The best hotels in Devon
Blessed with Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, quaint seaside villages and some of the best beaches in the UK, Devon makes for a classic UK weekend break. But there's far more to this area than beautiful beaches and quaint cream teas, which means more people than ever are looking to escape to the South West. With so many options, finding a Devon hotel can be overwhelming, but there are hidden gems to be found if you know where to look. Whether you're planning a summer break with family, a weekend getaway with a group of friends, or even a romantic trip for two, there's something to suit everyone.
From beachside retreats to countryside getaways, these are some of the best hotels in Devon to help you explore one of the most undeniably beautiful destinations in the UK.
How we choose the best hotels in Devon
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We’re always looking for beautiful design, a great location and warm service – as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
- Adam Lynk
The Mole Resort, Chittlehamholt
Overlooking 25 acres of countryside is The Mole Resort, where newly-built lodges sit alongside a manor house. Despite the obvious clash of styles, the result is something that works, likely due to the sheer amount of space available to guests who wish to roam through the valleys or hole up in the hotel’s cosy bar. While rooms are available for guests in the manor house, it’s the self-catering lodges that appeal to the majority, thanks to their privacy, spacious rooms, hot tubs and oversized decks. This makes them an ideal choice for most, from groups of friends to whole families. And all of this land means there's a focus on sustainability, with the property itself located within the UNESCO North Devon Biosphere, which means biodiversity conservation is a key focus, and the resort's lodges are energy positive, the first of their kind in the UK.
This ethos extends to the food available to guests, too. There are two restaurants – Cellars (a gastropub) and Devon View (a fine dining restaurant) – both of which use produce from local suppliers. At breakfast, we were delivered a parcel of food for us to cook at our own pace; a nice touch, particularly for those wanting to make the most of their own space.
I stayed with five friends, and we had a great time axe-throwing (there's an incredible amount of on-site activities available to guests, from archery to bushcraft skills) and enjoying the hot tub while my more golf-inclined pals woke up early to tee up. While we didn't get a chance to visit the spa (which has both an indoor and outdoor pool), there's no doubt we left The Mole feeling more relaxed than when we first arrived. Abigail Malbon
Address: Chittlehamholt, Umberleigh EX37 9HD
Telephone: 01769 540561
Price: From £80 per night Glebe House, Southleigh
Featured on our 2022 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
A handsome early-19th-century residence in Southleigh, sandwiched between the Jurassic Coast’s red sandstone cliffs and the verdant Blackdown Hills. And here life in the slow lane comes with added culinary clout – chef Hugo Guest (formerly of South London’s Sorella) and his artist wife Olive have renovated and refurbished the country B&B into a smart smallholding made up of five bedrooms – there’s a twin room and camp beds for children – plus a separate, dog-friendly annex with a terrace. The restaurant is as easy a draw as the interiors – produce is grown locally, butter and yogurt are made in a large kitchen in the cottage behind the main house, and a temperature-controlled ageing room yields pickles and charcuterie while suppers see an Italian-influenced set menu. It’s a place for families with tots in tow, solo travellers and good-food devotees – an English version of the agriturismo, slow and back to nature.
Address: Glebe House, Southleigh, Colyton, Devon EX24 6SD
Telephone: +44 1404 871276
Price: Doubles from £129Read more of our review of Glebe House, Devon
Harbour Beach Club, Salcombe
Whatever the weather, it’s hard to resist a steps-from-the-sand British hangout, and this summer 2021 opening has a knockout setting in a particularly lovely part of Devon.
Sister to established Salcombe Harbour Hotel, it takes a South Hams staycation in a sprightly direction with barefoot vibes and from-scratch architecture, plus tongue-and-groove and larch cladding provide a relaxed Hamptons aesthetic while mimicking the gabled roofs of the sail lofts along the estuary. It’s an elevated daytime pitstop and a well-pitched holiday address, especially for those on the button enough to book in for half term. The 50 bedrooms have up-to-the- minute interiors from London-based DO Design Studio – terrazzo and brushed brass, mid-century-modern nods and chartreuse linens are a refreshing step away from typical nautical colour schemes. Suppers focus quite rightly on seafood: catch of the day; grilled squid and lobster; dressed crab, and curious locals are excited for a new lunch haunt. Here is direct access to the best parts of Salcombe – beaches, boating – without the town crowds. Issy von Simson
Address: Harbour Beach Club, South Sands, Salcombe, Devon TQ8 8LJ
Telephone: +44 1548 233456
Price: Doubles from £340- James Merrell
The Pig, Combe
After rounding one more blind bend on a narrow Devon lane, the village of Gittisham comes into view, with cottages of cob and thatch and a narrow bridge spanning a stream. The Pig hotel has swung open its doors in what was Combe House, an Elizabethan manor of gabled austerity. It overlooks a combe, or valley, of extraordinary peacefulness and when I first visited in the late 1990s, I fell in love with it. Stepping straight into the ancient Great Hall, softly lit, fire crackling in an enormous grate, panelled walls dark and shiny as liquorice, there was a sense of being spirited back in time.
