The 10 best parks and gardens in Totnes

We had an excellent visit to this museum today. The volunteers were very informed and extremely friendly. I am very interested in clocks and the number of local clock on view was very good. The museum was very interesting with a wide variety of objects. The area on Charles Babbage was very informative. I highly recommended this museum.

Interesting place to visit, free admission but they do rely on donations and suggest a very reasonable £2 a person. Quite a lot to see on multiple floors. Glad we popped in for a look around. If you are in the area do pop in!

Fun outta the Sun.. 🏩👒

Great little museum! Loads of stuff to see and read and great for the kids as there is little wooden mice dotted around that they can try and find, the staff were very welcoming and friendly. Highly recommend and the added bonus is it was Free entry.

Really interesting museum. Run by informative volunteers and well worth a visit

This museum is free to visit. All the staff are volenteers. It is amazing. Very interesting. Well worth a visit.

As museum go it's not very big but well worth looking around as there is plenty to see...The building it self is very historical with all the lovely old wooden beams and supporting posts...what fascinated us was one particular man by the name of Charles Babage,the things he started to invent all those years ago is almost unbelievable....Back in the 18th century he came up ideas about computers and submarines etc,you would never imagined people thinking like that all those years ago...What a clever man he was...The whole museum is so interesting to look around 👍

The sweetest playground for kids I've seen! Love the birch trees and the stream, and the fact there's no dogs allowed... such a blessing to not have to worry about dog mess! It's great that there's a small park area with a slide but also other sections of the park more focused on connecting with nature.

Great park with the feel of a large garden. The planting is natural and really beautiful. Lots of benches dotted around and lots of areas for kids to play including a large wooden climbing frame, a sandpit and pond area. (Smaller children will need supervision as there is a pond and stream). No dogs allowed but that makes it perfect for children and picnics ( although no restrictions on seagulls) A really peaceful, hidden away gem, with paid parking very close and just around the corner from the wells ( take the path/alleyway to the left leaving the park up the hill to the historic leech wells).

Gorgeous garden and play area, something for all ages; quiet seating areas amongst beautiful planting, wooden play equipment, sand pit and water play area. Very clean and tidy. We go there every time we are in Totnes!

Lovely garden with play equipment we were happy to stumble across. Great for a play before/after heading into town. Bonus we met a lovely local whilst here too!

Delightful small garden with some seating and play space for children. It can be rather busy during the Summer with families, but if you head there later in the afternoon it can be a bit more peaceful, especially in the far part of the garden. I highly recommend bringing a picnic from the various foods of the market and eating here as it's only a short distance away.

Great place, mud kitchen, stream, sand pit, slide, trees, my kids love it there :)

Lovely open space to chill. Not a huge park, but a small intimate setting with benches and ponds. Good amount of space for children to play. Only a small walk from the city area and it is quite easy to find!

Machine only takes coins or you pay by app or mobile. But you do need to have an account! We needed to park for more than 4 hours as we were going to do the Bus-train-boat tour, which was excellent by the way. Cost of parking was £10 in coins. No notes! Luckily nearby cafe was willing to change money. Not many people nowadays carry that many coins. Why no card payments or pay by phone without having to set up an account like you do at some of the other car parks? As this car park is used by many tourists who go on the day trip it should be made as easy as possible to buy tickets. They could even sell the all day parking tickets at the Steam train company office.

Nice and big long stay car park with RingGo payment option as well... Perfect if you are looking to explore this 10th century medieval town of Totnes for a few hours or for the day. It's situated close to the river banks and you can easily get to the main Town centre within a few minutes by walking along the Embankment. Highly recommended...

Perfect location to park when visiting Totnes, whether you want a quiet stroll along the river or to visit the many shops and pubs and beautiful buildings in the town centre, everything is a short walk . Cafe was closed when we visited but there is a great choice of venues close by

Impossible to pay for parking. Payment is via an app on the mobile phone. The app wouldn't work. The machine was surrounded with people having difficulties paying. Eventually people were leaving, unable to pay, not wanting to leave the vehicles there not having paid. As a result there were many available car parking spaces! I wondered how it was possible to park, go for a walk, or go on the ferry, when the parking payment system was so abominable. I don't intend to go there again because of the experience.

Was full when we got there but there are overflow and extra long term parking further along the road.

Decent car park alongside the Dart River. Well located if taking a river trip down to Dartmouth and back as it is "long stay".

