Best Time to Walk the South West Coast Path, Month by Month

Every one of the 52 stage pages on this site gives the same best months — March to October — and the site's FAQ narrows it to April to October. Within that window the months are not equal, and outside it the path does not close; it just changes. This guide goes month by month through the things that actually decide a trip: daylight, the seasonal ferries, the school holidays, the Lulworth ranges and the beach dog rules.

The four things that change with the season

Daylight. The figures below are calculated for Plymouth, roughly the middle of the route. Sixteen hours in June is enough to walk the longest stage and still have an evening; eight hours in December is not enough to walk a hard stage with any margin.

Ferries. Seventeen crossings on fifteen stages. Eight ferries run year-round; six are seasonal; the Gannel and Gillan Creek are tidal stepping stones or an on-demand boat; the Erme is a wade at low water in any month. The ferries page has each crossing's season as recorded in the route data — the Instow–Appledore ferry runs roughly April to October, the Starcross–Exmouth ferry roughly late March to October, and the Helford, Place, Yealm and Avon ferries are seasonal with long detours when they stop. Check the operator's own times on the day.

Crowds and beds. The accommodation page puts it in one line: on this coast you are competing with the beach holiday, not with other walkers. In late July and August rooms are scarce and expensive along the whole path and minimum stays are common; May, June, September and October transform both price and availability.

The Lulworth ranges. Stage 51, Lulworth Cove to Worth Matravers, crosses Ministry of Defence firing ranges and is only walkable when they are open. The published pattern is that the range walks are open every weekend except a handful of dated weekends each year, with the gates opened as near as possible to 4.30 pm on Friday and closed at 8 am on Monday, and open every day through block periods at Christmas, Easter, the early May bank holiday, a spring stand-down in late May and a summer stand-down from late July to the end of August. The exact dates and the monthly firing times are published by the Ministry of Defence; do not enter the danger area when the range is in use.

Month by month

January to March

The path is open but the south coast is not, in the sense that the Helford, Place, Yealm, Avon, Instow and Exmouth ferries have stopped and the detours around them are long — the ferries page notes the Helford alternative via Gweek and the Exe alternative by train via Exeter. Daylight is eight to eleven hours, and the coast takes the weather full on. If you walk now, choose stages with year-round crossings or none: north Cornwall from Bude to Hayle, Penwith, Dorset. The Lulworth ranges are open on most weekends and every day over Christmas and New Year, so the Purbeck stages are a genuine winter option for a weekend.

April

Thirteen and a half hours of daylight, the seasonal ferries starting, and the path quiet outside the Easter block — when the Lulworth ranges are open every day for a fortnight or so, which is the best chance in spring to walk stage 51 on a weekday. The wild flowers on the cliffs begin now. Water is not yet a problem on the scarce stages.

May

The first of the three best months. Fifteen hours of daylight, every ferry running, and the path empty except for the late-May bank-holiday week, when the ranges are again open every day. Seasonal dog restrictions begin on 1 May at Torbay and Studland. If you can only pick one month for a first trip, pick this one.

June

The longest days of the year — sixteen hours at midsummer — and still quiet until the last week or so. The best month for the long hard stages, because you have the daylight to be slow: Hartland Quay to Bude, Lynmouth to Combe Martin, the Roseland day from Falmouth to Portloe. Shade is rated minimal on every stage, so from now until September the problem is sun and water rather than cold.

July and August

The weather odds are at their best and every ferry runs, which is why so many people come — and why the accommodation page says August is the month it warns about. Rooms are scarce and expensive along the whole path, minimum stays are common, and the resort beaches are at their busiest. The Lulworth summer stand-down, from late July to the end of August, means the ranges are open every day, so this is the easiest time to fit stage 51 into a through-walk. If summer is your only window, book months ahead, carry more water than you think you need, and choose the cliff sections over the resort ones.

September

The second of the three best months, and for many walkers the first. Twelve to thirteen hours of daylight, the sea at its warmest, the crowds gone after the first week, every ferry still running and the beds cheaper. The Lulworth ranges revert to weekends-only. Book the north Cornwall and Lizard nights first; the towns will have rooms.

October

Ten hours of daylight, and the season closing through the month: the Instow and Exmouth ferries finish, the West Somerset Railway to Bishops Lydeard drops back to its winter timetable, and the first autumn storms arrive. Still a good month for the north Cornwall and Dorset sections, and the beach dog restrictions at Torbay and Studland end on 30 September. Start early and know where the day's exits are.

November and December

Empty, cheap and short. Eight hours of daylight, no seasonal ferries, and the Atlantic weather at full strength. The Christmas block on the Lulworth ranges opens the Purbeck coast every day from just before Christmas into the first days of January, which is the one seasonal advantage of midwinter.

Dogs and beaches

Seasonal beach restrictions are set locally, so the rule on one beach is not the rule on the next. Two examples from the fetched sources: Torbay Council bars dogs from ten of its beaches, including Paignton Sands, Preston Sands, Torre Abbey Sands, Breakwater Beach and Broadsands, from 1 May to 30 September, while fifteen others, including Babbacombe and Anstey's Cove, are open to dogs all year. At Studland, the National Trust allows dogs on all its beaches year-round but requires a lead of under two metres from 1 May to 30 September, and leads in the heathland and dunes from 1 March to 31 July for ground-nesting birds. Other councils publish their own seasonal orders. The dog guide has more; check the specific beach before you plan a swim for the dog.

Choosing

For a first trip: May, June or September. For the hard stages: June, for the daylight. For the Lulworth ranges on a weekday: the Easter, late-May or summer block periods. For an empty path and the lowest prices: October to March on the sections with year-round crossings. For August: book early and go anyway — the walking is fine; it is the beds that are hard.