[Closed] nice british seaside town?

+ Salcombe. Or the Mumbles/Gower/Port Eynon neck of the woods.

Bugger off to Exmouth, stay at Sandy Bay (it's not that bad to be honest and will keep kids entertained) and then during the daytime when you're not on the Sandy Bay beach, grab a rucksack, some sarnies and a camera and walk the coastline route along the Jurassic coast?

Newquay west wales is lovely loads of stunni g beaches in general cardigan bay area

Spend your money in the North the southerners have far to much! I would recommend Scarborough lived there for 5 years just hoe there is no sea fret!

Rich

dartmouth is still top of the list, it is worth the drive just to sample the fish n jockeys at the boozer at slapton.

swanage looks ok too i might add.

Dartmouth is a nicer place than Swanage imo. The area around Swanage is lovely, the town itself, not so much. I go there loads, but never fallen for the actual town. Swimming in the bay is ace mind.

Last time I was in Dartmouth I witnessed the poshest, most genteel road rage incident between too old boys ever. It's kind of like that.

In Wales, I like the Llyn, and I love Pembrokeshire, Mumbles beach especially, but I have a soft spot for the seaside towns south of Aber and north of Cardigan. Went back to the same holiday cottage three years in a row. Lovely spot, just above the beach, waterfall falling over the cliff onto it, little beach shop for an ice cream, and a good pub.
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Hartlepool's very underrated Ton, as are Redcar, Saltburn, Seaton Carew, Crimdon, the list is endless!

@ Midlife, good fishing off the coast do you know?

Salcombe? Pah. Don't be silly. That's the wrong side of the estuary. East Portlemouth is where it's at. Millbay, specifically! So much of my youth was spent/wasted there I hardly know where to start! 8)

I also used to live near Haverfordwest, and now spend a lot of time with friends near Stackpole, and I can confirm that it's glorious country. Superb beaches, wonderful pubs (Ton, you'd love the pub at the Quay at Cresswell Quay. Especially if Maurice is pouring!).

Northumberland? Hell yes! Bamburgh beach is an utter delight. Can't say I like Seahouses, but different strokes for different blokes and all that.

Plenty fishing off the beaches mornings and evenings, tons of rocky spots for bass and dogfish. Crabbing in the harbours and boat trips from New Quay and Aberaeron if not others. Rivers and lakes too are well stocked but I've no idea on visitor access.

[url= http://www.newquay-westwales.co.uk/fishing.htm ]http://www.newquay-westwales.co.uk/fishing.htm[/url]

[url= http://www.fishing.visitwales.com/default.aspx ]http://www.fishing.visitwales.com/default.aspx[/url]

CountZero - Member
good timing with the above pic. My 2ps worth is that it's not hard to find a nice seaside town . But a nice seaside town with good food.... Not easy I reckon . Tend to find it's what lets British seaside towns down. Views are great , pubs are good , food is terrible. It's getting better but still miles away from that there Europe

The tiny village of Beesands in that photo does outstanding food, all sourced locally; no surprise they specialise in seafood, their scallops are to die for. Caught out in the bay. The pub is the Cricket Inn, I stayed there two years running, the third year I was down there I stayed with local friends and ate there every night for a week. Good beer, too.
There is another good restaurant in Torcross, another in Slapton, just about a mile inland

Cool good to know I'll look it up

Beaumaris +1
I lived overlooking the pier (and Snowdonia) for 2 years as a student.
Beautiful place.

bookmarked. 8)

Bude is nice.

Southwold. It's even got it's own brewery.

yep but don't think Ton would appreciate the price of a pint though.

What the hell are people doing suggesting going north on holiday?

Rule #1 for holidays - don't go north. It'll be colder than at home.

I'm very biased because we absolutely love it there but the Isle of Wight. Any beach from Ryde going clockwise around the island all the way to Totland Bay is spot on. The little bit inbetween isn't - muddy and strong tides.