Worth knowing one part of the car park here will accept motorhomes with self-contained loo for £10 per night. Also long stay for cars is a bit cheaper. RingGo app for cashless.

Loved the experience from start to finish. Nile is a great instructor! This was our first kayaking trip, and we felt everything went smoothly thanks to Nile’s excellent safety briefing and step‑by‑step paddling instruction. Would definitely recommend it and will come back again.

My husband, son and I went on a canoe trip with Nils and it was fantastic. Nils is really knowledgeable on local wildlife and was a great guide. He even let my son have a go of his kayak while he came the canoe with us, something my son absolutely loved. Thanks Nils for the great day.

Nils was extremely helpful with the booking of our experience and replied to emails promptly. We had an amazing four hours canoeing on the Dart with our guide, Kerri. It was so relaxing and beautiful. Kerri was really friendly and looked after us well, making sure that we were safe and that we enjoyed ourselves. The hot chocolate half way was much appreciated! We would highly recommend Paddle Devon. Thank you for a memorable experience :-)

Isles of Scilly Roaming Trip June 2025 I don’t have a bucket list but if I did then this trip organised by Nils of Paddle Devon would have definitely ticked that off. Nils has been doing this for three years with three different groups in each of the years so he’s built up a great knowledge of the rocks, islands and history. We arrived as individuals and made a team together with lots of laughs and No spills! We could have got wet 🤣Thanks Nils Müller 🤗

Great experience for first time sea kayaking. Very friendly, a world of experience and 10/10 local knowledge. Very supportive with the kids and building their confidence.

A lovely kayaking trip along the coast. Neil was a great guide. He shared his knowledge about the sea and wildlife…my 9 years old daughter had a blast paddling, lifting rocks, discovering and handling crabs… I warmly recommend!

My dad and I had a lovely morning out on the river Dart with Nils. Can't wait to do it again with my kids at some point!

A beautiful walk along the Dart. The path itself is well-maintained and completely accessible for wheelchair users and prams, etc. Very peaceful and great for dogs. Very cheap parking available in the Longmarsh car park (rather than the Steamer Quay space).

Beautiful place to walk or just sit and relax bye the river

Lovely walks along the riverside no matter what time of year.

Nice place to visit

Outstanding natural beauty, calm peaceful and full of chatting birds, a must for a morning's walk in the sunshine.

A wonderful walk along The River Dart, we have done this walk a thousand times and will definitely do it a thousand more! Friendly people, the open air and beautiful scenery; What's not to love! I would like to add that this is a very dog friendly area so allergy sufferers or people with phobia's may not enjoy as much as others. The walk if at a slow pace is probably around 40 minutes (to the end and back)

A very peaceful beautiful place for a walk by the river with ample parking

Tranquil location easy access down ramp the has loads of love symbol padlocks attached. Lest to go a little wild longer grass has plenty resin benched along with some picnic tables. Beautiful large mature trea of different varieties. Small play area. No toilets or parking

Great spot for a picnic or just chilling

Great green space place for people and pets

Lovely place on the river to while away a Sunday afternoon in the sunshine and eat ice cream. Parking is limited though

Nice place to visit

A nice tranquil spot that was in danger of being flooded due to what appeared to be an unusually high tide.

Whilst visiting the area, we decided to spend a morning at the picturesque town of Totnes. We navigated our trusty car around the hilly and winding roads as we approached the town centre. I almost missed the blue parking signs, because I was so enthralled to have already spotted a sign towards Steamer Quay. My wife and I do enjoy a stroll alongside a quay, and with the morning sun threatening to treat us to a delightful blue sky day I was already allowing myself to get carried away with the joys of holidaying. Noticing my excitement, my wife laid a calming hand upon my lap, and it was just enough for me to take in a much needed deep breath, gather myself and focus on the task at hand; finding a carpark. As if luck hadn’t already being generous towards us, there was a plentiful amount of car parking, and we fortunately found one that was not only reasonably priced (in modern day terms that is) but also gave us a starting point that meant we were just a few downhill strolls away from finding ourselves at Steamer Quay. We held hands and smiled lovingly at each other as we ambled our way towards the quay. As fixed as our mindset was to make a beeline there, we couldn’t help but become seduced by the overall charm of Totnes. Independent boutique shops and cafes were peppered all across the winding streets, with the high street itself, holding an array of charming buildings of varying styles which all seemed to be steeped in history. Why is it almost exclusively history that things get ‘steeped’ in? It a funny word like that I guess. I think it just means soaked. Anyway, I digress. As we approached our way to the quay, we found that the day hadn’t finished blessing us, and as made our way over the beautifully proud bridge, we spotted some steps down towards Vire Island. Not really an island as such, but more of a leg of land, jostling out between each side of the quay, creating a lovely tranquil park where you can meander down to some nice benches. Don’t go eating the plants there though. The place is steeped in Hemlock Water Dropwort. That stuff will make you squirt death out of every hole. Nice trees though.

