor.

Eating for less

The London Inn does good value burgers, is dog friendly and has live bands at weekends. The Plume of Feathers has a huge cider range along with books and board games, and is closed Mondays — a pint and a board game on a wet afternoon is a cheap way to pass two hours.

The one to spend on

Brothers is the best food in town. It opens Thursday to Saturday only and needs booking. If you are going to spend money on one thing here, make it that, and build the rest of the day around free moor access.

Where the budget goes

Lydford Gorge and Castle Drogo are both National Trust and both charge unless you are a member. Doing both is most of £50 before you have eaten. Pick one or neither — the open moor is free and it is why people come to this part of Devon.