Devon and Dartmoor Road Trip + Map: A 4-Day Loop Through Moors and Coast
Devon pulls off a strange trick. You can be up on Dartmoor in fog thick enough to lose a pony in, and forty minutes later you’re sat on a harbour wall in the sun eating chips with a gull sizing you up. Same county. Same afternoon. It still catches me out.
This loop leans into that. Four days, roughly 200 miles, starting and finishing in Exeter so the whole thing joins up neatly and you’re never doubling back on yourself. You get the big Dartmoor stuff first (tors, clapper bridges, Princetown looking suitably grim in the best way), then drop down to Plymouth and run the south coast through Salcombe, Slapton and Dartmouth, before climbing back onto the moor for the drive home. It’s a proper circle rather than a there-and-back, which matters more than people think when you’ve only got four days.
Who’s it for? Anyone who likes their scenery to change every hour. Couples, families with kids old enough to enjoy a tor scramble, and honestly anyone who’s been to Cornwall three times and never bothered stopping in Devon on the way. Big mistake, that. Devon’s quieter, cheaper in most places, and the lanes are just as pretty.
You’ll need a car. There’s no polite way around it. Buses cross Dartmoor in summer and they’re lovely, but they won’t get you to a stone row at eight in the morning with nobody else about. I’d sort your hire car in Exeter well before you travel, because the automatics vanish first and Devon lanes are not where you want to be relearning a clutch. If you want more ideas for the wider country first, my England travel guide is a decent starting point, and the UK castles road trip pairs well with this one if you’re staying longer.
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Devon and Dartmoor Road Trip: Quick Facts at a Glance
- Start: Exeter, Devon
- End: Exeter, Devon (full loop, no backtracking)
- Best length: 4 days, and a 5th if you want a proper beach day
- Total distance: Around 200 miles (about 320 km)
- Best for: Walkers, families, moody-landscape people, anyone who wants moor and sea in one trip
- Driving difficulty: Moderate. Narrow lanes, high hedges, cattle grids, sheep with a death wish
- Best time to go: Late spring or early autumn. Long evenings, fewer caravans, and the moor at its best
- Car needed: Yes. The good bits are exactly where the buses aren't
- Main route: Exeter, Castle Drogo, Postbridge, Princetown, Tavistock, Burrator, Plymouth, Bigbury, Salcombe, Slapton Sands, Dartmouth, Totnes, Widecombe, Haytor, back to Exeter
Hiring a car in Devon: Pick up in Exeter and you're on the moor within half an hour. Go small. A compact car makes the passing places on the B3212 far less stressful than a wide estate, and you'll thank yourself in Salcombe when the car park is full and you're squeezing into the last space. Compare prices for car hire in Exeter with DiscoverCars and book early for anything automatic.
The Route: What to Expect
The shape is simple. You go up and over Dartmoor first while your legs are fresh and your enthusiasm for scrambling up granite is at its peak. Then you drop off the west side into Tavistock, swing south to Plymouth, and follow the coast east through the South Hams, which is the softest, greenest, most estuary-riddled corner of the county. Day four brings you back up onto the moor from the south, which is the prettiest approach of the lot.
None of the driving days are long. The longest single stint is under an hour. What eats time here is the lanes, the stopping, and the fact that you will pull over for a view at least twice a day and pretend you didn’t mean to. Build in slack. Devon punishes tight schedules.
← Swipe to scroll on mobile
| Day | Route | Drive time | Vibe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exeter → Castle Drogo → Postbridge → Princetown → Tavistock | ~1 hr 45 | Granite, gorse and big empty sky |
| 2 | Tavistock → Burrator → Plymouth → Bigbury → Salcombe | ~2 hr 20 | Moor edge to sea air |
| 3 | Salcombe → Slapton Sands → Dartmouth | ~1 hr 10 | Slow coast day, ferries and beaches |
| 4 | Dartmouth → Totnes → Widecombe → Haytor → Exeter | ~2 hr 25 | Back on the moor for the finish |
Devon and Dartmoor Road Trip Itinerary
Day 1: Exeter → Castle Drogo → Postbridge → Princetown → Tavistock
Driving: About 45 miles in total, roughly 1 hr 45 behind the wheel before you factor in stops.