Now it has become The Pig at Combe, the fifth and most westerly of the hotels opened by Robin and Judy Hutson, with business partner David Elton. The first arrived in Hampshire in 2011, soon joined by others in Somerset and Dorset. Each occupies a building of historic interest (Combe is Listed Grade I, as is The Pig at Studland). Elton takes care of landscaping - no mean feat, against the ticking clock of a launch, if grounds are to provide alluring vistas and tumultuous planting - while the Hutsons focus on the hotel itself.
Address: The Pig at Combe, Gittisham, Honiton, Devon EX14 3AD
Telephone: +44 1404 540400
Price: Doubles from £195Read more of our review of The Pig hotel in Devon
Gara Rock, Salcombe
A solitary seaside design hotel just outside Salcombe, Gara Rock offers outrageous snugness in a seaside location, topping a high, jagged peninsula along Devon’s historic South West Coast Path. A kind of hotel-meets-private-hamlet where historic Admiralty cottages sit alongside new accommodation, from a terrace of three-storey self-catering houses to a spectacular lone studio built into rocks, the House Nine interior-design team channelled an undeniably Soho Farmhouse vibe with antiques and muted, warm colours for more of a cardamom-and-ginger than sugared-almond-beach-hotel feel. Salcombe eggs are served at breakfast; radishes from the kitchen garden stud smoked cod’s roe cream; smoky South African Sauvignons are paired with that morning’s caught crab. It's family-friendly, but just as popular with Le Chameau-booted couples, the sailing-fanatical Salcombe set, hikers and wet-suited surfers. Antonia Quirke
Address: Gara Rock, Salcombe, East Portlemouth, Salcombe, Devon TQ8 8FA
Telephone: +44 333 370 0555
Price: Doubles from £150 including breakfast- www.thepolizzicollection.com / Paul Massey
Hotel Endsleigh, Dartmoor
From the creative powerhouse behind Cornwall’s Hotel Tresanton and The Star in Alfriston is Hotel Endsleigh, one of Devon’s most elegant and timeless hotels. Located in the Dartmoor hills, this former fishing lodge has chic country-house interiors – hand-painted wallpaper, quirky chaises longues, deep wood panelling – and Grade I-listed grounds with a stunning garden with rose-clad terraces and fresh-cut lawns that look out to the Cornish border. The menu also shows great attention to detail – local ingredients are elevated with an Italian twist, in-season peaches with creamy burrata or fresh garden salads. It’s stylish and discreet and a proper countryside escape.
Address: Hotel Endsleigh, Milton Abbot, Tavistock, Devon PL19 0PQ
Telephone: +44 1822 870000
Price: Doubles from £215 Weeke Barton hotel, Dartmoor
On a hillside in Dartmoor National Park, this 500-year-old whitewashed longhouse opened as a rustic-cool hideaway with wonky beams, modern art and photography on the walls, and retro decor such as Ministry of Food tins and film-set paraphernalia. Set in about four acres of apple, damson and chestnut trees (plus a recently added pétanque pitch), there's a Hackney-on-the-moors feel to the five bedrooms, each with quirky touches such as a collage of Fifties pin-up postcards, hessian-sack cushions, sheepskin rugs on the deep window sills or paintbox-coloured anglepoise lamps. Dinners are very sociable: the set menu is eaten with other guests at a three-metre-long, polished-slate table by a wood-burning stove, where young families and foodie couples from Bristol and London are treated to chicken, chorizo and cider pie, bubbling away in an enamel dish with a buttery pastry lid, followed by the world's best homemade brown-bread ice cream and washed down with a rich, fruity red from a list of biodynamic wines. Ramble till your heart's content in the national park, or go fishing and shooting nearby, and relax at the honest bar with all you need to mix your own cocktail. By Grainne McBride
Address: Weeke Barton, Bridford, Exeter EX6 7HH
Telephone: +44 16472 53505
Price: Doubles from £110, including breakfastLike this? Now read: