Coach Holidays to Devon with Airedale Tours
Devon is two counties in one. The north coast is high cliffs, Exmoor combes and villages like Clovelly, where the cobbled street drops so steeply that goods still come down by sledge. The south is softer: the Dart estuary, Georgian Dartmouth, Torbay's red cliffs and the granite tors of Dartmoor behind.
Our Devon holidays are five days, based in one hotel, with a private coach and an experienced driver so nobody has to tackle the lanes. Most travel from Bideford, Ilfracombe, Exmouth or Torquay, with gardens, houses and coastal railways on the excursion list.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Devon Tours
All the Devon tours currently in our programme are five days, with four nights in one hotel. That means you unpack once and travel out by coach each day, returning to the same room each evening. It is a comfortable pattern for a county with narrow lanes and slow driving. Departure dates and pick-up arrangements vary by tour, so please ask us about a particular departure.
Several of our Devon tours include a set number of single rooms at no supplement — the figure differs from tour to tour and is listed on each holiday page. Once those are taken, a supplement may apply. Solo travellers are a regular part of our groups, and a driver-guide and fixed itinerary make it easy company. Ask us which singles are still available on the departure you are considering.
On our South Devon houses and gardens tours, entry to National Trust properties is included if you are a member — you show your card at the gate. Non-members should expect to pay on the day unless the tour description says otherwise. Properties such as Killerton, Castle Drogo, Greenway and Saltram are all Trust-owned. If you are unsure how it works on a specific tour, ask us before booking.
North Devon gardens and coast
North Devon suits gardeners particularly well. RHS Rosemoor, near Great Torrington, began as one woman's private garden and now runs to sixty-odd acres of formal rose gardens, cottage borders and woodland. Marwood Hill sits in a sheltered valley with three lakes and national collections of astilbe and tulbaghia. Castle Hill at Filleigh is grander in scale, with 18th-century parkland and follies on the ridge.
Several of our garden tours pair these with Hartland Abbey, Docton Mill and Tapeley Park, whose Italianate terraces look out towards Lundy. The coastal tours take a different line: Clovelly, the Valley of Rocks above Lynton, Woolacombe's long sands, and the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, a narrow-gauge line rebuilt by volunteers after decades of closure.
Tours here are based at hotels in Bideford or Ilfracombe.
South Devon houses, railways and Dartmoor
The south of the county is where the great houses cluster. Saltram, outside Plymouth, is one of the finest Georgian interiors in the West Country, with Robert Adam rooms and a good deal of Reynolds on the walls. Killerton, Knightshayes and Castle Drogo — Lutyens' granite fortress above the Teign gorge, finished in 1930 — all appear on our South Devon itineraries, as does Greenway, Agatha Christie's summer house above the river.
Dartmouth is the other anchor. Bayard's Cove Fort guards the narrow entrance, the Britannia Royal Naval College stands above the town, and the Dartmouth Steam Railway runs along the coast to Paignton with the sea below the carriage window. Dartmoor is a short drive inland: open moor, stone rows, and ponies on the road.
