Woolacombe - does it have the WOW factor?

If you’ve been to Woolacombe in North Devon then you may, or may not, agree with me that it definitely has the WOW factor.  I guess a lot depends on what you think that is; for me it is a fabulously stunning golden sandy beach that you can sunbathe on in the summer or walk a couple of miles on in the winter, waves that you can surf in on a good day (flat as a pancake on others), a few independent shops, nice eateries and other amenities in the village, but most of all it is not overly commercialised and remains a traditional seaside location.

If you’ve not been to Woolacombe, then in my opinion you are seriously missing out on something a little bit special and must put it on your ‘places to visit’ list immediately.

We’ve used Woolacombe as our base for North Devon on many occasions, I’ll come to that later in the blog.  First of all, I’m going to cover the many delights that keep bringing us back to the same place time and again. I just wish we lived closer so it could be a weekend jaunt, alas it remains a 5-hour drive on a good day, so we usually dedicate a week for a visit.  At least you have time to get over the trauma of the M5, if I had a pound for every minute I’ve sat staring at the RAC tower I’d be a very rich woman; if you know you know, because you’ve been there too!

Woolacombe Bay

The first thing that hits you as you turn the corner on the main road into Woolacombe is the view of the vast beach reaching out as far as the eye can see.  The first time you see it, it is breath-taking, I still don’t tire of that view some 20 years later.  If the sun is shining you see the bluest sea glistening in front of you, if its heavy cloud you see the grey and white waves crashing into the shore.  Those are the days when the surf is at its best and the black dots in the sea are plentiful (surfer’s paradise).

Once you arrive in the bay the view is hidden as the village is in a dip.  There is a large beach tarmac car park, with a further huge overflow grass area along the road towards the cliff-top parking.  On a hot summer’s day, all of those car parks are packed full of holidaymakers and surfers.  Out of season you can sometimes even get a space on the bay that follows round towards Morthoe.  It used to offer free overnight parking for campervans but its no longer an option as people abused it and were staying for weeks at a time at the side of the road.  If you’re up early enough, ie the crack of dawn, you can still get a good spot there for the day looking out across the bay and the sunset is amazing from here.

There is a nice café in the car park called The Beachcomber which we’ve eaten in many times, you can also get takeaway for the beach which is literally a few strides away down the ramp.  It is a lovely walk along the beach, 2 miles, to Putsborough where you can get refreshments from the Beach Café, which sells decent fayre and the best crab sarnies.  You can retrace your steps back along the beach or climb up behind the café and follow the coastal path that hugs the sand dunes and ends up on Marine Drive dropping back into the village centre.

Most of the village is managed by Parkin Estates, including the beach, car parks, beach café and ice-cream vans.  So, everything has a charge, and quite a big one too.  Car parking is very expensive but unavoidable as most of the campsites are too far out up on the hillsides to be able to walk into the village. There are buses run by the bigger sites that drop in and out of the village regularly, but you have to be staying on their site to use them.  There is a public bus service that passes some of the smaller sites which is worth it if you aren’t taking everything but the kitchen sink to the beach – we usually are so having to pay the price!  To be fair to Parkin Estates, the beach is always immaculate and the toilets and other facilities around it are kept very clean even at the busiest of times, so it is worth contributing to their upkeep by using the car parks.

I confess that I have lied about the length of our motorhome to access two of the car parks on different occasions!  They have a limit of 5.5m on the main beach one and the cliff top one.  On both times it was raining, and they were almost empty, I knew I could hide at the far end with the 1m hangover of our van on the grass banking so when I was asked, I just said, ‘yeah I’m just under 5.5m long’, it was only a little white lie and what’s a metre among friends.  I promise I didn’t block anybody’s way and I wasn’t the only one who wanted to get her surfboard as close to the beach steps as possible.  Trust me it’s a long walk back in a dripping wetsuit with a surfboard swinging in the wind under your arm to the car park that accommodates larger vehicles!

Eating and Drinking

When you’ve finished pretending you’re part of the fit family (I think I’m showing my age here, only a few will remember this phrase) and done your 4-mile walk on the beach and had an hour surfing in the sea, you need some serious grub to get your energy back.  For a small village type place, Woolacombe is not short of eateries or takeaways, and most are very light on dress code and on a summer’s evening you won’t look out of place sat outside one of the bars eating your meal in your beach attire or surfer’s dry robe.  The sun sets over the bay looking back towards the village so it’s a beautiful sunset view from most of the eateries as they face out to sea.  You can walk around the bay and head up to Morthoe over the fields, that’s another nice walk with stunning sunset views when you get to the top of the hill.

Brundle’s Bar make a mean cocktail with a view, and another of my favourites to eat in is The Captain’s Table for a great crab salad or fish and chips.  There used to be a fab pizza takeaway on South Street but I think its closed down, however, Stoned sell good pizzas from the van on the car park but there’s always a long queue so order in advance!  The village chippy is always busy too, but if you just want to cook back at your own place then there is a well-stocked Londis on the main street.

