Exeter
If your image of Devon leans heavily on TV advertisments for Ambrosia custard ("Devon knows how they make it so creamy"), you might find Exeter—the county's only city—something of a disappointment. At face value, Exeter is little more than a long row of chain stores surrounded by the kind of anonymous urban sprawl you can find everywhere from Manchester to Croydon. So what about it, Exeter? What else have you got to offer?
The location
For many travellers, Exeter is the gateway to the South West. Once you're beyond Exeter, you're firmly in the world of King Arthur, Jamie Oliver restaurants, and north-Atlantic surfing. There's no getting away from the fact that Exeter is a bustling city, but it's on an estuary too. You're very close to the sea and to the breathtaking coastal countryside of North Devon. What you have in Exeter, arguably, is the best of all worlds. That's why Exeter has been voted top in more than one survey of the best, all-round place to live in Britain.
Economy
Exeter used to be an important maritime town (the Quay is one of the more fashionable parts of town). Now it's more important as a tourist town and the administrative capital of the South West. The University is highly thought of (traditionally it's a place where people go when they just fail to scrape into Oxford or Cambridge) and is famous for, among other things, housing the Greenpeace scientific laboratories.
Things to do
Places nearby
The best thing about Exeter is its well-connected location. Stay in Exeter and you're within easy reach of some great countryside to the north. You're also within easy reach of resorts like Paignton, Torquay and Brixham (the English Riviera) and more upmarket parts of the South-Devon coast such as Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and Dartmouth. All these places are worth a visit. Don't forget to check out Topsham, Exmouth, and Budleigh Salterton on the Exe estuary. If it's wild countryside you're after, Dartmoor is only a few miles to your west; Exmoor is a little further north.
Attractions
There's no shortage of places to visit in and around Exeter. In the
city itself, you'll probably want to see the historic cathedral and close,
the ruins of Rougemont
Castle, and the Museum
right next door (closed for refurbishment from December 2007 until
2010). Other central attractions include the Quay House
Visitor Centre on the "historic quayside", which traces Exeter's
interesting maritime history. If you like historic houses and gardens,
you'll want to make for Powderham
Castle, A
La Ronde near Exmouth (an unusual 16-sided National Trust house
from the 18th century), and Bicton
Park Gardens. For sport and leisure, try the GX Superbowl bowling
alley on the Quay or the Riverside
Leisure Centre in Cowick Street in the St Thomas area. For theatre
and performance, try the Exeter
Phoenix in Gandy Street in the city centre or
Northcott Theatre, about 5 minutes walk
away and near the university. Find lots more
attractions on Exeter City Council's Visiting Exeter website.
Shopping
In 2005, Exeter's high street was voted the most
bland in Britain, and it's not hard to see why. If someone
parachuted you in blindfold, you could be absolutely anywhere: the
shops are virtually all anonymous chain stores—and not even interesting
ones at that. But they're uhe biggest shops in the region so, if you're
heading deeper into the South West and this is the kind of shopping
experience you like, make the most of it. Once you get into Cornwall,
you might have to deal with real shopkeepers. If things get really bad,
you could even find youself buying things from hardware shops and
greengrocers where the quaint shopkeepers are friendly and welcoming
and have never heard of barcode scanners. Sure you can handle that?
Places to eat
There's no shortage of eating places—and there are plenty of pubs
dotted around. One of the most informal, relaxed, and enjoyable places
we've found is The Boston Tea Party, a coffee-shop set in a huge old
warehouse with enormous tables and sofas. It was offering a more
Bohemian version of Starbucks—without the uncleaned tables and the
nasty corporate baggage—years before Starbucks came along. (See this
article about the Boston
Tea Party in Bristol, which is similar.) The Cavern Club (aka "The Cavern")
in Queen Street is a great underground pub and indie music venue.
Getting here
Rail
Exeter is a rail hub for the South West, with excellent, direct rail
connections from London, Reading,
Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, Salisbury,
Basingstoke, Newbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, and many other towns.
Every train heading for darkest Devon and Cornwall has to pass through
Exeter to get there. One thing not to be confused by is the names of
the rail stations. Exeter Central is actually a small station in the
town centre where only a fraction of the services stop. The main
station is Exeter
St David's, about half a mile away (but it's an uphill climb to the
city centre, so get a taxi if you have lots of baggage).
If you're heading to Exeter by train, make sure you don't stop
there. You must (must must!) take the train
out to Dawlish and Teignmouth to experience one of the world's all-time
great railway journeys. Thanks to Brunel's astonishing Victorian
engineering, you'll find the rail line follow the stunning estuary,
then skirt along the edge of the sea, nipping in and out of tunnels
with the waves crashing just beneath you. It's a truly memorable and
utterly unmissable experience! The Wikipedia article about the Riviera Line
gives you a flavour of just how close the trains run to the sea.
Bus and coach
Catch buses and coaches from the rather grim and gloomy bus station.
Catch an X53 Jurassic Coast bus and you can hop along the World
Heritage Coast to Lyme Regis, and all the main towns to Wareham (for
Swanage), and Bournemouth. For the most up-to-date timetable, go to the
First Group website and search
for X53.
Car
Exeter is easy to reach by road on the M5 (from the North), the A30 (from places further east in the South West), and the A38 (to Plymouth and beyond).
Air
Exeter has a small airport
at Clyst Honiton, just to the north-west of the city. But, honestly, if
you're coming from somewhere in the UK, get a train for goodness sake
and save those carbon dioxide emissions.
Map
Here's a map of Exeter from Google Images. You can use the "Find businesses" tab and search box to find local businesses, places to stay, and so on.More information
- Visiting Exeter: Official tourist information site.
- Exeter in photos: Take a look at some of the images people are posting in the Flickr Exeter pool.
- Cambridge: A background article from Wikipedia.
A handy tip
If you're looking for accommodation, it really helps to spell it correctly. Lots of people come to this page looking for things like acomodation and accomodation.
At least no-one searches for accomadashun!
