Salcombe Hotels With a Pool: Which Ones Actually Have One

Salcombe is a town with a great deal of water in it and almost none of it in a pool. Search for a hotel here with a swimming pool and you will find lists that quietly widen the map to the whole of South Devon without telling you, which is how people end up booking somewhere that turns out to be a drive and a different estuary away. So here is the plain version, checked hotel by hotel against what each one says about itself.

Which Salcombe Hotels Have a Pool?

Three, if you hold the line at a Salcombe address: Gara Rock, Harbour Hotel & Spa Salcombe and Harbour Beach Club. One of those is in the town, one is down at South Sands at the end of the road out of it, and one is on the far side of the estuary altogether. Widen the circle to the villages around the Kingsbridge Estuary and you pick up three more, each with a genuinely different kind of pool.

Six in total is not many for a place this popular. Five of those six pools are indoor, which on this coast is less a compromise than the point — the sea here is beautiful and, for most of the year, extremely cold. Only three of the six have an outdoor pool at all.

Gara Rock, and the Two Harbour Hotels

Gara Rock — the only one with a pool on each side of the wall

Gara Rock has two: an indoor pool with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to sea, which the hotel describes as being for cooler months and rainy days, and an outdoor pool overlooking the same water for when the sun is out. There is a sauna and a spa pool as well. If the pool is the reason you are booking rather than a bonus, this is the one that gives you the most days of the year.

The thing to understand before booking is where it is. Gara Rock sits on the clifftop above Gara Rock beach, on the East Portlemouth side, and Salcombe is the other side of the water. The hotel's own advice is to drive to Kingsbridge and follow signs for Stokenham and then East Portlemouth, rather than trusting a sat-nav that will cheerfully route you down lanes you will regret. Once you are there, a passenger ferry crosses from East Portlemouth to Salcombe in about five minutes, and there are two ways to walk down to it from the hotel — the coast path in about three quarters of an hour, or a shorter route through the woods.

That is either the appeal or the problem, depending on the holiday. For a week of swimming, walking and staying put, it is a very good address. For popping into town twice a day, it is a boat ride each way.

Harbour Hotel & Spa Salcombe — the one actually in the town

On Cliff Road above the harbour, Harbour Hotel & Spa Salcombe is the only one of the three that is in the town itself. Its spa has an indoor heated pool with cabanas beside it, a separate hydrotherapy pool, a sauna, a steam room and a fitness suite.

Two pools in one room matters more than it sounds. A hydrotherapy pool is the one you sit in after a day on the coast path; the swimming pool is the one the children want. Having both means the two activities do not have to be the same activity.

Harbour Beach Club — the one on the beach

Harbour Beach Club, Hotel & Spa is the other Harbour hotel, sitting directly on South Sands beach. Its spa is built around a 12-metre indoor pool with a relaxation room, sauna and steam room, and an outdoor terrace of loungers for when nobody wants to be indoors at all.

It is the one to look at if you are travelling with children, because the spa runs dedicated children's swim times rather than leaving it to chance — a small detail that decides whether a pool is usable on a family holiday or merely present.

Six hotels, and no two of the pools are the same kind of thing. That is unusual, and it means the right answer depends entirely on who is swimming.

Three More Around the Estuary

Thurlestone Hotel — the most pool for your money

If swimming is the point of the holiday, Thurlestone Hotel is the strongest answer in the whole area. It has an indoor pool, which it keeps warm and UV-filtered rather than heavily chlorinated, and a heated outdoor pool that it puts at 26 to 28°C — which is the difference between an outdoor pool in Devon you look at and one you actually get into. There is a hydrotherapy pool too, plus a sauna, steam room, laconium and gym, and outside there are tennis courts and a short par-3 golf course.

It is a family hotel in the old sense, with a children's club in the school holidays and playrooms for wet afternoons. Children under 15 need an adult with them in the pool.

Soar Mill Cove Hotel — the spring-fed one

The hotel sits in the valley behind Soar Mill Cove beach, on the stretch of coast between Salcombe and Hope Cove, and its Discovery Spa is built around an indoor pool that is both spring-fed and saltwater, kept heated. Salt water rather than chlorine is a real difference if anyone in the party has skin that objects to a normal pool, and a spring-fed one is a rare thing to find indoors.

