One of the best-known surf beaches in the southwest, a compact sweep of golden sand and dunes on the North Devon coast
If you surf, you’ll already know Croyde — a compact sweep of golden sand on the North Devon coast, hemmed in by low headlands and backed by dunes. The bay is open to Atlantic swell, and the beach break draws surfers year-round; it gets busy and crowded with boards on a good summer swell. Non-surfers swim, bodyboard and dig about at low tide, though the same waves and currents that make the surfing good bring rip currents, so it pays to swim between the lifeguard flags in season. Saunton Sands and the huge dune system of Braunton Burrows are a couple of miles south, with Putsborough round the headland to the north.
