Solo in Exeter: The Best Things to Do on Your Own (That Might Lead to Friendship)

Is Exeter a good city to spend time alone?

Yes, and it is one of the easier cities in the South West to do it in. Exeter is compact enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, so a solo day never involves a car, a timetable or anyone else's plans. Most of what is worth doing is within a short walk of the Cathedral, and a surprising amount of it is free.

It is worth separating being alone from being lonely. The first is a fact about your afternoon; the second is a feeling about your life. This guide is about the first, with one eye on the second: every pick below is something that is genuinely good on your own, and most of them quietly put you in the same room as other people who came on their own too. If making friends after 30 is proving hard, that overlap matters more than it sounds.

Whether you are new to the city, in town for a weekend or just carving out a day for yourself, start here. For the wider picture, our hub of things to do in Exeter routes to every other guide.

What free things can you do alone in Exeter?

Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)

RAMM on Queen Street is free to enter and closed on Mondays; it opens 10:30am to 5pm on Tuesdays and 10am to 5pm Wednesday to Sunday. Our verdict: it is the single best solo afternoon in the city, because there is no set route and nobody expects you to be there with anyone. Wander the natural history galleries, the world cultures collection and the fine art rooms at whatever pace suits you, and check RAMM's own What's On listings for talks and evening events, which are the museum's most sociable side.

Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

In the Old Library on Prince of Wales Road, on the University of Exeter's Streatham campus, the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is free and open daily from 10am to 5pm (it closes between Christmas and New Year). It holds one of the country's major collections on the history of the moving image, from optical toys to film posters. Our verdict: most people who live in Exeter have never been, which is exactly why it is such a pleasant solo hour. Pair it with a coffee at one of the campus cafés below.

Walk the canal to Double Locks

The towpath from Exeter Quay along the canal to Double Locks is flat, quiet and about two miles each way. Double Locks, on Canal Banks, describes itself as a traditional, dog-friendly country pub, and it serves food daily. Our verdict: a pint on the canalside on your own is one of Exeter's most underrated simple pleasures, and a pub with a towpath on one side is an easy place to fall into conversation. Our best walking routes guide has longer options, and the Roman City Wall Trail is a free, self-guided history walk that suits one person perfectly.

For a longer list of zero-cost options, see our guide to the best free things to do in Exeter.

Where can you go to the cinema alone in Exeter?

Going to the cinema alone is one of those things people feel strange about for no good reason. You sit in the dark and watch a film. It is solo by design; you just usually do it with company.

Exeter Picturehouse

Exeter Picturehouse on Bartholomew Street West has two screens and a café-bar serving pizzas, cakes, toasties, wine and craft beer. The programme mixes mainstream releases, independent and foreign-language film, and "Picturehouse Presents" events with Q&As and arts broadcasts, and it runs discounted Happy Mondays. Our verdict: arrive twenty minutes early, order a drink at the bar and watch something you chose entirely for yourself. There is no better solo ritual in town.

Studio 74 at Exeter Phoenix

Exeter Phoenix on Gandy Street is the city's multi-artform centre, with a solar-powered cinema (Studio 74), two galleries (Phoenix Gallery and Gallery333), performance spaces and a café-bar. Our verdict: Studio 74's programming is a notch more adventurous than the Picturehouse, and the café-bar is one of the few places in the centre where sitting alone with a book feels completely normal. Our guide to Exeter's cinemas covers the rest.

Which solo activities in Exeter help you meet people?

The pattern is simple: pick something with a shared focus and repeat it. Seeing the same faces week after week is how strangers become acquaintances, and acquaintances become real friends.

Exeter Riverside parkrun

Exeter Riverside parkrun is a free, timed 5K every Saturday at 9am, based at Exeter Quay and the River Valley Park. You register once online, bring your barcode and turn up; walking is completely fine. Our verdict: it is the lowest-barrier social activity in the city. Everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, volunteers chat to newcomers, and the post-run coffee happens whether you plan it or not. Our running clubs and parkrun guide covers the city's running clubs too.

Paddle from the Quay with Saddles & Paddles

Saddles & Paddles, at 4 Kings Wharf on the Quay, hires kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards (10am to 5pm) and bikes, and it recommends booking ahead. Our verdict: paddling the canal to Double Locks for lunch is one of Exeter's great solo adventures, and a hired bike along the Exe Estuary trail is the dry-land alternative. The shop closes on Wednesdays in winter, so check before you go.

