Devon (2026)

Last year, my boyfriend and I visited some friend in Devon. Specifically, they took us around Brixham and Paignton, two of the three towns comprising Torbay. The remaining town is Torquay, and luckily for us, those same friends actually bought a house in Torquay within the past year, so we were very excited to visit!

My boyfriend and I got an early train from London Paddington to Newton Abbot, which was only a two and a half hour journey, however since there were four of us visiting in total, with the last person arriving an hour after us, we decided to meander over to a local café in the meantime. We headed over to Forde Park Pavilion, which is a community café in the middle of a park, and shared a slice of lemon drizzle alongside our coffees. It was a sunny day in the English Riviera and so it was a great place to people-watch. Before we knew it, the others had also arrived so we headed back to the station to greet them.

We were very kindly offered a lift by our friends, and as we arrived we got to take in the beautiful house that they'd just bought; it was a proper family home, with a garden and even a summer house with a sea view! The place was absolutely gorgeous and in very good nick! After a quick catch up and house tour, we walked down to the harbour, which only took ten minutes, and since it was a sunny Saturday and the Champions League final was that afternoon, we grabbed the first available table we found in the pub and got a drink. We managed to nab a table outside of the Apple and Parrot pub, and they kindly allowed us to eat some fish and chips at the table since they didn't serve any hot food. This was music to our ears as we were quite hungry by this point, and craving some seaside grub. We spent most of the afternoon around this table, buying various drinks and having a proper natter, which was punctuated by spottings of the Red Arrows diving, spinning, and flying around. They'd performed at an airshow earlier that morning, which we'd missed, but we were very lucky to spot them throughout the afternoon nonetheless. One thing that surprised me was how incredibly loud they are! My boyfriend and I meandered along the harbour itself to get some ice cream (which was delicious), then we took a picture by the statue of Agatha Christie (who was born here), and once the football kicked off, we all headed across the harbour to Shiraz bar for another drink.

We had a booking at Elton's Piano Bar for 5pm, which I'd heard very good things about, and this ended up being the highlight of my night. We were all very merry by this point and ordered more drinks, as well as tapas to somewhat line our stomachs. The pianist was wonderful, and most of the songs he played were by Elton John or Billy Joel, two of my favourite artists, so I was in absolute heaven. The time flew by, and we decided that we were in the mood for karaoke. Therefore, we headed over to VIVA, where we'd reserved a karaoke room for an hour and a half. We had a lot of fun, although I was very thrown off when I looked for the loo towards the end of our session, as when we'd walked in the place was fairly quiet, but as I left the room it had turned into a club and was packed. Furthermore, more than a couple of us were really feeling the alcohol now and realised we'd drunk way too much.

Eventually, we headed back uphill to the house, and it was at this point that I realised I wasn't doing so well. We'd been drinking for several hours and since I rarely go hard anymore, I'm not so familiar with my limits. Nonetheless, I was taken care of and before I knew it, I'd made it through the night. I managed to sleep in until 10am, which is unheard of for me nowadays, but was clearly very needed.

By the time I showered and went downstairs, one of our friends had already gone to the supermarket and returned which coffee, juice, croissants and crepes, which was a real treat. Another friend had made some scones too, which we enjoyed with clotted cream and jam, before heading out to Babbacoombe for a walk along the dramatic clifftop, where we could take in the seaside views. After spending the morning enjoying the picturesque scenery, we headed back to the house to pack our bags and enjoy a slice of chocolate cake that I'd made (as my friend's birthday was earlier in the week). We then said our goodbyes and hopped on the train bound for London.

It was a wonderful weekend with some of my dearest friends and I can't wait for many more weekends like this in the future!