North Sands
The inner and quieter of Salcombe's beaches, with a good stretch of sand at low water and the Winking Prawn behind it. North Sands carries no dog exclusion in the South Hams order, unlike South Sands a few hundred yards on, so it is the summer default for anyone in Salcombe with a dog.
Sharp Tor and Bolt Head from South Sands
A 3.6-mile circuit from South Sands up past the palms of Overbeck's to the rock towers of Sharp Tor and Bolt Head, about two and a quarter hours with 240 metres of climbing on uneven, rocky cliff path and a stepped drop into Starehole Bay. Start from the small paid car park at Tides Reach or leave the car in Shadycombe in Salcombe and take the South Sands ferry, because the lane down is narrow and the beach parking fills by mid-morning. Dogs are excluded from South Sands between 1 May and 30 September except to cross on a lead for the ferry, but the headland above is open and off-lead, with sheep in the fields behind Tor Woods and a long unfenced drop above Starehole.
Snapes Point estuary loop
1 MI · 35M · 92% OFF-ROADA one-mile National Trust loop out to a low headland in the middle of the Salcombe estuary, half an hour of gentle walking with a few steps and about 45 metres of climbing on grass and farm track. The Trust car park at the top of Sandhills Road is free and holds perhaps a dozen cars, so it is a good bet when Salcombe itself is gridlocked; the walk is also reachable on foot from the town in fifteen minutes. Dogs can be off the lead on the headland but the loop crosses grazed pasture with cattle in summer, and the shoreline below is reached only at a couple of muddy gaps, so this is a view walk rather than a swimming one.