A day out in Totnes

Totnes in Devon, UK is one of my favourite places to visit for a day out. Ever since my family relocated to Devon 5 or so years ago I have always enjoyed paying the picturesque town a visit. When driving into Totnes someone has drawn over the sign so it now reads 'Welcome to Narnia' and this could not be a better way to describe the feel of Totnes. The market days are on Friday and Saturday and I highly recommend visiting on these days if you're in the area as there are so many things to be found whilst browsing the markets. The overall vibe to the town is quite bohemian, I would describe it as a kind of tiny Byron Bay with its organic and vegetarian cafes, holistic remedies and crystal shops.

Totnes really is an instagram, pinterest and tumblr dream, with lovely old buildings everywhere and fresh flowers and vintage pieces galore! With shops stuffed full with vintage homewares and clothes it really is the thrift shoppers paradise. I love to stock up on cute Cath Kidston mugs whilst I'm there, and the cheese shop is my favourite guilty pleasure to pick up yummy local produce. 

Now for the markets, I really cannot stress enough how much fun browsing the markets is, so if you can visit them its definitely worth it, you can pick up a lot of vintage clothing and homewares as well as local produce, tools, beautiful jewellery and even bongo drums! Everyone's really friendly and you really get a sense of the artistic bohemian community that lives in Totnes. 

Even Robbie enjoyed perusing the bizarre collection of things people bring to sell and lots of antique tools and furniture too which always interests him! 

Ideally it's great to spend the whole day in Totnes as there are plenty of shops to keep you occupied and an abundance of cute cafes to grab lunch. There's also lots of vintage tea room's if you fancy a good old English afternoon tea in some flowery vintage tea cups. My favourite place for lunch has to be Woods. It always has such a wide variety of menu options with something to suit everyone and everything tastes really fresh. 

 

 

The first shop of two shops that you cannot miss whilst visiting Totnes is one that I've loved for years, Revival. If you have a passion for vintage clothing or antiques in general this shop is really a must. The shop itself is a tiny old building with very low ceilings and it is literally packed full of clothes so its quite claustrophobic but it's worth it because it's rare to see such well curated old pieces in one place. You can pick up 1920s wedding dresses, a wide range of military wear, an abundance of costume jewellery as well as hats and coats and much more! It's a real treat, many of the pieces look so fragile I would be scared to wear them but it really is a collectors dream. 

The second is a shop which I visited for the first time on my most recent trip to Totnes and that's Narnia, The Time Travellers Shop. Aside from the awesome array of vintage record players available which not only look beautiful but sound so good, they also stock mid-twentieth century furniture and furnishing as well as other trinkets. This shop has a beautiful feel to it and a really well selected array of goods available, I would highly recommend a visit. 

Other places I love are the cheese shop I mentioned before, Cranch's old fashioned sweet shop, all the silver jewellery/crystal shops, the Dutch Quality flower shop and all the vintage tea rooms. 

 

Anyway I hope I have convinced you that Totnes is worth a visit if you're in the UK as it remains to be one of my favourite places to go when I visit my family in Devon. I'd love to know if you've visited Totnes or place's that you love to visit again and again.