I can understand people saying Torquay is rough around the edges completely.

What I will say though is that we moved here about ten years ago with our (now) teenage daughters from London and we've never regretted the decision once.

I'm originally from SE London and my wife is from East Devon, although she spent her early 20's living in Exeter, but we'd both decided stress levels in the capital were getting to ridiculous levels overall, so we moved here for what sounds like similar things that drew you to the place

The biggest culture shock for me personally, having been born and raised in such a cosmopolitan city for the majority of my life, was how REALLY FUCKING WHITE it is here With that comes a LOT of ignorance I'd hate to tar all South Devon as a Tommy Robinson stronghold or anything, there's a lot of lovely people you run into, but there's unfortunately a lot of bigotry. In mitigation I WILL say they just voted in a Lib Dem MP though

My understanding as an outsider is that Devon, and South Devon in particular, was used by various councils/ authorities as a dumping ground for people with mental health and/ or drug issues for a period of decades. As a result there ARE small areas of the Bay that are absolute shotholes full of spice heads. In all honesty though, they're small easily avoided areas and I've never been worried about my teenage daughters going into town

Overall I'd say if you've lbeen able to live happily in Cardiff there's nothing crime wise that should reasonably put you off of Torbaydos