Short answer: Beer Quarry Caves are a mile inland, entirely underground, and the best-rated attraction in east Devon. A ninety-minute guided tour at a constant eight degrees, which in winter means it is warmer down there than up here. Phone ahead for tour times.
Beer is a small fishing village and its wet-day solution is a mile up the road. Beer Quarry Caves are Roman-era underground stone mines that supplied cathedrals across England — vast chambers cut by hand, explored on a ninety-minute guided tour.
They are consistently the best-rated attraction in east Devon, and the guides are the reason. It is entirely underground, so it does not matter at all what the weather is doing.
It is eight degrees down there year-round. Take a coat even in August — visitors on the hottest day of the year describe it as a relief, and in January it is warmer than the village. And phone ahead for tour times rather than turning up; the tours run to a schedule and groups are limited.
Beer sits in a gap in the white chalk cliffs and the beach is sheltered, which means it holds up better than most in a blow. The fishing boats are winched up onto the shingle and the catch is sold from a stall on the beach — that happens in most weathers and is worth watching.
The Hooken undercliff between Beer Head and Branscombe is a landslip of dramatic chalk pinnacles, and one of the strangest bits of coast in Devon. It is sheltered in places by the cliff structure itself, which makes it more walkable in weather than an exposed clifftop.
Seaton Tramway is five minutes east — covered trams, three miles up the Axe estuary, with the wetlands halfway and free parking at the Colyton end.
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