As an aside, I can confirm I obtained several packs of toilet rolls and disinfectant spray to bring home to Yorkshire from that Londis when we went into Covid lockdown in March 2020 and found ourselves on a campsite up the hill the day it was announced.  A call from family at home confirmed Yorkshire appeared to have gone into toilet roll meltdown and they were already moving onto the kitchen roll and goodness knows what would be next for a loo stop. We made an emergency stop at the Londis where I was masked and disinfected on entry by the shop assistant (I’m not joking, they were way ahead of us for a small village) and I probably purchased the most cleaning products they had ever known from one customer.  On arrival back home I then did the doorstep challenge – how many toilet rolls/disinfectant can you deliver in one day without speaking to anyone in person – I achieved my mission and my extended family breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of loo roll.  Good job they all live in close proximity to us!

Where to Stay

The first time we stayed in Woolacombe we went in our tent, alongside the neighbours on the next pitch (aka sister, brother-in-law and nephews) on Warcombe Farm Camping Park right at the top of the hill where it was blowing a hooley for most of the week and we were shrouded in a heavy mist every time we entered the campsite.  Don’t be misled by this, as soon as you dropped 5 yards down the road towards the sea it became a glorious sunny day, just not great for a BBQ in the clouds.  It is a fabulous site, not the cheapest but the amenities blocks are far superior to an average campsite with the most amazingly large showers suitable for a family, great for getting back into your jeans as half the floor stays dry due to the underfloor heating! 

Also, the site has a very good small fishing lake for use only by campsite residents which my hubby and nephew were hooked by, although there was an incident when a camping chair went floating in the lake, not once but twice, following a gust of wind whilst my nephew was landing a carp.  In true fisherman fashion, both him and hubby ignored the sinking chair and landed the fish.  Neighbour on the next pitch was not a happy bunny when she saw her best camping chair covered in fishy slime from the lake!

We weren’t phased by the mist and returned to this site twice more, once in our tents and when we got our T5’s.  In fact, this site was where we became inspired to buy a campervan after packing away our tent for the last time in pouring rain! The men loved the fishing after a day at the beach, so it was a perfect spot for us, and to be fair the cloud did lift on some occasions after that first time.  We only had one further incident with the lake, when my nephew had been stalking a carp in the reeds for almost an hour and his mum came up behind him knowing nothing about fishing etiquette and shouted that the tea was ready.  OMG it was like she’d ruined his world, we laughed a lot, and they did eventually, alas the carp was the one that got away!

In more recent years we’ve visited on our own as the kids are all grown up now.  The Willingcott CAMC site is a good choice out of season, very quiet with the usual good facilities that is expected of CAMC.  If you don’t want to use your motorhome there is a bus stop along the footpath from the back of the site that takes you into Woolacombe and the opposite way into Ilfracombe.  We walked into Ilfracombe via the cycle track which forms part of the Tarka Trail (national cycle route 27) that starts on the corner up from the Fortescue Arms pub.  It is a nice walk of approximately 5 miles one way and going is flat or downhill through the trees bringing you out at the back of Ilfracombe, only a 10-minute walk to the harbour.  We caught the bus back but if we’d gone on our bikes, we would have cycled both ways, although be aware it is quite steep on the initial section so electric pedal assistance is handy unless you’re very fit!

Last year when we were between motorhomes, we hired a chalet bungalow on the Golden Coast Holiday Park.  I can highly recommend this accommodation and the campsite.  I’m sure in the summer it is packed full, and the entertainment offered along with indoor and outdoor swimming pools is great for families, but we went in early season, it was very quiet but a perfect base for getting around the area.  They do take motorhomes and tourers, all on hardstanding level pitches and I had a nosy at the toilets/showers which were basic but very clean.  The traditional pub at the edge of the site served good quality food which was nice when we didn’t feel like cooking.  A bonus for us was having the car so we used the opportunity to go farther afield and visited lots of our old haunts that we’d not been to in more recent visits.  You’ll see these in future blogs as there are just so many beautiful places along the North Devon coastline that they deserve their own write-up.  Not to be missed are Croyde, Ilfracombe, Saunton Sands, Lynton & Lynmouth all for their own reasons.

To Summarise

In short, you can probably tell I love Woolacombe and wish I could afford to buy one of the fabulous houses that have the amazing view over the bay, but that’s not going to happen any time soon!

Woolacombe has a stunning golden sandy beach, with crystal clear water and excellent surf when the weather is right.  There is entertainment for all ages but in a traditional unspoilt seaside way.  They’ve even got a crazy-golf and mini pitch-and-putt if its not a beach kind of day.  Plenty of food available if you don’t want to cook, and lots of options for staying in the area either for campers or house rentals.  If you like walking, it’s a great winter destination.  Not much opens but the walks are fabulous on the beach and around the countryside that surrounds it.

If you’ve not been before then I recommend you give it a shot as I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If you have been then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about and hopefully its on your list to return, it stays permanently on ours 😊. Let me know in the comments if you’ve been and what your thoughts are on Woolacombe.

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Happy travels