Burgh Island Hotel — the Mermaid Pool

Not a swimming pool in the hotel sense at all, which is exactly why people search for it by name. The Mermaid Pool at Burgh Island Hotel is outdoors and filled with natural seawater, and the hotel is fairly pointed about preferring that to what it calls a chlorine-filled indoor pool. It is on Burgh Island off Bigbury-on-Sea, reached at high tide by the sea tractor. Bracing, memorable, and not the place to plan a February swim.

The Hotels Here That Do Not Have a Pool

Worth saying out loud, because all three come up constantly in searches that also mention a pool, and none of them has one.

• South Sands Hotel — sits on the same beach as the Beach Club and has no pool. What it has instead is the beach, more or less at the front door.
• The Cottage Hotel, Hope Cove — no pool. A terrace, sea views over the cove and a short walk down to the sand.
• Hope Cove House — no pool. There is a sauna.

None of that is a mark against them. In a place where the sea is the attraction, several very good hotels have simply decided not to compete with it. But if a pool is genuinely on your must-have list, these three are not the ones.

Self-Catering With a Shared Pool

Here is the part that changes the answer for a lot of people. Hotels with pools around Salcombe are scarce, but apartments and houses with access to a shared pool are not — several of the local developments have one, and the pool comes with the booking.

• The Salcombe — a group of apartments and houses in the town sharing an outdoor pool.
• St Elmo Court — another Salcombe address with a shared pool.
• Thurlestone Rock and Ocean's Edge — apartments and houses out towards Thurlestone and Hope Cove, with shared outdoor pools and the beaches on the doorstep.
• Burgh Island Causeway — apartments over at Bigbury-on-Sea with an indoor pool, which is the one to want in shoulder season.
• A handful of individual cottages inland towards Kingsbridge come with pool access too, generally shared between a few properties on the same site.

For a family or two couples travelling together, this is usually the better deal: more space, a kitchen, and a pool shared with a few neighbouring properties rather than a whole hotel. Have a look at everywhere we list in Salcombe and check the facilities on each listing — the pool ones are not always obvious from the name.

Common Questions

Which hotels in Salcombe have a swimming pool?

Three at a Salcombe address: Gara Rock, which has an indoor and an outdoor pool; Harbour Hotel & Spa Salcombe on Cliff Road, which has an indoor heated pool and a hydrotherapy pool; and Harbour Beach Club at South Sands, which has a 12-metre indoor pool. Three more are within a short drive — Thurlestone Hotel, Soar Mill Cove Hotel and Burgh Island Hotel.

Does Gara Rock have a pool?

It has two. An indoor pool with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea, which the hotel recommends for cooler months, and an outdoor pool overlooking the same view for warmer weather. There is also a sauna and a spa pool. Note that Gara Rock is at East Portlemouth, on the opposite shore from Salcombe town.

Does Salcombe Harbour Hotel have a pool?

Yes. Its spa has an indoor heated pool with poolside cabanas, plus a separate hydrotherapy pool, sauna, steam room and fitness suite. Of the three, it is the one in the town itself, on Cliff Road above the harbour.

Does Burgh Island Hotel have a pool?

Yes, the Mermaid Pool — an outdoor pool filled with natural seawater rather than chlorinated water. It is on Burgh Island off Bigbury-on-Sea, which is reached across the sands at low tide and by sea tractor when the tide is in.

Is there a hotel near Salcombe with an outdoor pool?

Yes, three of them, and they are all different. Gara Rock has an outdoor pool looking out to sea, for warm weather. Thurlestone Hotel heats its outdoor pool to 26 to 28°C, which extends the season considerably. Burgh Island's Mermaid Pool is outdoors and filled with natural seawater.

Does South Sands Hotel have a pool?

No. South Sands Hotel is directly on the beach at South Sands and has no swimming pool. The Harbour Beach Club, on the same beach, is the one with the indoor pool.

Can you rent a house or apartment in Salcombe with a pool?

Yes, and there is far more of it than there is hotel pool. Developments including The Salcombe and St Elmo Court in the town, and Thurlestone Rock and Ocean's Edge further along the coast, have shared pools available to guests. Check the facilities list on each individual property, since pool access varies between units in the same development.