But Ryde is probably one of my fave beaches I've been to. Lots of ice cream, amazing sandy beach, absolutely bloody massive, can watch trains, boats, hovercraft - its epic. For something smaller, St Helens just down the coast. Bit more rocky but amazing. Great cafe there as well.

Ever thought of Lyme Regis ? Dorset Coast is excellent and if you want to go somewhere really quiet.. try a place that we would all love to live..

Beer 😆

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Sandsend nr Whitby

or

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Holywell Bay nr Newquay

ABERSOCH? Ghastly place full of nouveau riche folk fom Cheshire showing off their ostentatious wealth. Vulgarsoch would be a better name.

[b]I like Bridlington [/b]and Whitby and Brighton the venue is dictated by what my intentions are for the weekend.....

Being Bridlington born and bred, I never thought I'd see this written down...

Here's the sight I arrived to in Brid after finishing the Way of the Roses.

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Woolacombe.

Bridport/West Bay/Burton Bradstock - good beaches, the odd fossil, Palmers Ales. The odd bit of beach with bluebells and child murderers but that's fiction.

if you like Dartmouth, go South West a bit further to Salcombe..

Has no one mentioned my home town of Blackpool 🙂

Tenby and Lyme Regis are both very nice but August is going to be busy.

BLackpool is a shocker - the front is smart because Lancashire has spent all our money on refurbs but go one block back into the town and you're in the DSS ghetto. The most merciful thing that could happen to Blackpool would be a tsunami but that would mean it would all get washed across the Fylde and up our lovely Ribble Valley with all the alkies and dossers and asylum seekers clinging to the debris.

I lived in Surrey for 25 years and I found Salcombe too "Surrey on tour" for my liking particularly in the summer. I owe a debt of gratitude to the lifeboat for towing us in during the 2007 Fastnet after we where dismasted, its a wonderful estuary but best visited out of season. The town has also done the world the great disservice of being the founding place of Jack Wills 😐

I'd agree with the comments on Salcombe being "Kensington on Sea" well yes during High Season, however out of Season it's just a really lovely place to be.

Many a Happy year spent Merlin Rocket or N12 or Salcombe weeks sailing there.. I've a friend who lives there now, well for the last 14 years and it's quite interesting to hear the gossip he comes out with.

Anyway I've changed my mind, Beer is the place to go.. I mean WHO wouldn't want to go to Beer?? 😆

Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Benign, sunny micro-climate, fine locally-caught seafood, especially the crab landed at nearby Steephill Cove, spectacular topography and views, superb walking and riding right out of your back door.

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A cycling trip to Blackpool, yesterday:

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^^ 😯

Ohh Errr

😆

Salcombe is lush and your can explore the south hams including Hope, Bigbury and so on.
I went Guernsey a couple of year ago and it was amazing. You will need a car to explore but if your thing of flying it may be easier to get the car on the ferry.
I also grew up on the Isle of Wight and that has loads of great seaside sports to visit. Plus there's Blackgang chine which everyone has to go to once in their life.

Silloth 😀

Newbiggin by the Sea 😆

St David's is lovely.
Tenby is great.
And to be honest I love most of Cornwall - though Aug will be pretty rammed.

I must agree with CFH about Salcombe, it's a nice enough little town, but it's an absolute bugger to park in, and the road does a one-way circuit, so if you happen to miss the car park by the harbour, which is easily done, you have to drive all the way out of town and back in again.
Last time I did that, I found a space up the hill overlooking the estuary and walked back in. Bit of a hike, mind.
Very yottie, too. It's nicer over the other side, great beach, and there's a little ferry to take you across to Salcome.
There's a very interesting little pub in East Prawle, too, the landlord is certainly a character... 😉
It's really nice to walk along the coast from Torcross to Start Point, but it's becoming more and more difficult to do it along the beach; longshore drift since the 19th century when the Skerries out in the bay were dredged for Devonport dockyard has seen the beach at Hallsands disappear below the cliffs, and it's now getting more difficult either end of Beesands, because there's only a ten-twenty minute window at low tide to get over the rocks.
Watching the tide times is a must.
There's some great history about the loss of Hallsands village in 1917, and the sisters who owned the hotel there as well as the tragedy at Slapton Sands during practice for the D-Day landings when around 700 men died after their boats were torpedoed by German E-Boats.
I love it down there. 😀

