The RAMM is free and Exeter Cathedral is half price on Sundays to 30 September. Real prices, opening days, and what is closed, all checked against each venue.

Exeter packs a Roman wall, a medieval cathedral, a working quay and a Victorian-founded free museum into about a square mile, which means a good day here needs almost no driving. What follows is what each place actually costs and when it is actually open, checked against the venues’ own pages rather than copied from a listings site. Where something is shut, we say so.

Free, and worth the walk

Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Queen Street. Entry is free. Sixteen galleries covering Devon archaeology, world cultures, natural history and fine art, plus a café and shop. Open Tuesday 10.30am to 5pm and Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays. One current caveat from the museum: Gallery 20 is closed on Tuesday afternoons and all day Wednesday.

Red Coat guided tours. Exeter City Council runs free guided walking tours of the city, led by volunteers in red coats. Almost all of them leave from the Hooker Statue on Cathedral Green; the Historic Quayside tour starts elsewhere. Tours only run if at least two people turn up, so on a wet Tuesday you may want a companion. There is a seasonal timetable of different themed routes.

Custom House Visitor Centre, the Quay. Free to visit, and open daily 10am to 5pm on summer hours. It is the 1680s Custom House, restored, with exhibitions about the quayside and a programme of free events.

Northernhay Gardens. Free, open 7.30am until dusk. Laid out by the City Chamber in 1612, which makes it the oldest public open space in England, and it takes in a good stretch of Roman city wall plus the only length of Saxon town wall visible anywhere in the country. It sits directly above the castle, next to Rougemont Gardens, five minutes from the high street.

The Valley Parks. Six green corridors run into the city from the edges: Ludwell, Riverside, Mincinglake, Barley, Duryard and Belvidere, and Whitycombe. They are now cared for by Devon Wildlife Trust, and between them they give you proper walks without leaving the city boundary.

What the paid attractions cost

Four of the best days out in Exeter are free Adult admission, checked August 2026 RAMM, tours, gardens Free Cathedral, Sunday £6.25 Underground Passages £9.00 Cathedral, weekday £12.50 Crealy, booked online £22.75 Sources: each venue's own admission page, August 2026. Chart by The Exeter Times

Exeter Cathedral

Adult admission is £12.50, with seniors and students at £10.50. Under-18s in family groups go free, as do carers, and there is no charge to attend a service. Admission covers a guided floor tour, audio guides and the Treasures Exhibition, subject to availability.

Two things save you money. The cathedral is running Half Price Sundays until 30 September 2026, taking the adult ticket to £6.25. And if you live locally, the cathedral’s Welcome Card gives free entry, which turns a £12.50 attraction into a place you can drop into on a wet afternoon.

Visitor hours are Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 11.30am to 4pm. The Treasures Exhibition runs Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm but is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays, with the last tour at 3.30pm.

Exeter’s Underground Passages

The medieval water supply tunnels under the high street, and the only passages of their kind in England open to the public. Guided tours only.

  • Adult £9.00
  • Concession (students and over-60s) £7.00
  • Child aged 5 to 17 £6.00
  • Family, up to 2 adults and 3 children, £25.00

Groups of ten or more pay £7.50, £6.00 and £5.00 respectively, but need two months’ notice and a £25 deposit. Under-5s are not allowed on the tour.

Opening is limited and catches people out: closed Monday to Wednesday, open Thursday and Friday 11am to 4pm, Saturday 10.30am to 4.30pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm. Extra hours are added at the busiest times of year.

Crealy Theme Park and Resort, Clyst St Mary

The big family day out, about ten minutes east of the city off the A3052. Booking online in advance is £22.75 a person plus a 50p booking fee, against a gate price of £27.13, so turning up without a ticket costs about £5 a head more. The park is currently open 10am to 5pm.

The Quay and the canal

Exeter Quay is the part of the city that feels least like anywhere else in Devon: warehouses, an 1830s basin, cafés and the start of the Exeter Ship Canal. It costs nothing to walk, and it is about ten minutes downhill from the cathedral.

On the water, Kayakhub Exeter hires kayaks, canoes and paddleboards from a base on the Quay and a second base at Turf Locks down the estuary, and Saddles & Paddles, on the Quayside for over 25 years, hires both bikes and boats. Both are worth booking rather than turning up, and boat hire generally requires everyone in the party to be able to swim.

From the Quay the towpath runs flat all the way to Topsham and the Double Locks, which makes it the easiest long walk or cycle in the city.

Two things to check before you set off

Topsham Museum is closed until further notice. The oldest part of 25 Strand, the Merchant’s House, has substantial structural defects needing repairs to roof trusses, floor joists, lintels, windows and shutters. The repair scheme has listed building consent, but the start depends on funding. Entry is normally free, and the museum is volunteer-run, so check its own site for news before planning a trip around it.

The Historic Guildhall opens irregularly. It is a working civic building, and opening times change with civic use, weddings and private events. Exeter City Council publishes the open dates day by day, and in a typical fortnight only one or two are public. Check the date you want before you walk up the high street for it.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Exeter for free?

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, the Red Coat guided walking tours, the Custom House Visitor Centre on the Quay, Northernhay Gardens and the six Valley Parks are all free. Walking the Quay, the ship canal towpath and the Roman city wall costs nothing either.

How much is Exeter Cathedral?

£12.50 for an adult and £10.50 for seniors and students. Under-18s in family groups are free. Until 30 September 2026 the cathedral is running Half Price Sundays, so an adult ticket is £6.25 on a Sunday, and local residents with a Welcome Card go free.

How much are Exeter’s Underground Passages?

£9.00 for an adult, £7.00 concession, £6.00 for a child aged 5 to 17 and £25.00 for a family of up to two adults and three children. Under-5s cannot go on the tour, and the passages are closed Monday to Wednesday.

Is the Royal Albert Memorial Museum free?

Yes. Entry to RAMM is free. It is open Tuesday 10.30am to 5pm and Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, and closed on Mondays.

Is Topsham Museum open?

No. It is closed until further notice while structural repairs to the Merchant’s House at 25 Strand are arranged and funded.

What is there to do in Exeter with children?

Crealy Theme Park at Clyst St Mary is the main paid day out, at £22.75 a head booked online. In the city, RAMM is free and built for families, the Underground Passages take children from five upwards, and hiring a canoe or paddleboard at the Quay works well on a dry day.

Getting here and parking

Parking in the centre is £7.20 for four hours at the Guildhall from Monday to Saturday and £5.40 on a Sunday, and free after 6pm on Thursdays. The three park and ride sites charge nothing to park and £5.50 for an all-day bus ticket. Full details, plus current roadworks, are on our Exeter roadworks and parking page. If you are arriving by train, both Exeter St Davids and Exeter Central are a short walk from the centre.

Sources

Prices and opening times were checked against each venue in August 2026. Attractions change their hours seasonally, so confirm before you travel.