Torquay Tourist Information

The English Riviera is famed for its warm climate and Torquay offers a choice of award-winning beaches from the spectacular central Abbey Sands to great swimming beach bays on the periphery like Meadfoot beach. Torquay’s appeal is wide – families love Torquay’s great beaches, coastal zoo, inland country park and boat trips. Torquay is also famously the birthplace of Britain’s most popular crime fiction writer Agatha Christie making it a top spot for literary fans of the author. The resort retains much of its exotic seaside history, featuring distinctive palm trees lining the promenade, the beautiful Princess Pier and seaside theatres like the Princess Theatre with a packed year round programme of pop concerts, musical shows including big West End productions and a popular annual pantomime. Torquay’s world class harbour with illuminated bridge, chic restaurants and bars, offers a choice of boat trips and boat hire opportunities and spectacular coastal walking is along the South West Coast Path either side of the resort.

Torquay is a major centre for business and conference events, home to the cutting edge Riviera International Conference Centre acclaimed as one of the South West’s most versatile event venues. A huge range of attractions feature in the resort including summer open top bus tours from Torquay harbour to Babbacombe, Meadfoot and Paignton, popular Greenway Ferry and Dartmouth Day Cruises, thrilling indoor attraction Dinosaur World, Cockington Country Park just one mile inland and beautiful Torre Abbey historic house and gardens easily reached on the mini land train. Don’t miss a visit to the vast Living Coasts zoo with highlights including Penguin beach. The English Riviera is a designated Geopark, one of just a small number of landscapes in the UK untouched by glaciation and therefore revealing hidden stories and information you won’t find anywhere else in the country – stories of exotic tropical seas, the earliest human life, drowned forests and raised beaches. Discover more at Kents Cavern, a Stone Age cave dwelling where the oldest human bones in Europe have been found.

Torquay nightlife is lively and varied. The resort is packed with a great choice of stylish bars, clubs, world cuisine restaurants, theatres and cinemas. Torquay is a popular choice for Stag and Hen Parties, and the resort offers a fabulous range of day trips and activities in the wider English Riviera area and in nearby Dartmoor National Park. Agatha Christie fans can view exhibitions on the author in the Torquay Museum, explore a town trail highlighting key sites relating to Christie and take a boat trip to the author’s historic home Greenway. Regular ferry services run between Torquay, Paignton and Brixham harbours. Stay in elegant Victorian or Edwardian villa hotels in Torquay or opt for an award-winning hotel with sea views and parking. Hundreds of quality hotels, apartments, family holiday parks with leisure facilities, seaside bungalows and friendly bed and breakfasts are available in this top beach resort which has been a fashionable seaside favourite since the harbour was used by the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars.