Where to live by the seaside, that’s not a tourist trap?

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…

@scud

‘the roads don’t get busy’.

Have you never been on the A149 to the coast on a summer Friday, Saturday, Sunday?

Budleigh Salterton

@Drnosh

It can get busy, but nothing like many other holiday spots like places in Devon and Cornwall, plus if you are local, you just drive / cycle the parallel road inland, views are better to due to slight elevation

Ireland! Tons of seaside, outside the cities it’s pretty quiet, and masses of places that aren’t on the tourist circuit. Possibly not hugely helpful for you though.

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!

Colourful seaside spot is one of ‘least visited’ towns in UK with very few train travellers

Felixstowe. Certainly not touristy, but 100% fails the test for “never live anywhere at the end of a road”.

@WorldClassAccident

^^^ 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.)

For me, it’s Cardigan.  Some tourists, but not too many and still feels like a living town with tourists rather than the other way round.

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.

still feels like a living town with tourists rather than the other way round

That’s the key thing innit.

Not that fussed on seaside living myself, but Llandudno (or nearby) was another spot I’ve considered.

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.

@Mintyjim

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!

@the-muffin-man

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?