Last visit: September 2025

There are few places on the South West Coast Path that manage to feel both remote and effortlessly glamorous, but the Gara Rock Hotel pulls it off. Perched high on the cliffs east of Salcombe, it looks like the sort of place you’d expect to reach by helicopter rather than by ferry and footpath.

Yet walkers are not only tolerated here — they’re welcomed, windswept hair and all.

The approach is half the pleasure. Foot passenger service from Salcombe to East Portlemouth then a jaunt along the stunning South West Coast Path.

The Gara Rock Hotel is a modern reincarnation of a place that began life as a coastguard station in the 1840s, grew into a family hotel in the early 20th century, and has been reinvented more than once since.

Today it’s one of the South West’s leading clifftop retreats, but it hasn’t lost the instinct to look after those who arrive under their own steam. The terrace is a sun‑trap with a horizon that seems to stretch to France; the bar and lounge are the sort of spaces where you can sink into a sofa and watch the weather sweep in without feeling you’ve wandered into the wrong crowd.

It’s chic, of course — this is Salcombe country afterall — but not in a way that makes you wish you’d ironed your walking trousers. A G&T on the terrace feels entirely appropriate after the climb, and there’s a quiet satisfaction in knowing you’ve earned it the honest way.

So Gara Rock is that rare thing: a luxury destination that still understands the simple joy of arriving on foot.

The return route loops easily back to Mill Bay and the ferry, giving you that classic view of Salcombe across the water — the one that fills every Devon holiday brochure — and a sense that you’ve stepped briefly outside the curated charm of the town to find something wilder, bigger, and surprisingly accessible.