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17 Best Water Activities In Devon
Every entry but one on this seventeen-strong list is flagged for open ground, so start from the assumption that a Devon water day happens outdoors and in whatever the sky is doing. The age question here is really a swimming question. Sea Kayak Devon, Reach Outdoors, OSKC Watersports and Saddles and Paddles all put a child on the water rather than in it, and paddlesport providers set minimum ages and usually want a child who is comfortable if they go in. That is a competence floor, not a birthday.
Top water activities in Devon
Showing 1–12 of 17
WaterSea Kayak Devon
WaterOSKC Watersports
WaterReach Outdoors
Swimming PoolsDartmouth Heated Outdoor Swimming Pool
Water ParksMonster Slip and Slide - North Devon
SightseeingThe Ilfracombe Princess Cruises
Water ParksMassive Slip And Slide Devon
WaterSaddles and Paddles
WaterChagford Swimming Pool
WaterHaven Banks Outdoor Education Centre
WaterChudleigh Lido
WaterWistlandpound
Two gentler options carry the younger end. Dartmouth Heated Outdoor Swimming Pool is water a small child can simply be in, heated and enclosed and needing nothing from them. The Ilfracombe Princess Cruises is water somebody else deals with while everybody sits down. Note also that two of the seventeen are slip-and-slide events rather than places, so the count of permanent venues is smaller than the headline, and a family planning outside the summer should discount them entirely.
Water Activities in Devon: FAQs
Does a child need to swim before trying kayaking?
Providers vary, and several will take a non-swimmer in a buoyancy aid on sheltered water with an instructor. What is more useful to ask yourself is whether your child is calm about going under. A capsize is normal, brief and undramatic for a confident child, and genuinely frightening for one who is not, and no amount of equipment changes that. Ring the provider, describe the child honestly, and let them tell you which session fits.
Which entry works with a toddler?
The heated pool, by a distance. Dartmouth Heated Outdoor Swimming Pool asks nothing of a young child except that they enjoy water, and being heated removes the main objection to swimming outdoors in this country. A boat trip is the second answer, since everybody is seated and the sea does the entertaining, though small children on open water need close attention throughout and some operators set a minimum age. Paddlesports are the wrong call at that stage.
Why do two listings look like the same event?
Because they are two of a kind rather than one duplicated: both are temporary slip-and-slide set-ups of the sort that appear for a season and then go. They inflate the seventeen slightly and they will not help you in October. Where a name describes an event rather than a place, treat it as something to confirm is running before you drive, and do not count it when you are judging how well served the county is.
What happens to this list in bad weather?
It thins out sharply. Only one of the seventeen records indoor space, so wind and rain take out most of the page rather than merely making it uncomfortable, and sea-based trips may not sail at all. The heated pool is the entry most likely to go ahead regardless, being water you are already wet in. If the forecast is genuinely poor, look under swimming pools instead, where the county's indoor options have been filed.