Bored at work and idly thinking of my retirement, which is still 10+ years away.
I've always lived inland but my wife and I have discussed living next to the sea when we retire. We had a week in Weymouth over half-term, with the kids, and loved everything except the traffic - it was brutal, especially coming home. I love the Jurassic Coast, though, and we also know the area around Llanelli in South Wales, as that's where my mother-in-law is from.
So, where would you live on the coast that doesn't descend into traffic hell during the school holidays?
I'd like access to coastal paths for walking, I do mostly road cycling or bridleway bimbling nowadays, and a transport link to a major city or town would be good as I go to gigs pretty often. England or Wales preferred.
Come daydream with me. Thanks.
More than 10 years you say? Maybe your current home will be by the seaside by then?
Go to the seaside at the other side of the sea? Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, etc etc.
Fife, Scotland. It's lovely here.
Because you said England and Wales, I'm going to suggest the Solway Coast in southern Scotland.
Seriously considered it myself, many years ago.
pretty much anywhere that has a high average age and poor road connections. Round here, the whole stretch of coast between littlehampton and shoreham would count, as would saltdean to folkstone.
Funnily enough, we were having a similar conversation.
We fancied a town maybe 10 miles from the seaside to avoid the worst of the tourist trap effect, and hopefully more/better facilities for us as we got older.
Barrow in Furness....
The places that aren't tourist traps are the ones which it's a pain to access anyway! Which then makes it a pain to live there...
Arnside / Silverdale (shore of Morecambe Bay) is lovely and generally off the beaten track a bit cos most people just bomb straight past on the way to/from the Lake District. Further around still are places like Ulverston or Grange-over-Sands which are away from the main flow of tourist traffic into the central Lakes but still reasonably well connected by rail.
I live in Suffolk with Southwold, Walberswick, Dulwich and Aldeburgh all within striking distance (plus some lesser known locals' spots). Thing is, I moved into the area but deliberately chose to be 20 minutes from the hotspots (ie west of the A12) so I wasn't fighting my way through the hordes in summer; seaside towns are about visiting rather living. And there is something uniquely depressing about seaside towns in winter wherever you are.
If you a: live there and b: are retired... then traffic isnt an issue - you don't have to get there because your are already there. The traffic is the people who don't live there.
If you decide to live 10 or 20 miles away from the places you want to be - then you are that traffic
Barrow in Furness….
...the bus depot used to be lovely until it was destroyed in the early 80's.
Clacton, I’ve heard it’s got a lovely vibe!
Formby and get a fatbike?
Northumberland Coast.
Seaham
Haverfordwest - doesn't suffer from tourist inundation and isn't really a tourist destination , but it is close enough to the sea to have all of the seaside benefits. Houses don't command high prices that are found in places like Tenby and St David's.
Rail connection to Carmarthen, Swansea and Cardiff.
I live in North Norfolk, we get tourists, but beaches like Holkham/ Wells next the Sea, Winterton etc are all some of the nicest sandy beaches in the country, and even on the hottest days, by walking 1/4 mile up the beach you can be away from people, and the roads don't get busy like Devon/ Cornwall and over-run.
Great pubs/ restaurants and lots of walks and cycling, even off-road, just very little mountain biking in its truest sense.
Downsides are that if you are retired and live in a village like mine (and i have had four sets of retired neighbours in the 10 years i've been here) it's great all the time you can drive, and land / houses away from the coast, are fairly well priced, but nearest supermarket is 20 minutes away and there is a bus in to town twice a week. So people struggle ones mobility becomes an issue.
If you a: live there and b: are retired… then traffic isnt an issue – you don’t have to get there because your are already there. The traffic is the people who don’t live there.
Not when you fancy a day out yourself and can't get out of your road because the caravans are already gridlocking around you. No point in going shopping on a weekend because the forecast is for lovely sun and it will take 45 minutes to cover the last two miles to your house. You live 300m from a beautiful beach but barely go there because it's heaving through most of the summer...
'the roads don’t get busy'.
Have you never been on the A149 to the coast on a summer Friday, Saturday, Sunday?
Saltburn and the surrounding area. So Staithes if you're posh and like tourists, Skinningrove if you're not.
Train link to Darlington and the ECML.
Huge sandy beach that's deserted north of the sea wall because capacity is limited by the car park at the southern end.
The zig-zag climb from last years national champs.
Cheap, like an 8-bed / 4 flats / former B&B type terraced house for £250k sort of cheap
North Yorks Moors on your doorstep
The best surfing on the east coast (which is a damning indictment of the east coast as much as it is a plus)
Perennially wins those titles like "Best Seaside town you've never been to"
Saltburn and the surrounding area. So Staithes if you’re posh and like tourists, Skinningrove if you’re not.
Saltburn is nice. Redcar and Marske up the coast are ummm... less nice.
The zig-zag climb from last years national champs.
This year too - road race is on Sunday 23rd June!
Felixstowe. Certainly not touristy, but 100% fails the test for "never live anywhere at the end of a road".
^^^ I shall have to visit there.
We're staying near New Quay on holiday this year in early July.
Seascale.