Crail, Fife

There's a very interesting little pub in East Prawle, too, the landlord is certainly a character...

Pig's Nose. A classic spot! 😀

Salcombe has changed massively since my days there. Yes, it used to be fairly well to do people who had the nice houses, it's true, but it had a little more class. The people had the nice houses so they could sail their Salcombe Yawls and the like. Not hoon around on overpowered ribs driven by inexperienced asshats. It's the difference between a nice XK120 and a Range Rover Sport in white with blacked out windows.

Scarborough is a hovel, as is Brid. They are basically Blackpool on the east coast in that all the smackheads go there for summer. Filey is a bit nicer but there isn't a massive amount to do, the beach is huge though.

Brighton/Hove(actually) is nice. Brighton can be stupidly stupidly busy if the weather gets hot as all the Londoners head down there to remind themselves that there are places other than London. The Hove end is much quieter. Lots of places to eat though.

I'll recommend Coverack in Cornwall, only been once but it was flipping lovely.

Changed my mind - August sucks! It's got the best weather and if you have kids (or are a teacher 😡 ) you are free to holiday. In your head all your favourite places will be in their prime - in reality every other bugger is there too and you are all ruining it for each other.

I reckon in August you've got to be prepared to drive further than the crowds - and that means west coast Scotland. Have your seaside town fix in Oban and then do an island hop or work your way up the coast.

Salcombe and Dartmouth. Hope the kids have the right names to fit in!

I'm from South Devon and I wouldn't recommend either. Cornwall is always full, South Devon has wet weather and the beaches are in the shade in the evenings.

Personally, I'd recommend the Isle of Wight. It's like Devon, 50 years ago.

+1 for woolacombe

Or tynemouth where are i"m from. 🙂

^ love Hope Cove, spent many a term break there in a little flat overlooking the harbour. Hardly even a village though and a narrow-laned car-infested nightmare in high season unless you walk everywhere.

Salcombe is lovely, was our family holiday every year as a kid, but increasingly/overly-expensive/full of braying toffs in latter years.

South Hams coast is tops. Just whizzo. And there's Starehole Bottom...got caught down there at night without a torch. If you can roll your Rs you might say I felt imperiled. Imperiled I say.

Discovered Newport Pembs/The Parrog in recent years, absolutely beautiful and a huge sandy beach. It too is becoming a teeny bit like the yachty S.Devon scene but the rot hasn't set in too far yet. Must be the small council estate acting as a partial deterrent.

Well... I can offer up: miles of sandy beaches, with not too many other people on them, backed up by pine woods, tidal inshore waters - the warmest sea you'll ever swim in. In the first week of August it's carnival week - small enough for it not to feel like an overcrowded festival (town pop is 3000 but goes up considerably in carnival week) yet really good for kids with stuff on every day and in the evenings there's bands on outdoor stages on the town green (they seem to like a lot of reformed bands like 'The Animals' or cheesy tribute bands) or open air cinema. Plenty of pubs and restaurants for such a small place but there's also a beer festival on a sailing ship permanently moored in the quay. It's a unique experience being on board the Albatros. It's full of earthy, honest character much like it's laid back Dutch captain who funnily enough is called Ton. He's cycle toured all over Europe too.

The place is Wells-next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk coast. It's where I lived until i moved to Scotland and I'll be going back there for carnival week. I'm very much looking forward to that as it's the best place to be for that week of the year.