No quiet holiday locations anymore

Northumberland is unfortunately getting busier and busier each year with tourists. It's constantly being promoted as a holiday destination which is annoying. It would be as bad as Cornwall if the weather wasn't so unpredictable and the sea wasn't the North Sea.

We always manage to find lovely, quiet areas but I’m not sharing in SM!

Far to late to book Scilly now. Accommodation is gold dust there and very expensive. Beautiful archipelago.

Try Wales

We live in the southwest and my grandson has autism. The advise of come as far down as you can is good - we live in Camborne so access Marizion, Portreath, Godrevy. Get out early in the morning, plan your day so you’re visiting the popular places before everyone else. For nature we go to Paradise Park and the Seal Sanctuary - they’re so big that there is loads of space to do your own thing and avoid the crowds. Also plenty of woodland walks around in Tehidy and Idless Woods. Avoid Newquay, Falmouth, Perranporth and any of the popular surfing beaches.
We restructure our day so that we are off out early, avoid eating out and head inland when it’s later in the day.

Ha! Not even Northumberland is quiet anymore.
Gas a few hidden away places, during the pandemic years the broadsheets seemed to take glee in exposing the ‘secret’ and ‘hidden’ places. So now they have been taken over by the crowds and those who really need there get ever more desperate

Westward Ho!

We went to Pembrokeshire a couple of years ago and the beaches other than Tenby were quiet, and lovely.

I’d do Norfolk or Northumberland in your shoes, not Cornwall.

Though Roseland Peninsula and Isles of Scilly are much quieter than other parts of Cornwall/south west if your heart is set on the area.

Get cheap ryanair flights (£15 ish) to ireland (shannon airport, west ireland - knock airport) and hire a cottage by the sea, absolutely idyllic xxx

Scilly isles

If you want Cornwall I always found Zennor beautifully quiet.

The Lakes can be totally rammed!

We have loved Dorset with our DS with SEN. We stayed in a National Trust cottage in the middle of nowhere. Lots of animal related things which he likes including the Swannery though that might be overwhelming for smaller DCs!

Edit: we are going to Northern France this year.

I'd echo West Wales. Lots of little quiet beaches like Cei Bach or Mwnt.

I know it’s the wrong area but if quiet beaches are what you’re after then I can thoroughly recommend Cumbria or Northumberland. Beautiful beaches and even on the hottest days there’s barely a soul there. We stay at (not sure if should post this - please delete if not allowed) https://www.airbnb.com/h/astercottage with our children aged 11 and 13 and it’s just a short drive to a number of stunning beaches.

Nowhere nice is going to be quiet in school summer holidays. Go term time in June or September while your DD is 3. We stayed in a lovely caravan park near lizard point that was nice and quiet great sea views and walking distance to a beach. It was dirt cheap in the first week of July, think about £100 for a week.

If you want somewhere quiet and rural, you surely don’t want a ‘seaside town’? There are loads of airbnbs in the countryside where I live (rural west Cornwall) - we have one two, and are on a farm 10 minutes from the coasts but down quiet country tracks. Your other option if you are set on being right next to a beach is to either go very out of season (i.e November or January) to a holiday caravan park sort of place, or pay a vast amount of money to rent a holiday home on the coast path somewhere.

I think it's because there are no sizeable towns or even large villages for miles- it's a funny corner of Cornwall. I bet Caerhays Castle has holiday lets, big estates usually tend to be good at cashing in on tourists.

(Isn't it called Porth Luney, officially?)

Agree. Anywhere more than a mile from a car park is pretty much deserted (big Dartmoor and SWCP fan).

However, isn't the DC in question 3? Makes it harder to hike off into the blue yonder.

Villages in my neck of the woods that could suit (small and not an overcrowded honeypot, yet still within reach of a decent beach): Coverack, Mullion, St Keverne, Lamorna, St Just, Prussia Cove.

I was going to suggest this too! It’s a popular beach in summer months but it is enormous so you can walk away from the crowds easily. Especially if you’re going in term time it should be relatively quiet. I’d recommend maybe staying more inland. Nearer Exmoor is super quiet, stunning countryside and some lovely small rental cottages with hot tubs etc where you won’t hear a thing. You’d then be looking at about a 45 min drive into Woolacombe though.

We love Trevornick Homidays Park near Newquay. They have ready tents, caravans and cottages and it’s utterly peaceful.

Lots of Scotland has quiet beaches. Some of the islands off the west coast are easily accessible from the mainland

Find a river instead. I live on Dartmoor and while some of our more popular spots (the ones with visitor centres and toilets and ice cream get busy holidays and weekends), honestly the average person doesn’t venture much beyond the car park. 😂

In the summer, I can go out for the entire day and hardly see a soul. People truly venture like 200m from their car, picnic, then go home. There are also loads of small beaches and coves, especially in North Cornwall which can be quite quiet. Maybe not in school holidays, but we often go and are nearly the only ones there. I was at Crackington Haven 2 weekends ago and there were like 10 people on the beach and no screaming. I think mine were the only children. Will it be like that the first weekend of August? No, but I’d say it is for the bulk of the year.

If you’re closer to Dorset, Ringstead Bay beach. The bit right by the cafe gets busy in summer, but if you walk down the coast path going in the Weymouth direction for 5 minutes to the wood and head onto the beach there, it’s very quiet.

There are plenty of quiet places in the south west, whereabouts in the SW are you wanting to travel to?
Lynmouth in North Devon is beautiful. Watermouth Bay, Combe Martin or Westward Ho! also in North Devon. Budleigh Salterton, Teignmouth, Seaton, Beer, on the south Devon coast or Lyme Regis or Swanage in Dorset. In Cornwall Porth Leven, the Lizard, St Agnes St Just, Polperro, Looe.

The north Devon coast is quieter than Cornwall. Woolacombe is miles long and as long as you move away from the main path you will be able to find a quiet space. Saunton and Croyde or also ok.
Minehead has a butlins but a lot of visitors stay in the complex and it isn't really busy except in school summer holidays.

NW highlands:
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/our-pick-scotlands-west-highland-beaches/

Moray:
https://www.livebreathescotland.com/beaches-in-moray/