Pottery at The Jolly Pottery

The Jolly Pottery at 126 Fore Street opens Wednesday to Sunday and does drop-in pottery painting ("no experience needed"), taster throwing sessions, project evenings and longer courses, plus late-night painting sessions. Our verdict: a multi-week course is ideal if face-to-face small talk drains you, because you spend the evening side by side, concentrating on not ruining your pot. More options are in our pottery and craft workshops guide.

Courses at Exeter Phoenix

Exeter Phoenix runs a changing programme of courses and workshops: at the time of checking, that included beginners' and intermediate Spanish, Raw Writing's novel, poetry and memoir courses, botanical illustration, portraiture, printmaking, textile art and embroidery, animation, yoga and fermenting. Our verdict: a course that meets for several weeks gives you the repeat contact that one-off events never do. If you are an introvert building a social life, this is the gentlest way in.

Book clubs

Book clubs are a quiet option for people who find loud rooms draining. Silent Book Club is a worldwide bring-your-own-book format: no set reading, you sit and read together, and chat afterwards if you want to. Exeter's clubs change venue and schedule often, so our book clubs and literary events guide keeps the current meeting details.

Where can you sit alone in an Exeter café?

Devon Coffee

Devon Coffee at 88 Queen Street is our pick for a solo morning in the centre: close to the station end of town and to RAMM, and easy to fold into any other plan for the day.

Exe Coffee Roasters

Exe Coffee Roasters is a speciality roaster with its own shop at 19 Heavitree Road, open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 3pm. Our verdict: it is a short walk out of the centre, which keeps it calmer, and it is the place to go if you want to talk about the coffee itself.

Camper Coffee Co.

Camper Coffee Co. runs counters in the Amory Building and the Queen's Building on the University of Exeter's Streatham campus, alongside its Crediton base. Our verdict: the campus counters draw a mix of students, staff and remote workers, which makes them the natural coffee stop before or after the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Our guide to the best coffee shops in Exeter covers many more.

Where can you eat alone in Exeter?

Eating out alone is one of the underrated pleasures of adult life: you order exactly what you want and eat at your own pace. The self-consciousness fades after the second or third time. We make the wider case in why eating alone is underrated.

Harry's, 86 Longbrook Street. Family-owned by the Pounds family since 1993, in a Victorian gothic building that was once sculptor Harry Hems' carving workshop. It serves seasonal British cooking and is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday (closed Sundays and Mondays). Our verdict: candlelit and relaxed enough that a table for one feels like a treat rather than an apology.

Rockfish, Piazza Terracina on the Quay. Part of a seafood group with restaurants along the South Coast. Our verdict: a quick, easy solo lunch after a morning on the water or the towpath, with the Quay right outside.

Pho, 18 Queen Street. Vietnamese street food at the Guildhall end of Queen Street. Our verdict: busy and informal, so nobody notices you are on your own, and quick enough for a pre-cinema meal.

The Old Firehouse, 50 New North Road. Known for its square pizzas built to share, West Country ciders and rotating craft ales, with live music and a courtyard garden; food is served 12pm to 10pm. Our verdict: not a quiet dinner. It is where you sit at the bar with a cider and soak up the noise, and sometimes that is exactly what you need.

What is a good solo day out in Exeter?

Build it around one interest; the city is small enough to link everything on foot.

A history day: Start at Exeter Cathedral, walk the City Wall Trail, spend the afternoon at RAMM, and book the Underground Passages. A Red Coat Guided Tour from Cathedral Green adds a guide and a small group.

A creative day: Follow the street art walking tour, paint a pot on Fore Street, see the galleries at Exeter Phoenix and finish on Gandy Street.

A market day: Time it for one of the city's markets, then work through the charity shops and independent shops.

An outdoors day: Parkrun at 9am, then walk, cycle or paddle from the Quay to Double Locks. For further afield, Topsham and Dartmoor both make excellent solo day trips.

How do you go from solo to social in Exeter?

Consistency is the thread through everything above. One parkrun is exercise; two months of Saturdays is how you end up with running friends. One visit to a café is a coffee; becoming a regular is how you end up chatting to the person in the same corner.

When you are ready for the next step, social dining is one of the gentlest bridges. At Dinners With Friends, everyone books a seat on their own at a dinner for ten to twelve people at one of Exeter's restaurants, and a host makes the introductions. You do not need to know anyone or make the first move; you just need to sit down and talk to the person next to you.