Short answer: Sidmouth has very little indoors, so a wet winter day means driving. The Anchor Inn and Milsons Point both stay open, and Connaught Gardens are free year-round. Beer Quarry Caves, twenty minutes east, are open all year at a constant eight degrees.
Sidmouth is the most genteel seaside town in Devon and December suits it. White Regency hotels along the esplanade, red cliffs behind, independent shops, no arcades and almost nobody about. If you find Devon's summer resorts exhausting, this is the winter antidote.
Free, clifftop and open year-round. Well kept even in winter, with the Clock Tower café inside and dogs allowed downstairs. It is the best place in Sidmouth to sit with a view, and the light on the red cliffs on a bright cold afternoon is the reason to come.
Sidmouth has almost nothing indoors and it is worth being honest about that. Beer Quarry Caves are Roman-era underground stone quarries on a ninety-minute guided tour, open year-round, and consistently the best-rated attraction in east Devon.
It is eight degrees down there whatever the season — which in December means it is warmer than outside. Phone ahead for tour times. Seaton Tramway, a little further on, runs covered trams through the winter.
Check the tide, as always here — much of the beach is submerged at high water. Weston Beach east of town is empty in December, which is saying something for a beach that is empty in August, but the twenty to thirty minute descent is steep and slippery in winter.
The red cliffs at Sidmouth are actively unstable and wet weather makes rock falls more likely, not less. Sections of Jacob's Ladder beach have been fenced off after landslips. Keep well away from the cliff base wherever it is signed.
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.
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