(I may be over-emphasising the not a tourist trap bit.)
I live in Aberporth. Two beaches, pub and on the coastal path of Wales.
It’s worse in the tourist season but really not that bad, especially if you actually live here.
20 min to Aberaeron, shared earlier, 10min to Cardigan and 1000 times less busy than Pembrokeshire, with an incredible coastline.
Molgrips has summed it up nicely.
Tynemouth and North Berwick would be on my list to check out.
West side of Wirral, but south of West Kirby, nearer the Welsh border for easy access to those wonderful north Wales hilly lanes with the bike?
Round here I'd say somewhere around Petersfield.
Hello! 🙂
Where are good places to visit in that area? We don't venture far when we go on holiday and will have the dog with us.
We're staying in Cwmtydu Cove.
We've done Pembrokeshire a few times but fancied something quieter so looked further up the coast - glad to here it is.
I suppose it depends how well you manage your retirement but you could live somewhere popular but take a couple of months holiday somewhere else during the busiest times? Live on a nice location in Cornwall which still maintains a reasonable sense of community but then up sticks to Normandy or Brittany during the peak of the tourist season.
Decidedly not me btw, but some lucky bugger I know!
so many options!
morning walk/run on Poppit beach with the dog
breakfast in Cardigan castle
Walk around the Wild life park, starting from Station Road, Cardigan.
lunch at Pizza Tipi
Mwnt beach is wonderful but no dogs.
Aberaeron and Llanarchaeron are great.
Nice walks around St. Dogmaels.
Big coastal walks from Cardigan up the coast to Llangrannog, get the bus back.
You’ll love it!
Cemaes head walk is nice from Poppit.
Sorry, not much flow to my reply but plenty of options. Any specific places/venues you identify I’ll happily feedback on!
I think I might like to retire to Deganwy. It's right nextdoor to Llandudno but whenever I've been there it never seems to get any of the tourists.
It also has an excellent chip shop, beach and lovely views of Conwy, which is also a very easy walking and cycling distance.
Cardigan doesn't have good transport links though to a major city or town
You didn't expect me to read the OP did you?
Another vote for Cardigan or further north - some incredible beaches, dolphins, seals, and half decent cycling
I worked in Aberaeron for 5 years but never lived there commuting from Aberystwyth or villages along the coast. It was nice enough with friendly, helpful people and the micro-climate of the coastal strip. If I'd stayed I'd have learnt Welsh because it was the main language and opened up more activities.
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I probably shouldn't give this secret spot away but it's about 6 miles south of Bridgend. And this may well have been taken on a bank holiday (except if it had have been there would be about 15 or so of my family crowding it out playing a big game of rounders).
Pembrokeshire or Northumberland.
Both get fairly busy in the summer but nothing like the really busy areas. You can always find quiet spots.
Not tourist trap, you say??? Grangemouth, obviously not England or Wales (and some even question Scottish!), but it is by the sea and not a tourist trap.
Or if that doesn't tick all your boxes...Kincardine, just across the Firth of Forth from Grangemouth.
Clacton id imagine
Budleigh Salterton
Handy for The Twilight Rest Home for the terminally short of cash.
I hear room 12 is nice.
North Berwick!!??!! Chuffing busy in the summer.
Tynemouth and North Berwick would be on my list to check out.
Did the OP say they were a milionaire?? 😉
@mintyjim you lucky so and so. We holidayed in Aberporth a couple of years ago (just post covid) and thought it was fab. Wife would like to move there, but it is a long way from anywhere really.
Porlock, North Somerset coast. Walking distance to the sea, but doesn't feel like a seaside place. Nice pubs, cafés, basic shops, coffee roaster. Easy (if a little steep) access to Exmoor by bike, car, or on foot. On the south west coast path. Never seems massively busy, and although it has a "main" road through it you can often walk along the middle of it with almost zero chance of getting squished.
I do love Cardigan but being 40odd mins away from the nearest train station could make it feel pretty remote at times! That bakery almost makes up for it, mind
@willard Whenever I go back to visit my mum I'm told that Felixstowe is the next Southwold. Obviously it's nothing like Southwold but I do appreciate that there aren't really any other towns along that stretch of Suffolk cost for people to invest in so apparently the money is coming (you can already see money being spent in some places) and then who knows...
It is at the end of a road though albeit one that provides pretty good transport links until high winds close the bridge. Then you're not going anywhere
We've been to Aberaeron 2 or 3 times and it is a lovely area. But as crazy legs mentioned it'd be Arnside/Silverdale area for us.
Croydon
Fleetwood
Machynleth.
Weston Shore, Southampton 🏝️
Ignoring all your criteria bar the 'seaside but not tourist trap'.
Hull?
Campbeltown?
Workington?
Stranraer?
Peterhead?
Port Talbot?
Carrickfergus?
somewhere on the left of the A1 between Alnwick and Berwick.
pretty empty all year round, with no more than a 10 minute drive to the countries finest beaches.
Above post re Arnside Silverdale is a good shout, a bit dependent on 1 rail line though. I d go Kents bank though, rail station on the same line so you can get to Manchester and airport, incredibly peaceful, really nice houses and views but no supermarket, you have to go to Ulverston.
Problem with any seaside town, soon as sun comes out everyone piles in, even morecambe, you can't park, takes ages to drive through.
How about Lytham.
If I was thinking about this for me, for retirement and wanting not just seaside but also local facilities and transport links
Area around arnside, grange over sands, ulverston is fantastic for a number of reasons.
Saltburn also very nice with lots to do on the doorstep.
Berwick upon tweed is ace.
I like North Norfolk but it's a very long slow trek over the fens to anywhere else interesting
@mintyjim i still remember holidaying at aberporth in the early 1960 s, in that train carriage overlooking the sea, dixie it was called. I live close to tenby and saundersfoot now, busy in the summer season would be an understatement. There are usually less visited spots around to find, @teenrat haverfordwest area good shout, the beaches in the freshwater area are grand.
I can't see any way that close to a city plus by the sea isn't likely to equal rammed at half term and on sunny summer weekends.
But what about somewhere like Topsham in Devon. You're on the river, you've got train access to the beach and to Exeter which is pretty well connected to other areas.
Obviously lots of people know this, so you will need a whopping great bag of cash.
Thanks everyone, I've really enjoyed reading the responses over the day.
I like the idea of Arnside / Silverdale / Grange-over-Sands. I'm originally from East Lancs and spent quite a bit of time walking with my Dad over that way as a boy / teenager, and I would like to return to the North (my wife might feel differently about that!). The train line is appealing - you can get to Morecambe and Lancaster and onto Manchester pretty easily for gigs and other fun.
I also know Lytham reasonably well, but I think I'd prefer around Morecambe Bay.
I'd like this to be a thread for everyone, so my suggestion to throw into the mix is Burry Port just west of Llanelli in South Wales. The beach is pretty nice, there's the Millenium path along the coast to Pembray / Pendine sands, and a train line to Carmarthen or Cardiff one way, and Pembroke and Haverfordwest the other way. The town is a bit tired but still has pubs and convenience stores (and a good Greek restaurant), and Llanelli has loads of supermarkets and some shops left.
I like it around there, Burry point, Pembrey, Pendine and over to Tenby, nice areas, and you have Saundersfoot and Tenby as smallish towns, other side as you say Llanelli, probably best to be inland by a few miles for ease of logistics and then just simple journeys to the coast, winters a bummer over there though!
Also quite like the Devon coast, think Burgh Island is up for sale just now 😋
so many options!
Well thats STW for you. They've narrowed it down to 80 possibilities.
Define ‘seaside’. Greenock has the Firth of Clyde, fast train to Glasgow, the outdoor pool on the front of the last Blur album (also featuring the dentist I went to as a kid swimming) is in Gourock a couple of miles away, there is or was decent MTBing in the hills behind.
In the winter it can tend towards bleak though, and unrelenting rain and getting dark at 1530 wears a bit thin.
And there is something uniquely depressing about seaside towns in winter wherever you are.
Felixstowe. Certainly not touristy, but 100% fails the test for “never live anywhere at the end of a road”
Having spent a winter in Felixstowe, just don't. Divorce or suicide may be preferable for you and Mrs Nerd after 2! This applies double for HArwich and Dovercourt.
I probably shouldn’t give this secret spot away
I know exactly where that is...grew up just along the coast 😁
Moray coast. Beautiful empty coastline, but there’s a good local quiet pride and buzz about the place. Check out the average rainfall maps too.
Cycle through the woods (for erm…45 miles) and you’re in the Cairngorm mountains.
Plenty of civilisation and services, 20mins from Inverness and there’s an airport. Scotland is great.
Another vote for Wirral.
Great beaches on the west and north sides of the peninsula, but oddly all the tourist traffic from Liverpool/Manchester drives right by and goes to Blackpool or north Wales instead on the sunny days.
Plenty of decent road cycling around; north Wales for mountains and Liverpool, Chester and Manchester are all easily accessible for city pursuits.
Saltfleet
the bus depot used to be lovely until it was destroyed in the early 80’s.
That deserves more credit 😜
I'm not telling any of you lot.
Last thing I want is this demographic ( https://singletrackworld.com/surveys/) competing with me for housing there 😉
One of the issues of living by the sea is the reduced number of places to cycle or walk from the door.
If you live inland you can set off on any point of the compass (path permitting) but by the sea you halve the number of directions (the other half can be good if you sail, canoe or surf). This is more so if you are on a geographic shoulder or peninsular.
From Saltburn (mentioned a couple of times above) you can go South or West but to go North you need to travel 12 miles West first in order to cross the Tees. Travel East and next stop is Denmark.
Also check out local geography before moving somewhere. Skinningrove floods so often that the village has a warning siren to warn residents and the hotel in Scarborough my gran used to like is now in the Sea!
Fife, Scotland. It’s lovely here
Or more precisely, the Neuk of Fife. You do have to live with Fifers though 😜 But at least the view of Edinburgh, East Lothian and the islands in the Forth are worth it.
It's also tremendous for gravel riding, I often call it the Kingdom of Gravel.
Hornsea.