We live outskirts of west London and yesterday, knowing the Brighton bit of coast has stones tried Bournemouth. It was ok, drive was a little painfully long but I thought I’d ask the collective for recommendations for the nearest family friendly beach closest by car from West London. Doesn’t need to be a town but a café/couple of shops, sandy beach, nearby parking done? what say you fair gentle folk?
West Wittering was mentioned by woman at work.

West Witterings is good, but get there very early to avoid the queue on the approach roads. There’s a café or 2 there, a large sandy beach and nice walk around East Head.

Bit of a drive but harris beaches are good.

Camber sands. I’ve not been there for a long time but it was a dump.

+1 for West Wittering.

Can also try Littlehampton, but I haven’t been for decades.

Bit of a drive but harris beaches are good.

And cold. 😉

Take the hovercraft from Southsea and you’re on Ryde beach, although to be fair this isn’t the best representation of how busy it is on a warm summer day.

(Although it’s a lot less busy and a lot nicer than the Essex beaches I went to as a nipper)

As above. Closest definitely West Whittering and the NT dunes (East Head) are worth a walk around

Beaches at Sandbanks in Poole are lovely inc over the chain ferry at Studland but traffic etc is heavy and probably only worth it if you stay over in a hotel for the weekend.

OP every beach you can reach on a day trip from West London will be a painful drive. IMO stay over somewhere or leave early and come back late after dinner / fish and chips with kids asleep in the car

Hayling Island is close and easy to get to, straight down the A3 only bit of traffic is around Guildford, much quieter than the Witterings.

we tried the late return after dinner from Bournemouth last night and the girls were awake all the way home. Was worth a try but they were high as kites having had such a fun day. It usually works but failed last night.

The Witterings look like plan A and maybe Hayley Island if that fails.

Any others to look at?

If you’re heading for West Wittering go early as the car park has a nightmare queue especially at weekends, I prefer east wittering it’s a bit quieter. Sandbanks is probably the best beach in that part of the world but gets super busy, often overlooked is Mudeford which is lovely & it’s right by Christchurch so easy to get to. Of all the beaches down there that’s the one I keep going back to. When my kids were little they loved getting the landtrain from Hengistbury Head to Mudeford beach.

+1 To West wittering. Its a bit of a drive from W London (I drove from Ruislip) but the beach is very nice. Also if you pack a bbq, chairs, tent etc you can make a really day of it.

About 3 hours to Southwold, distance fail, but a pleasant day out

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member

Bit of a drive but harris beaches are good.

And cold.

Take the hovercraft from Southsea and you’re on Ryde beach, although to be fair this isn’t the best representation of how busy it is on a warm summer day.

(Although it’s a lot less busy and a lot nicer than the Essex beaches I went to as a nipper)

Ignore him, he’s just lazy and thats just because its at the bottom of his road.
Nothing to see here…..

Studland, take your bike and leave the family on the beach.

Not Northumberland its crap. .

So crap the Canadian tourist board used it to put people off visiting there.

Traffic on approach to west wittering seems to be caused by STW.
(Ace beach although don’t think much to cafe).

The traffic is ALWAYS busy heading to West Wittering during the School holidays and sunny weekends. The queue is often 2 hours from the Chichester roundabout to the turn into West Wittering Private beach, then the queue into the carpark can take a while because people don’t realise they have to pay to park, and begrudge paying the £6.50 for all day. What happens then is the Village gets rammed with cars and people walk the road up because they’re tight wads and DGAS that the place only funds its self because they charge for parking.
It can hold about 4500 cars, which means about 8000 people on average, if you take into consideration at high tide the beach is quite small, you’ll understand it gets rammed.
The last few weeks have seen exceptional traffic and beach goers, due all to the weather and the Sunday Times rating it No1 in thier destination 2016 to visit.
The carpark closes at 2030 this time of year, you’ll get locked in if you don’t leave. Then consider the return journey, that 2hours to get to the beach, yup.. that’ll be 2hours back then.
There is One cafe on site, it has an outside servery selling all the normal chips/burgers/fish etc, One toilet block.

If you go, park sensibly and consider everyone else wants to park as well.

I’ll be glad when the school holidays are over and we can get there in 20mins from the roundabout.

If you go, take your rubbish home with you

Perhaps Broadstairs depending on where exactly in west London? Theres the main beach (Viking bay) but also a number of quieter bays a bit further along the coast. Could be fairly straightforward M25 > M2 > A299 drive and local traffic not really an issue.

2 hours queueing to get to rammed beach? Sounds delightful.

Well, best make an opinion based on a local who windsurfs and wave SUPs there all year round.

It’s lovely, really lovely.

Just don’t go during School holidays or warm weekends, unless you want to queue.

Also, the NT area of East Head doesn’t have parking, you have to park in Birdham or Itchenor then walk, and pay for parking..

Drac – Moderator

2 hours queueing to get to rammed beach? Sounds delightful.
Thats because its WARM there Drac.

Another suggestion of West Wittering but reiterate the go early, most seem to head out before 9am arrival and BBQ a bacon sarnie.

Give you a reference point for traffic on Tuesday this week I went, arrived 9.45 a.m. after 45 min queue to get in the location, on the way out queue was from beach back to A27!!!! However, if you get close to West Wittering and the queue looks bad head to East Wittering and then come back around to West Wittering as the queue that way is almost always shorter 😉

The other one mentioned was Camber sands, phenomenal beach and been to both a few times this year – both excellent!

James

Thats because its WARM there Drac.

Looks like free Bacon sarnies too.

Camber Sands is nice, Rye is a bit odd but has character.

Nice long sandy beach, dunes, sea, able to park (many car parks dotted along the north end of the dunes) just take food and water because it’s a bit of a hike back into Rye.
It’s another surf/windsurf location we use a lot over the year, has to be windy on a low incoming tide to work though.

The main problem with the beaches east of Bournemouth through Eastbourne is most of them are shingle. Whilst not actually a pain to play on (and plenty do) it’s just a bit, well, crunchy.

The main problem this time of year is everyone heads for the sandy beaches down here and there just aren’t that many, hence the crowds.

For London, why not head East? Essex and Suffolk have some exceptional beaches, around the Blackwater there are some secluded crackers and near small villages too (West Mersea for instance) or go south of the river into Kent and you’ve a whole host of beaches from Whitstable down to Dover, and beyond to Dungeness (although that ones shingle too)
A12 and A13 can be a PITA but the A2/M2 and A299 flow reasonably well even at peak times.