Give Exeter a couple of hours before you leave, because the cathedral is genuinely one of the best in England and almost nobody outside the West Country talks about it. The vaulted ceiling is the longest of its kind anywhere, and the green outside is where half the city eats lunch. Then you climb. The road west from Exeter lifts you out of the Exe valley and onto Dartmoor in about half an hour, and the moment the hedges drop away and the moor opens up is one of my favourite bits of driving in England. Castle Drogo comes first, then it’s over the top of the moor via Postbridge and Princetown to Tavistock for the night.
Things to do:
- Exeter Cathedral and the Roman wall before you set off (allow 1.5 to 2 hours in the city)
- Castle Drogo near Drewsteignton, 16 miles from Exeter, about 35 minutes (give it 1.5 hours including the Teign gorge viewpoint)
- Postbridge clapper bridge, 15 miles on, about 35 minutes via Moretonhampstead (30 minutes is plenty, longer if you paddle)
- Princetown and the moor visitor centre, 5 miles on, about 10 minutes (45 minutes to an hour)
- Tavistock, 8 miles on, about 20 minutes, arriving with time for a wander round the pannier market
- Book a guided Dartmoor walk or tor tour if you’d rather someone else navigated the bogs
Timing tip: Cross the high moor in the middle of the day if you can. Dartmoor fog rolls in fast, and the B3212 between Postbridge and Princetown is exposed enough that a bad morning can reduce your view to about eight metres of tarmac and a very confused pony.
Where to Stay in Tavistock
Day 2: Tavistock → Burrator Reservoir → Plymouth → Bigbury-on-Sea → Salcombe
Driving: Around 60 miles, roughly 2 hr 20 of actual driving. The Plymouth stretch is the only proper dual carriageway of the trip.
Today is the handover day, moor to sea. Burrator Reservoir sits in a bowl of woodland on the southwest edge of Dartmoor and it’s the sort of place locals go on a Sunday and visitors somehow never find. Then Plymouth, which gets an unfair press. Yes, parts of it were rebuilt after the Blitz and it shows. But the Barbican is all cobbles and crooked Elizabethan frontages, the Hoe has one of the best city views in the country, and Smeaton’s Tower is a lighthouse someone genuinely dismantled and rebuilt on a clifftop lawn. From there you head east into the South Hams and the lanes get narrow, green and slightly ridiculous.
Things to do:
- Burrator Reservoir and Sheepstor village, 9 miles from Tavistock, about 20 minutes (an hour for a loop of the water)
- Plymouth Barbican, the Hoe and Smeaton’s Tower, 12 miles on, about 30 minutes (give the city 2.5 to 3 hours)
- Bigbury-on-Sea and the tidal causeway to Burgh Island, 22 miles on, about 45 minutes (an hour, tide permitting)
- Salcombe, 18 miles on, about 45 minutes down some of the tightest lanes of the trip
- Consider a harbour cruise or day tour from Plymouth if the weather turns and you want the sea from a dry seat
Watch out: The Burgh Island causeway floods twice a day, and people get caught out constantly. Check the tide before you park at Bigbury, or you’ll either be wading back with your shoes in your hand or paying for the sea tractor. One of those is funnier than the other.
Where to Stay in Salcombe
Day 3: Salcombe → Slapton Sands → Dartmouth
Driving: Only about 30 miles and roughly 1 hr 10 of driving. Deliberately the shortest day, because this coast rewards dawdling.
Have a slow morning in Salcombe. It’s a proper sailing town, all pastel houses stacked above a deep blue estuary, and the passenger ferry across to East Portlemouth costs very little and takes about three minutes for a beach you’d otherwise drive an hour to reach. Then you cut inland through Kingsbridge and back out to Start Bay, where Slapton Sands runs for nearly three miles with a freshwater lake sitting right behind the shingle. There’s a Sherman tank at Torcross pulled up from the seabed, a memorial to the American servicemen who died during a rehearsal for the D-Day landings, and it’s a quietly sobering thing to stand next to. Dartmouth finishes the day: steep, handsome, and full of boats.
Things to do:
- Salcombe town, plus the passenger ferry to East Portlemouth and Mill Bay beach (allow 2 to 3 hours)
- Slapton Sands and Torcross, 20 miles from Salcombe via Kingsbridge, about 40 minutes (an hour, plus time at the tank memorial)
- Slapton Ley nature reserve walk if you’ve got the legs (another 45 minutes)
- Dartmouth Castle, 10 miles on, about 25 minutes (an hour, and it’s an English Heritage site if you’ve got a membership)
- Evening wander round Bayard’s Cove and the Boat Float in Dartmouth
Good to know: Salcombe and Dartmouth both have hilly, permit-heavy street parking and very little of it. Use the signposted long stay car parks on the edge of town and walk down. It’s five minutes on foot and saves you twenty minutes of circling while your passenger pretends not to be annoyed.
Day 4: Dartmouth → Totnes → Widecombe-in-the-Moor → Haytor → Exeter
Driving: Around 60 miles and roughly 2 hr 25 of driving, ending back where you started.
The last day climbs back onto Dartmoor from the south, which is the approach that makes people fall in love with the place. Totnes goes first, a hilly little town with a Norman castle at the top and a high street that’s been resisting chain shops for decades. Then you follow the Dart upstream, past Buckfast Abbey, and the road starts lifting into the moor again. Widecombe-in-the-Moor is the postcard village with the enormous church tower, and Haytor is the tor everyone climbs because you can park almost at the base and still feel like you’ve earned the view. On a clear day you can see the sea from the top, which is a fitting way to end a trip that’s had both.
Things to do:
- Totnes castle and high street, 12 miles from Dartmouth, about 30 minutes (1.5 hours, more on market day)
- Buckfast Abbey, 8 miles on, about 20 minutes (45 minutes, and the grounds are free to walk)
- Widecombe-in-the-Moor, 12 miles on, about 30 minutes (an hour including the church)
- Hound Tor and the deserted medieval village below it, 4 miles on, about 12 minutes (45 minutes)
- Haytor, 4 miles on, about 10 minutes (an hour for the scramble and the view)
- Exeter, 20 miles on, about 45 minutes, and the loop is closed
Weather note: The moor makes its own weather and it’s usually several degrees colder and considerably wetter than the coast you left that morning. I’ve driven from a sunny Dartmouth breakfast into horizontal drizzle at Haytor in under an hour. Keep a waterproof on the back seat rather than in the boot.
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Where To Stay For This Devon and Dartmoor road trip
Three nights, three very different feels, and none of them need to be booked miles out of town. Aim central each night so you can walk to dinner and leave the car alone until morning. Here’s how I’d split it.
Tavistock (night 1): A handsome old market town on the western edge of the moor, with a covered pannier market and a decent spread of pubs with rooms. Stay near the centre so you’re walking to dinner rather than driving Dartmoor lanes in the dark, which is not a fun way to end day one.
Salcombe (night 2): Pricey in high season and worth it for one night. Anywhere on the hill above the harbour gives you an estuary view and a short stumble home. If your budget is tighter, Kingsbridge sits five miles up the estuary and costs a fair bit less for the same general area.
Dartmouth (night 3): Stay in the town itself rather than across the water in Kingswear, unless you fancy the little ferry every time you want a pint. The streets behind the Boat Float are quieter than the quay and only a couple of minutes’ walk from everything.
Exeter (optional extra night): If your flight or train is early, tack on a final night in Exeter near the cathedral or the quay. It’s an easy, walkable city and a soft landing after four days of lanes.
Pit Stops & Side Detours
The loop links up cleanly on its own, but Devon is full of things sitting just off the line. These are the ones I’d actually bother with. Keep them to one or two per day, otherwise you’ll blow the driving times completely.
- Lydford Gorge, a short hop north of Tavistock, where a river has carved a whirlpool called the Devil’s Cauldron and there’s a 30 metre waterfall at the far end
- Buckland Abbey near Yelverton, Francis Drake’s old home, an easy add-on to the Burrator stretch on day two
- Wembury beach and the Yealm estuary just outside Plymouth, one of the best rockpooling spots on the south coast
- Hope Cove, a tiny thatched fishing village ten minutes from Salcombe that most people drive straight past
- Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday house above the Dart, reachable by boat from Dartmouth if you want to arrive properly
- Torquay and the English Riviera, if you fancy swapping a Dartmoor stop on day four for palm trees and a promenade
- Becky Falls or Bovey Tracey on the drive back to Exeter, both good shouts with kids in the car
Skip: trying to squeeze in North Devon and Exmoor as well. It’s two hours each way from this loop and you’ll spend the whole day driving to say you’ve been
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Browse the shopLocal Eats Worth Chasing
Devon food is unfussy and very good, and the county is quietly excellent at dairy and seafood. Eat the crab. Argue about the cream. For more regional ideas across the country, my destination guides are a decent rabbit hole.