It was good for street but not the best . they are building a new one though. Dont reccomend it.

I felt disappointed by my recent visit to Dartington Hall Gardens. The price was too high for the lack of activities (£7). We went with 2 children and the map (eventually…)took us to low ropes - one of which looked broken and were very far away from everything and felt neglected. Even more so was the ‘play park’. We cajoled two small children to walk there and it was awful. Overflowing bins and one very small zip line. The restaurant, like the parking, was totally overpriced. The smallest ice cream was £4. Parking was about £6 for 4 hours. Even the service was disappointing- when we set off on the *children’s* path, we had to walk past the receptionist sat smoking there- why on earth would you choose that place to smoke?? This place feels like it doesn’t want children or families to visit.

Stayed at Dartington Hall so had the pleasure of walking through the gardens each day. They are well maintained. I particularly liked the Mediterranean Garden. There are guided tours. I joined the tour on my last day and it was approximately 90 mins and included some of the history of the hall as well as the gardens. This tour was free as we were residents.

Well worth a visit if only to see the wonderful Henry Moore sculpture. Lovely to walk around the estate with many glorious and very old trees. Plenty of watering holes to enjoy too. Only problem was the state of the car park which is badly potholed. However recommended!

A beautiful place. The bar is fabulous and the food is very good. We sat outside with a lovely view.

The gardens are lovely, a place for a peaceful walk, a place where you can forget some of your troubles (or at least shelve them until later). The woman in the visitor centre was friendly and helpful, the map quite nice. We also took a nice walk in the Deer Park (free entry to that), and even managed to see some deer at a distance.

Entry is £7, and there are some free tours offered on some days with entry. The gardens are a mix of more manicured (closer to the house) and more wild - and if you keep walking uphill, you get beautiful views out onto golden fields.

Lovely quiet grounds. We stayed here overnight so get to enjoy the peace and quiet of the surroundings. Would like to visit again in summer.

Beautiful, but don’t tell everyone!

Had a fantastic coastal walk from Brixham to Paignton, where we followed the sign posted route, making stops at the various bays on route. There are some beautiful bays that are so quiet and look like somewhere sub tropical on a sunny day. The coastal route is challenging, but taking it steady it's a great walk. The only downside is the lack of toilets, so at the less secluded areas, take the opportunity! The wooded areas and cliffs are full of interesting plant life and insects, so there is always something to look at. Plus some of the route runs parallel to the steam train line, so it's great when the train runs past. If you like a walk, it's well worth a visit.

For such an important landscape I was very disappointed to find it intensively grazed by livestock. We are a Rainforest Nation and the landowners/custodians are failing to address the national decline of our wildlife and fauna by farming this land which is not needed. It would find far better use being re-wilded not only for the benefit of Nature and the General Public, but also for the custodians of the land through Eco Tourism.

Circular walk done in Stoke Gabriel, parked the car near the primary school it has two hours free parking and there is also a nearby shack restaurant with £5 all day parking with a view of the river. Lovely walk paths and on that day it a low tide, manage to walk by the river. Beautiful views 🫶🏼.

Always stunning views Huge expanse, so never busy Could see all of Cornwall, down to Plymouth and over to Bodmin Moor Fantastic place for long, medium or short walks Remember to come with various items of clothing, as the weather can be cool at the top of the Tors.

This is a beautiful place to visit. Having never been I was surprised by the number of amazing beaches and countryside. It was surprisingly quiet and really enjoyed our week here. One thing to bear in mind is the roads. The roads here can be quite tricky. Luckily we have a small car so the lanes were not a problem. But if you have a large vehicle or caravan just be aware some of the lanes can be quite narrow. Definitely worth a visit if you are looking for somewhere to visit in the Devon area. We all had a great week with hiking, swimming, kayaking and stand up paddle boarding.

We went Kayaking in this area and found a remote beach which you can only get to via sea transportation - loved the quietness, beautiful clear water and cove. Totally recommend if you can get to this destination as you have plenty to explore here such as water caves.. this quiet coves and small beaches can be accessed via Mothercombe beach or Bigbury on sea!