This past weekend, Steve and I went to Torquay. We’ve had a lot going on the past few weeks personally, so we decided to have a little weekend away. Traveling is something that we both enjoy, and we’re always up for taking little trips to discover new places. After doing some looking online, we decided to go down to Devon and visit Torquay. It’s a seaside town known as the “English Riviera”, which to be honest, we found completely ironic. I’ll go into that more throughout the post.
We left for Torquay on Saturday morning, and let me tell you – the rough start to our trip should have been a HUGE hint that this was not going to be the weekend we expected. First, I got up early feeling ill but powered through and thankfully the feeling subsided. Then, on the way out, I went to use the bathroom, forgot my phone was in my pocket and DROPPED IT IN THE TOILET. I mean, only I would do something like that. Thankfully, Samsung phones are built to last and thankfully it was fine.
After a mild freakout on my part, we got on the road and headed down to Torquay. It’s supposed to be about 4 and a bit hours in the car so we figured we would make it there in good time, even stopping halfway to rest and grab lunch. Yea, we were wrong. Because of all the traffic, it took us almost SEVEN hours to get there. By the time we got to our B&B we were exhausted. We stayed at Tyndale B&B, which was absolutely wonderful and made our stay in Torquay sooooo much better – I’ll have a blog post on our stay there tomorrow.
Now, about Torquay.
It’s not that we didn’t enjoy our time there – we did. It just was not what we were expecting. Then again, I don’t know WHAT we were expecting. Maybe it was because it’s compared to the French Riviera, thus giving it the nickname the “English Riviera”, but we just….expected more of it. We expected to experience this lively coastal town, and all the grandeur of a “mini French Riviera”. I realize that the weather probably didn’t help – of course when we plan a trip to a coastal area that’s when Mother Nature decides it’s a good time to rain. But surely that shouldn’t have affected it THAT much, especially since we were there for an weekend in August. We walked through the town centre Saturday evening and NOTHING was open, and there were not very many people out. We were shocked.
It’s more than apparent that Torquay has suffered a devastating decline in tourism, making it your typical run-down seaside town. What’s left is a shell of what it used to be, and it’s so sad actually. Because you CAN see what it used to be, and the appeal that it used to have for tourists. What Torquay needs is a revival, and hopefully it can be restored to the popular holiday destination that it used to be a long time ago.
Despite the fact that it hasn’t made it to our list of places we’d like to visit again, there were aspects of it that we loved and enjoyed. One of the biggest highlights of our trip (because lol not much to do) was visiting the Living Coasts Aquarium. If you have kids I highly recommend – heck, if you don’t have kids (like us), I still recommend it. It’s cheap, fun and adorable. They have different feeding times for all of the animals listed on the map, like “seal lunch”, etc.
That’s Lenny, their oldest penguin, crossing the “street” to get ready for feeding time. HOW. CUTE. IS. THAT.
We watched the seals being fed for as long as we can until we got chased away by wasps. Seriously, they were EVERYWHERE.
There was an art installation inside to educate people on effects of plastic and garbage on coastal ecosystems and wildlife. DON’T THROW YOUR TRASH IN THE OCEAN, GUYS.
After the aquarium, I was dying to get to Cockington Village so we made the 40 minute trek by foot to get there…uphill. Yea, in hindsight probablyyyyy should have gotten the car out. But at least we got a workout in!
I absolutely ADORED Cockington Village. It was so quaint, with lovely tea rooms to have lunch in, thatched roof cottages, a cozy country pub, and more. If you want to see an authentic British village, then definitely go here!
That was definitely needed after walking 40 minutes uphill.
Those are the only two specific things we did. There are neighbouring areas such as Brixham and Paignton to check out, but we were already strapped for time as it was because we got there so late on Saturday and were leaving Monday AM. So we really just walked around taking in what of the area we could see.
Oh, and we did a bit of mini golfing, because why not?
One thing I didn’t expect was the nostalgia it made me feel. I grew up by the ocean and little coastal towns like this, so it brought me back. To rainy days by the boardwalk, little tiny shops selling printed t-shirts, my hair frizzing uncontrollably in the sea breeze.
Torquay wasn’t exactly the experience we expected, but we made the most of it and enjoyed spending time together doing so. That’s all that counts in my opinion.
xx Lauren
