Salcombe in Winter: What's Open

Short answer: Salcombe empties in winter and that is the appeal. The Fortescue Inn opens from eight in the morning to midnight. The ferry keeps running to the East Portlemouth beaches, which are deserted. Several good restaurants cut back to Wednesday-to-Saturday.

Winter is the best time to come

Salcombe in August is beautiful and rammed. Salcombe in January is beautiful and empty. The second homes are dark, the car parks have spaces, Fore Street is walkable, and everything that makes the place worth visiting — the estuary, the coves, the coast path — is unchanged.

If you have only seen it in summer and found it too much, this is the visit to make.

What stays open

The Fortescue Inn is the one to know — open from eight in the morning until midnight, away from the waterfront, doing mussels, well-rated fish and chips and takeaway pizzas. Reviewers consistently describe the friendliest welcome in town.

The Victoria Inn on Fore Street is the family and dog choice with its terraced garden. The Crab Shed remains the best meal in Salcombe and stays busy even out of season — book. The Pantry and the Salcombe Yawl do takeaway coffee and sandwiches.

What closes or cuts back

Several of the better restaurants reduce to Wednesday-to-Saturday out of season, so check before planning an evening around one. Overbecks, the National Trust garden above South Sands, is closed Fridays and Saturdays with very limited parking year-round.

The ferry keeps running

This matters. The passenger ferry to East Portlemouth is the easiest way to the best beaches, and in winter Mill Bay and Sunny Cove are genuinely deserted. The alternative is forty-five minutes of single-track lanes, no more appealing in December than July.

The winter walks

• Mill Bay to Gara Rock and back on an inland path — about five miles.
• Bolberry Down — clifftop paths, wheelchair-accessible main route, free NT parking with a blue badge.
• East Soar — coastal farmland with an honesty-box tea barn doing cream teas.
• The estuary path from town — flat, and the winter light on the water is the point.

Practical

The North Sands parking machine still does not take cards and the signal is still poor, so bring coins. Salcombe is steep; Fore Street along the water is the flat ground.

Winter opening is exactly where online listings are least reliable. Ring before you drive — several places in this guide show as closed on Google and answer the phone perfectly happily.