A Summer Holiday in Totnes: How to Plan a Slow Week in the Dart Valley
The mistake most people make on a Devon holiday is trying to see everything. The South Hams reward slow visitors. A week based in Totnes gives you boat trips, river walks, a steam railway, the moor and the coast within an easy half-hour radius, and there is no need to be in the car every day.
This is a relaxed seven-day shape that families and couples both seem to settle into well.
Where to base yourself
Stay in Totnes itself if you want to walk to dinner. Stay in Dartington if you want gardens and quiet. Stay in a village like Stoke Gabriel or Ashprington if you want to wake up on the river. All three are within ten minutes of each other by car, and all three have decent walking and bus links back to town.
If you are arriving by train, taxis from Totnes station handle bags easily, and the riverside town centre is a fifteen-minute walk downhill.
A seven-day rhythm that works
The trick is to alternate big days with quiet ones. Anything more intense than that and the week starts to feel like a checklist.
Day 1 (arrival): settle in
Walk the High Street from the East Gate up to the castle. Eat at a riverside pub, the Steam Packet or the Waterside Bistro, and turn in early. You have six more days.
Day 2: river day to Dartmouth
Catch the morning Dartmouth River Boats sailing from Steamer Quay. The trip is around an hour and a quarter downriver, tidal, and everyone gets the same fascinated look as you pass Sharpham vineyard and the old quay at Dittisham. Have lunch in Dartmouth, then come back by steam train and ferry on the Round Robin route via Kingswear and Paignton, or simply return on the boat with the incoming tide.
Day 3: a slow day in Totnes
Fridays and Saturdays are market days, 9am to 4pm in the Market Square. Wander, eat a pasty, take an afternoon swim at the Longmarsh river beach. The fudge shops on Fore Street are a Totnes ritual.
Day 4: Dartmoor for the day
Drive up to Hay Tor or Hound Tor in the morning, walk for a couple of hours, then drop down to Widecombe-in-the-Moor for a long pub lunch. If you have school-age children, the South Devon Railway from Totnes Riverside to Buckfastleigh and on to Buckfast Abbey is the easier alternative and still gets you onto the edge of the moor.
Day 5: coastal half-day
Blackpool Sands and Slapton Sands are both within half an hour. Pack a picnic, take wetsuits if you have them, and aim to be back in Totnes for dinner. The coastline here is calmer and quieter than Torbay, and the South West Coast Path runs straight off the beach in both cases.
Day 6: Dartington and the gardens
Walk out from town to Dartington Hall via the meadows. The 26-acre gardens are free to enter and open every day. Lunch at the White Hart, see what is on at the Barn Cinema in the evening (the renovated 15th-century barn shows a strong arthouse and indie programme), and walk back to Totnes along the riverside path before dark.
Day 7 (departure): markets and the train home
If you are leaving by train, give yourself an unhurried morning. Coffee on Fore Street, one last walk along the Dart to the boatyard, and a taxi or short uphill walk to the station for an onward GWR service to London Paddington or CrossCountry train north.
Practical things to know
The food shop
Totnes is unusual for a town this size in having three proper independent grocers: Riverford on the High Street, Ben’s Wholefoods at the top, and the regular farmers’ market produce stalls. A holiday cottage stocked from those three is hard to beat.
Booking restaurants
The best dinner spots (Rumour, The Bull Inn, the chef-led spots in Dartington) book up by Wednesday afternoon in peak season. Reserve when you arrive on Sunday.
The weather plan
South Devon is mild and slightly wetter than the east coast. Plan one full wet-weather day into the week and you will never feel caught out. Buckfast Abbey, the Barn Cinema, the heritage railway under cover and the indoor markets all cope perfectly well in rain.
What you do not need to do
You do not need to visit Plymouth, Exeter or the north coast on a week-long Totnes holiday. They are all an hour or more each way and the rhythm of the Dart Valley is what you came for. Save them for a return trip.
Done right, a slow week in Totnes feels like two weeks. You leave knowing the river by light and by tide, the market traders by name, and at least three pubs well enough to have a usual table.