This week Toddler Trips brings us to Dawlish In Devon. A lovely regency seaside town on the English Riviera, which you can see from the train window on the way to Cornwall. Famous for it’s black swans, everything is within close proximity – the beach, shops, restaurants, ducks, trainline, cliffs. Here’s what we did there:

1) Visit the beach!

It’s called Dawlish Town Beach, right by the station with the railway tracks running alongside it.

Here’s how close the railway tracks are to the beach! This is what we usually see from the train window, so it was nice to be on the other side waving at the train 🙂

The South Devon coast is famous for it’s bright red cliffs, and they are quite amazing to see close up.

Here’s where the railway line comes out of one cliff and into another.

And of course no beach is complete with it’s own set of beach huts. The Dawlish ones are so colourful, like a postcard.

2. See the famous Dawlsh Black Swans

Dawlish is famous for it’s black swans – there are LOADS here, all in a landscaped area in the centre of town called ‘The Lawn’. They’re quite friendly swans too.

3. Visit the Waterfowl Sanctuary

As well as black swans, Dawlish is home to many waterfowl who live in The Lawn area, and they are looked after by wardens. We saw many different ducks, and upon googling the names, here are the species at Dawlish: Lesser White-fronted Geese, Whistling Tree Ducks, African Geese, Barnacle Geese, Carolina Ducks, Bantam Ducks, Red Crested Pochard, Call Ducks, Pintails, Shell Ducks, Mandarin Ducks and Chinese Geese. A lot of ducks and geese!

4. Lunch at the Monkey House Soft Play Cafe
This was the first time we had discovered a soft play cafe so we were very excited! An area for kids to play while the grown-ups could have a coffee – genius! Of course now, 2 years later, I am so familiar with these types of places 😛 This one cost £1.50 for Tyler being under 2. Under 12 months was free, and over 2s was £3. We had lunch there, which was £5 for a lasagne special. The Monkey House is at the end of the parade by the landscaped Lawn area, so a great location, and as it had just started raining when we walked by, we were glad to have found it!

5. Dawlish Carnival

We totally had not planned this, but the day we arrived in Dawlish was the big finale day of the annual Dawlish Carvinal! It was brilliant! The Lawn area was full of local folk crowding around, ready for the procession to start at 6pm. There was a fair, a band and generally a party atmosphere! Our hotel was located right at the centre of it all, so when it got dark we went back to our hotel room and watched from there. The procession went right past our window, and many of the performers waved at Tyler! If you’re planning to go this year, the carnival runs from 8 – 15 August 2015, with the Grand Carnival Procession Friday 14th August 2015.

6. Where to stay: The Blenheim (Photo source: easytobook,com)

Right on the seafront in the centre of town, we stayed in this huge bright pink period style house called the Blenheim. It had a lovely family feel, and our room was huge! With a kitchen area by the bed, and a round table and chairs for eating, bookshelves full of books, plus the view of the town and beach – it really was perfect. The decor was chintzy, but you expect that in a traditional seaside town, In the morning, the lady running the place brought up our breakfast so we ate in the comfort of our room at the table.

7. Things we didn’t get time to see:
Dawlish Warren Beach (another family friendly beach nearby),
Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve

I hope this has inspired you! Next week, I’ll take you to St. Ives 🙂

Sabrina x

Other Toddler Trips:
Bude – Salisbury – St Ives – Penzance – Land’s End – Yeovil – Southend