24 hours in Dartmouth - recommendations please!

[Celeriacacaca]

DS and I will be in Dartmouth for a night and a day this week. We've never been before. What must we see/do please?

Bump

The Seahorse Restaurant is great if you like seafood!

If you wanted somewhere to eat less posh than Seahorse, I recommend Rockfish fish and chips- best ever and free seconds of chips if you eat in! The tartare sauce is a thing of wonder too.
We always get a boat to Greenways, it is a lovely little trip. Lots of boats touting for business on the quayside.
Enjoy, I love Dartmouth.

Second rockfish fish and chips.

Music night at the Cherub Inn ( so middle of the the hill ) was fun - guitarist with a large repertoire belted out decades of tunes. Drink was taken. Also The Seahorse is great - and Joe’s bar. Took the ferry across the water and toured some of the old hotels for lunch and cream teams too. Tell no-one about this place it’s already heaving with locals in the know :- saveurs.co.uk/

Ooooh, they are fab recommendations, thank you. Keep em coming!

Ooh how lucky you are. I love it there.

Ok, so. Get the castle ferry from the embankment. It’s a little blue wooden ferry boat, costs approx £2.50 to go to the castle. There’s a little cove there, walk down the steps if the tide is out it’s great for exploring, if not you can sit on the steps and watch the water. Walk back, takes 20-30mins depends on how long you linger. Lovely to see all the houses, boats.

Eat at Rockfish, book online, really easy and means you’ll get a table. It’s very popular. You only need book a bit in advance. But you’ll secure your table.

There’s also a boat trip you can do to Greenaway. It’s the ferry. £5 return it’s the cheapest boat trip you can do, it’s great and you see loads. Lasts 1hr.

Take a walk along to Bayards cove. Ruined defences of the town.

I’ll be back when I think of some more.

The Simon Drew shop
Paignton and Dartmouth Steam train
Ice cream

Where are you going to be based?

My family lived there for years, spent many happy summers there. We try and go each summer. I love it. It’s a fab place.

The Seahorse is a brilliant restaurant, definitely worth a visit.

Rockfish

Dartmouth castle

Ferry to Kingswear and steam train

Saveurs for patisserie and a half decent coffee

I quite like the old dining room in the Royal Castle Hotel too.

The boat float. Then the butterwalk. Tudor building, cute shops underneath. Old fashioned sweet shop and the museum.

Foss street, very arty. Simon Drew’s studio and shop is there, you’ll probably see Simon. Stock up on his cards for birthdays etc, very witty. Google him before you go if you haven’t heard of him.

Nice shops in Foss street.

Oh you are so lucky. Hope you get good weather.

No room for this week but if you like history ( or Chaps in uniform ) and return to the area again book early for this :-www.britanniaassociation.org.uk/tours/

Crabbing off the wall by the embankment or bayards cove. Only need a crabbing line and a bucket and a bit of bait.

Rockfish takeaway wasn't brilliant last time I was there, haven't tried the down restaurant tho'

Sorry, sit down restaurant

The restaurant is very different to the takeaway. I’ve tried both.

www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk/

this is a combined rail and river trip!

I expect it will be busy next/this week when you go. I recommend walking along the river side early morning or late afternoon if possible. You have it almost to yourself then. Also breakfast early Alf Resco is the place for breakfast. Closes at 2pm, think it’s open from 7am? Check that one. (All the places I’m recommending apart from the castle are a 5 min walk from each other). You don’t need to go in the castle, you can walk around and explore. The castle ferry is so sweet. 10min journey there, or back. It’s like going back in time, and children love it. Best way to see Dartmouth is from the river. IMO.

Yes, Cafe Alf Resco, 7am-2pm. Right by Bayards Cove, that’s good to see.

Oh I love Dartmouth, I'm very jealous! Have a walk around the town and go to the castle. Steam train to Paignton or river trip to Totnes.

Oh, I’ve thought of something possibly only I like to do. In Dartmouth there is South town and Above town, so parallel roads on a hill. There are loads of “secret” stairs up to above town, I like to go up them and look at the views from the top and look down. I realise that’s quite weird. They are public steps, but like a workout! I’ll see if I have a photo to post to show you.

Thanks all. I can see 24 hours isn't going to be long enough and we'll have to return! Dobby, the stairs sound fascinating- I love things like that!

I was worried you’d think me mad! because of the parallel roads, the only way for pedestrians up is the steps. I’ll post a pic but I have to blur out the dc first.

The one I’ll post is really close to the embankment. Halfway up there’s a bookshop. If you are interested, it’s Christopher Robin’s old bookshop. The son of AA Milne who wrote Winnie the Pooh. When I was a child he still owned the shop. I think the steps are called Horn Hill steps.