Wembury Marine Centre

The marine centre sits right on Wembury Beach, a proper working research station rather than a visitor attraction with gift shops and queues. You'll find tanks of local sea creatures - wrasse, anemones, crabs - pulled from the waters just offshore, and staff who actually know their stuff will explain what you're looking at rather than reading from a laminated card.

It's best suited to families with children old enough to be genuinely curious about marine life, or anyone serious about understanding what lives in Devon's waters. The tanks are small and the centre itself won't hold your attention for more than 90 minutes, but the beach beyond is excellent - sandy, rock pools that are teeming, and on a clear day you can see across to the Cornish coast.

Admission details aren't well publicised online, so ring ahead before driving out from Plymouth. The real draw is combining it with a proper beach afternoon. Wembury is about three miles south of the town, easy enough to reach, and if you're staying at Hidden Hill Devon - that luxury glamping spot a few miles inland - you've got a cracking afternoon sorted without venturing far from base.

Weather matters here. Windy days make the beach less pleasant, and the centre gets busy during school holidays. Go midweek if you can, and time it so you're there for a couple of hours mid-afternoon when the light's best for spotting things in the tanks.