Seaton With a Toddler: What Actually Works

Short answer: The tramway is the answer — open-top trams every twenty minutes, hop-on hop-off day tickets, and a toddler who will happily ride it for an hour. The wetlands are free with wheelchair-accessible paths and the tram stops there. The beach is pebbles, which is harder work than sand.

The tramway does the entertaining

Seaton Tramway runs narrow-gauge open-top trams up the Axe valley every twenty minutes, and for a small child it is the best value in east Devon. Day tickets are hop-on hop-off, so you are not committed to a single round trip — get off, look at something, get back on. Dogs are £2 each way.

Where to get on

Start at the Colyton end rather than Seaton. Parking is free there, there is a good café with proper scones, and you save the seafront parking charge. It is the single most useful piece of local knowledge about the tramway.

Seaton Wetlands

Free, with a £1 parking donation, wheelchair-accessible paths and bird hides. The tram stops here, which means you can arrive by tram with a toddler and not have to negotiate a car park at all. The hides are also shelters, which matters when the weather comes in off the Channel.

Be honest about the beach

Seaton's beach is pebbles, not sand. Pebbles are hard work with a toddler — walking on them is unstable, there are no castles to build, and a buggy does not go on them at all. The esplanade above is flat and fine; the beach itself is a sit-down rather than a play.

Eating

• Coast Cafe Bar — the best café on the seafront, good on coeliac, but tight inside when it is busy.
• The Hideaway — at the end of the esplanade, quieter than the front, good breakfasts.
• The café at the Colyton tram terminus, which is where you probably started.

A day that works

Park free at Colyton, café and scones, tram down the valley, get off at the wetlands for the hides and the paths, tram on to Seaton, walk the flat esplanade, then tram back. Almost no driving and a toddler who has been on a tram four times.