South Sands

Top choice


Although it gets busy in the summer holidays, South Sands has immense charm. It's something to do with the broad beach (at low tide), the mini watersports centre, cool cafe, chic hotel and the impossibly cute South Sands Ferry, which delivers you onto an improbable motorised platform. It's 2 miles south of Salcombe, on the estuary road.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Overbeck’s

0.2 MILES

An Aladdin's cave of curios, Edwardian country house Overbeck’s crowns the cliffs at Salcombe's estuary mouth. It's set in 3 hectares of lush, subtropical…

2. North Sands

0.33 MILES

Compact North Sands lies a short walk or drive (1.5 miles) south along Cliff Rd from the centre of Salcombe (on the same side of the estuary as the town)…

3. Mill Bay

0.88 MILES

Salcombe's best high-tide beach, sand-filled Mill Bay sits across the water on the east side of the estuary. It's reached by either walking the lane south…

4. Maritime Museum

1.14 MILES

Here be treasure: the highlight of the hauls from local shipwrecks are the 500 glittering Moroccan gold dinars from the Salcombe Cannon wreck site, dating…

5. Cookworthy Museum of Rural Life

4.27 MILES

An engaging collection of school desks, cooking ranges, wagons and ploughs, plus a particularly fine photographic archive.

6. Bantham Beach

5.5 MILES

Bantham is, arguably, South Devon's finest low-tide beach. Set at the mouth of the River Avon, this dune-backed sweep of sand offers a cool cafe, surf…

7. South Hallsands

5.61 MILES

The shells of a handful of houses clinging to the cliff at South Hallsands are the remains of a thriving fishing village. In 1917 a severe storm literally…

8. Start Point Lighthouse

6.29 MILES

Sitting on one of England's most exposed peninsulas, the 815,000 candela beam of this bright-white lighthouse can be seen for 25 nautical miles. Tours (on…