Teignmouth Play Park

The Exe estuary opens up properly around Teignmouth, and this play park sits right where the landscape shifts from seaside town to something wilder. It's a genuinely useful spot if you're staying at one of the nearby parks - Lady's Mile or Golden Sands are just a few miles inland, and you'll want somewhere to burn off energy that isn't another arcade.

What you get is space. There's decent play equipment scattered across grounds that feel less manicured than your typical municipal park, with enough trees to provide actual shade on a hot day. The layout means kids can run about without you losing sight of them entirely, which matters when you're managing a group. There's a small nature reserve element too - reedy bits where you might spot the occasional water bird, though it's hardly remote wilderness.

The best thing about it? It's free and genuinely accessible from Dawlish town centre, so it works as either a proper destination or a quick stop on the way to somewhere else. Allow an hour if you've got little ones, less if they're older and easily bored. The trade-off is that it's not scenic in the Instagram sense - it's functional, which is exactly what you need after a few days of holiday park routines.

Go when the weather's decent. It's Devon, so that's always a gamble, but when it comes off, you've got a proper little afternoon sorted without driving far.