travelasorousWe spent the weekend in Paignton to met friends who were camping for the week.
Where we stayed
We stayed at Ambassador Guesthouse, I booked through booking.com my criteria was, reasonable price, central and parking, it hit all my criteria and more! Lesley and Grahem were wonderful hosts, and very accommodating. I was worried about staying in hotel accommodation with a toddler but we had a wonderful stay and felt very welcome.
Our room was lovely, very fancy electronics with everything being controlled by a remote control! Each room had a coffee machine, which I found quite exciting as I’ve never used one before! The rooms were very hot, but there’s not much Grahem or Lesley could do about that, I did feel a bit bad when my friends told me they were cold in their tent.
Each day we had to fill in a breakfast food request and say the time we would be going down, each morning the food was freshly cooked when we went down to the dining room. Grahem and Lesley cook a good breakfast! They gave Toddlerasorous her own children’s plate and cup.
The guesthouse has a small bar area, and in the conservatory / small sitting room they have beach toys which can be borrowed. Or just carried around the guesthouse if you’re my toddler!
The Guesthouse is in a great location, it’s a few minutes walk into town and to the beach. If you do need to drive then there is parking spaces for 6 cars and if like me you get back one day and think I can’t fit my car in that space (my car isn’t huge!), if you ask Grahem nicely he will park your car for you! What a service.
Places we visited:
Paignton Zoo, we had a brilliant day at the zoo. Wear comfortable shoes as it is a lot of walking and there are a lot of hills. We enjoyed seeing all the animals, Flamingos are always a firm favourite. We took our own snacks but there are a few kiosks around the zoo. There is an indoor soft play which was a huge hit with the 3 kids. There are also some outdoor parks.
Occombe Farm
Toddlerasorous and I visited for a morning whilst our friends went to visit some other friends. There is a cafe and farm shop and then a farm section you have to pay to enter. Outside of the cafe there is a blue tractor, we spent a very long time sat on the tractor and getting upset if anyone else wanted to have a go!
There is a fee to go into the farm, I thought it was a bit expensive, I only had to pay for me so it wasn’t too bad but if you were a family of 4 it would be quite a lot of money.
There is an indoor play area, outside there was a big pile of hay bales to play on, a water play area and sand pit, there were mini kids tractors to ride around on. There was a barn with animals in, we petted a Guinea Pig, when I say we I mean I held and stroked the Piggie and Toddlerasorous looked at it!
Outside there is paddocks with different animals in, including Pigs, Donkeys, Goats and Sheep.
Beaches:
We went to Goodrington Beach for the afternoon, we did some playing in the sea and digging in the sand. There is a small pond / lake near the beach where you can higher a pedalo, they also had a bouncy castle slide. The toilets were 30p and you had to use a card to pay to get in which isn’t something I had seen before.
We went to Paignton beach built some sandcastles and had a little paddle
Paignton sea front was nice, there’s a big park which the kids enjoyed playing in, there’s also a Vue Cinema which in my opinion ruins the front.
We ate in one of the pubs on the front one eve, they had live music and a park so that pleased kids and adults!
We went to Brixham on our last evening, we went for a walk along the harbour and we saw a Seal! Brixham is a beautiful harbour.
We had a great weekend, and I will definitely going back and staying with Grahem and Lesley.
Other places near by:
