Short answer: Seaton Tramway runs covered cars as well as open-topped ones, and the estuary birdlife is better in winter. The wetland hides are shelters. Beer Quarry Caves, five minutes west, are entirely underground.
Seaton Tramway is usually described as open-topped, which sounds unpromising in the rain — but covered cars run too, and the estuary birdlife is at its best in the cold, wet months. Three miles up the Axe to Colyton, roughly every twenty minutes.
The Colyton terminus has free parking, a good café doing home-made cakes and scones, and clean facilities, so you can do the wet half of the day at the inland end.
Seaton Wetlands is free, with bird hides, level accessible paths and a sand martin bank. A hide is a building with a roof, which makes this one of the very few outdoor attractions in east Devon that genuinely works in poor weather.
Beer Quarry Caves are Roman-era underground stone quarries on a ninety-minute guided tour, and consistently the best-rated attraction in east Devon. Entirely underground, so the weather is irrelevant — but it is eight degrees down there year-round, so take a coat. Phone ahead for tour times.
The Riverside Depot, where the trams are kept and restored, runs tours — indoors, and better than it sounds if anyone in the party likes machinery.
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