- A Devon cream tea, jam first then cream, and yes that order matters enormously to some people around here
- Salcombe crab, straight from the boats, ideally in a sandwich you eat sat on a wall
- Fish and chips at Torcross with Slapton Sands right in front of you and gulls circling like they’ve got a plan
- Dartmouth scallops and river-caught mussels, best in the small places up the side streets rather than on the quay
- Hog’s pudding, a Devon and Cornwall breakfast oddity that’s somewhere between a sausage and a white pudding
- Salcombe Dairy ice cream, which is the correct end to any South Hams afternoon
- A pint of Devon cider in a Dartmoor pub with a low ceiling and a fire going, even in June
Road Trip Playlist
Podcasts to Queue Up
The driving days are short but the lanes demand concentration, so save anything complicated for the straighter stretches. Download in advance, because moor signal is a rumour at best.
- Anything on Dartmoor folklore and the Hairy Hands legend, which will make the B3212 considerably more interesting
- A Sherlock Holmes audio dramatisation, given the Hound of the Baskervilles was set on this exact stretch of moor
- The Rest Is History for background on Drake, Plymouth and the Elizabethan sea dogs
- A D-Day or Exercise Tiger episode before you reach Slapton Sands, so the memorial lands properly
- Something light and chatty for the Kingsbridge lanes, where you’ll be stopping every two minutes for oncoming tractors anyway
Quick win: Download the playlist. Use zero data, and you dont need to worry about signal!
Road Trip Essentials
Nothing exotic. Just the stuff that makes a Devon loop smoother, and a couple of things I learned the irritating way.
A small hire car, booked early. This is the single biggest quality of life decision on the trip. Devon lanes are single track with high banks on both sides and passing places that appear at inconvenient intervals. A compact car turns a stressful reverse into a shrug. I’d compare hire cars in Exeter a good few weeks out, especially if you need an automatic, because they go first and the leftovers cost a fortune.
Offline maps, downloaded before you leave the city. Signal on Dartmoor is patchy and in the deeper South Hams lanes it disappears entirely. Download the whole southwest on Google Maps the night before. And keep a paper OS map in the door pocket if you’re planning to walk out to any tors, because phone batteries and moor weather are not friends.
Data that actually works out here. If you’re visiting from abroad, sorting your connection before you land saves a lot of faff. An Airalo eSIM for the UK takes about two minutes to install, and it means your maps and booking confirmations keep working the moment you land.
Stay connected with Holafly: If you’d rather have unlimited data than watch a counter tick down every time you reload a tide table, Holafly eSIMs for the UK are worth a look. Use the code THETRAVELTINKER for 5% off any eSIM, or 10% off Holafly plans for the first 12 months.
Cash and a card for car parks. Most Devon car parks have gone app or card only, but the little ones at trailheads and village greens still take coins and only coins. Keep a few pound coins in the cup holder and you’ll never have that specific moment of despair at a Dartmoor parking meter.
Travel insurance, because road trips invite plot twists. A cracked wing mirror on a hedge, a phone dropped off a harbour wall, a stomach that disagrees with the crab. I’d sort travel insurance before you set off rather than hope for the best. If you’re flying into Exeter or Bristol and the flight goes sideways, you might also be owed money, so it’s worth knowing you can claim flight compensation instead of just eating the cost.
Layers, walking shoes and something waterproof. Every good stop on this trip involves getting out of the car onto wet grass, granite or shingle. Trainers will do for Haytor on a dry day, but boots are better. If you’re arriving without a car and want the airport run sorted, you can pre-book an airport transfer into Exeter, and compare trains and coaches to the southwest if you’re coming down from London. For more of what I pack, have a nose through my travel planning resources and a few handy travel tips. If you’re still deciding where to go next, the travel inspiration hub has plenty more.
Money saver: This route passes several National Trust and English Heritage properties, including Castle Drogo, Buckland Abbey and Dartmouth Castle. If you’re visiting three or more, a short term pass usually works out cheaper than paying at each gate, and it covers the car park at some sites too, which is quietly where the savings add up.
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Nick Harvey
Hi, I am Nick! Thank you for reading! The Travel Tinker is a resource designed to help you navigate the beauty of travel! Tinkering your plans as you browse!
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