Where to Stay in Torquay, England

What is Torquay known for?

Torquay has been a fashionable seaside resort since the nineteenth century, and the English Riviera name attaches to this stretch of coast, with Tor Bay opening east into the wider Lyme Bay. Kents Cavern runs beneath the ground. Torre Abbey, Torquay Museum, and Living Coasts give the town its indoor draws, while the beaches that earned the resort its reputation run along the Channel front.

What are the main landmarks in Torquay?

Kents Cavern is the town's cave system. Torre Abbey, Torquay Museum, and Bygones hold the town's collections and its abbey ground, while Living Coasts sits on the shore facing Tor Bay. St Michael's Chapel crowns Chapel Hill above the streets.

Parish churches run to a long list, All Saints, St Matthias, St Mary Magdalene, St Luke, and Christ Church among them, and a public drinking fountain commemorates Lady Mount Temple. The Little Theatre, Electric House, and the Recreation Ground fill out the rest.

What is the history of Torquay?

The nineteenth century made Torquay. Fashion turned this stretch of the Devon coast into a seaside resort during that century, and the English Riviera label stuck to the shore of Tor Bay from the same period onward. Torre Abbey stands from earlier, and Kents Cavern from earlier still.

Churches followed the growth, All Saints, St Matthias, St Mary Magdalene, St Luke, St Martin, and Christ Church among the parish foundations, with St Michael's Chapel already up on Chapel Hill. Torbay came later as an administrative fact. Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham sit around the same bay and share one unitary authority, with Paignton adjoining Torquay on the west of Tor Bay and the Brixham fishing port across the water.

Exeter kept the county-town role. Torquay grew as a resort rather than as an administrative centre, sitting south of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth on the South Devon coast, with the wider Lyme Bay beyond Tor Bay's mouth. Smaller marks survive across the town.

A public drinking fountain commemorates Lady Mount Temple, Electric House and the Little Theatre stand among the named buildings, and Torquay Museum and Bygones keep what the town collected.

Where is Torquay?

Torquay sits on the north of Tor Bay, on the English Channel shore of Devon, an east-facing bay that forms part of the larger Lyme Bay. The coast here is the English Riviera. Paignton lies on the west of the bay and Brixham on the far side, so the built shoreline wraps most of the water within the Torbay authority.

Ground rises behind the front. Chapel Hill carries St Michael's Chapel above the town, and Kents Cavern runs into the rock inland from the South Devon shore.

What is the climate of Torquay?

The English Channel sets the terms. Torquay lies in the temperate band of the northern hemisphere on an east-facing bay, and the English Channel water alongside it moderates the swing between the seasons. Tor Bay opens east rather than west.

That aspect puts the morning sun on the front and leaves the higher ground of Chapel Hill behind the town to take the weather first.

How do you get to Torquay?

Exeter is the way in. The county town lies north of Torquay, some 18 miles up the road, and Plymouth sits at a greater distance with Torquay east-north-east of it along the South Devon coast. Paignton adjoins the town on the west of Tor Bay.

Brixham lies across the water as a fishing port, so movement inside Torbay runs around the bay rather than across it, and the three towns stay within a short run of one another.