Short answer: Walk ten minutes south down Woolacombe beach and the crowds vanish — the sand is three miles long and almost everyone stays near the village. For a genuinely different beach, Putsborough is the quiet end, and Rockham below Mortehoe is the wild one.
Woolacombe's beach is three miles long and the overwhelming majority of visitors stay within a few hundred metres of the village. That is the whole trick here. If the car park situation has pushed you further out, or the beach near the stream looks impossible, walk south for ten minutes and you will have space.
The general rule on this coast: ten minutes of walking removes ninety per cent of people. Almost every crowded Devon beach empties out within a short walk of the car park, because most visitors will not carry a windbreak further than they have to.
The southern end of the same three miles of sand, and it feels like a different beach. Firmer sand, noticeably quieter, with its own car park, café and shop at the top. Reviewers call it the beach for the locals and note the three-mile walk along the shore back to Woolacombe.
The catch is the drive. You approach through Georgeham and Croyde rather than from Woolacombe, and the lanes down are single-track and tight. In a large car, take that seriously.
Grunta is a small rocky cove between Woolacombe and Mortehoe, reached by steps down from the coast road, with pebbles, driftwood and rock pools rather than sand. Roadside parking if you can find it. Reviewers call it a hidden gem.
Rockham, below Mortehoe, is the wild one — a walk from the car park then a steep descent, with the remains of a wreck on the sand at low tide. The steps down have been closed at times, so check before counting on reaching the beach rather than the viewpoint above it.
Worth saying, because people assume it is. Barricane is lovely and it is small, which means it fills before the big beach does. The parking above it goes early and the café draws people in the evening. Go there for the rock pools and the curries, not for space.
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