We were headed to the south west of England to have a weekend break on the English Riviera. We eventually arrived into Torquay just after 21.00 having missed our planned connection at Newton Abbot.

Our B&B was a 10 minute walk from the station and about the same distance from the seafront. It was a pretty good location, and at £117 for two nights including breakfast it was definitely a step up from our previous UK break in Morecambe. The room was however very small, or compact - and we did book a small double - but it was very clean and for a couple of nights it was fine.

Even though we arrived fairly late, Torquay was still very busy and it had a real continental feel about the place. Walking to the seafront area we passed people speaking French, Spanish, German and Dutch.

Saturday morning saw us enjoy a nice breakfast before walking to the station via the seafront to catch a train to Paignton. From Paignton we caught the steam hauled service to Kingswear that gave great views across Torbay. At Kingswear we crossed the River Dart and enjoyed a few hours wandering around Dartmouth and having a fish and chip lunch.

After lunch we took the opportunity to travel on an hour long river cruise before crossing back to Kingswear for our steam hauled service back to Paignton.

Once back in Torquay this gave us the chance to explore the place much further. The waterfront and harbour area was very busy, but the town centre was a little quieter as it was coming to the end of the day. Overall we quite liked the place.

On Saturday evening we had a reservation at Bistro Pierre, a French restaurant on the seafront. We often visit the Derby branch of this small chain and the Torquay branch did them proud - it was a lovely evening.

On Sunday morning we were joined by Heather's brother, Jonathan, who drove across from Cornwall for the day. It was good to catch up with him, enjoy a drink, and enjoy a chip shop lunch overlooking the sea. We rounded off the day with drinks at the Grand Hotel, before Jon dropped us off at Totnes station for our train back to Derby.

The trip back on board a High Speed Train, which also saw us travel along the famous sea wall at Dawlish, before arriving into Derby around 19.45 allowing us to wrap up a really pleasant weekend on the English Riviera.