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Original poster

Live by the sea?

126 replies

IsadoraMoon · 27/08/2021 19:28

I've just come back from our annual weekly trip to the seaside and felt really sad to leave ..the kids and I love it SO much, I'm desperate to sell up and move (currently living in a city 2hours drive from the nearest beach) finding a job in the area was always the sticking point, but now with the possibility of working remotely it seems like it really could be possible! Tell me, does the novelty wear off to visit the beach if you live really close? I know it wouldn't for me but I wonder about the kids (they're 4 and 6) the sea would be the main attraction as there's not so much else to do around there! The other option would be to move to another city (nearer to the beach, say 35 minutes drive, but more to do) but it won't be the small coastal visit I'm so in love with!

OP posts:

Thread gallery

3Br1tnee · 28/08/2021 11:15

I live 10mins from this, 5 mins from the sandy beach. Never get bored of it.

3Br1tnee · 28/08/2021 11:17

This is the main beach.

Effybriest · 28/08/2021 12:24

@KingdomScrolls But at least you could afford it that’s the point. Some of us live in dumps but can’t. I grew up in Yorkshire, moved to a relatively deprived town in the NW. Would love to move back when I retire but house prices are so inflated it’s impossible.

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Holidays

boogiewithasuitcase · 28/08/2021 12:26

@3Br1tnee

This is the main beach.

Where are you and can I move in with you please?

PallasStrand · 28/08/2021 12:41

This is our bay.

PallasStrand · 28/08/2021 12:59

Sorry, didn’t attach.

icedcoffees · 28/08/2021 13:07

If we're sharing photos, here's where I live!

Original poster

IsadoraMoon · 28/08/2021 13:09

@icedcoffees

If we're sharing photos, here's where I live!

So beautiful 💖

OP posts:

icedcoffees · 28/08/2021 13:12

It's lovely @IsadoraMoon and outside of the summer break, it's deserted. That photo was taken during the January lockdown at around 8am :)

prettyteapotsplease · 28/08/2021 17:22

We lived by the coast and this weekend I think I can guarantee that the place will be absolutely heaving with people, especially as the weather is going to be nice and it's the last bank holiday before the children go back to school. There'll be queues for parking (if you can find a space), cups of tea, ice cream, toilets, you name it, you must queue. Shoulder to shoulder when at its worst.

We found that it was better to spend these weekends in our own garden or visiting friends. The novelty can wear off during peak times.

HereticFanjo · 28/08/2021 18:10

It's wonderful but be aware:

Tourists - this year more than ever
Wild storms in winter (which I quite like but hard on the roof and house generally)
It can be hard on your skin - I don't know why but maybe the cold winds in winter?
Cars get eaten alive by rust.
Did I mention tourists? Fucking thousands of them. Normally tolerable if you can go abroad and BE the tourist

All that said I love being by the sea and hated the few years I lived away for uni and first job. Seeing it and hearing it gives me joy.

Knittingnanny · 28/08/2021 18:43

I’m half a mile from the beach ( south coast, not tourist destination or sandy ),moved here from university for a job and still here 43 years later. I don’t envisage moving. To be honest I spend more time walking along the beach or having picnic tea there now than when I had young children. I go most days now but life is so busy with 3 children that it was probably once a fortnight.
They have all moved away now with their own families for job opportunities but appreciate the beach when they return.
I would really miss the openness and fresh sea air if I lived back in my childhood city in the midlands.

PallasStrand · 28/08/2021 19:15

Where do you all live that is so crammed with tourists? Even peak tourist season here just gets a couple of camper vans parked by the beach and a few strange faces in the pub at night.

Hellocatshome · 28/08/2021 19:20

Where do you all live that is so crammed with tourists? Even peak tourist season here just gets a couple of camper vans parked by the beach and a few strange faces in the pub at night.

You must not live on the Northumberland Coast.

BarbaraofSeville · 28/08/2021 20:03

@Hellocatshome

Where do you all live that is so crammed with tourists? Even peak tourist season here just gets a couple of camper vans parked by the beach and a few strange faces in the pub at night.

You must not live on the Northumberland Coast.

Or the Yorkshire coast, or Devon or Cornwall, or around Brighton, or Blackpool or many other places where you often can't see the sand for people in the summer, need to get there before 10/11 am to get a parking space and have to queue for hours for food and drink.

bluebeck · 28/08/2021 20:10

I live a 7 minute walk from the beach (south coast)

I go for regular walks and absolutely love it, but never during school holidays, or weekends when the weather is very good. Too many people.

Oblomov21 · 28/08/2021 20:47

Depends where. Many beach resorts are very deprived with poverty and drug problems abs unemployment rife. This is the case in many Devon and Cornwall, Norwich and Essex, Dorset and South coast eg around Bognor.
I lived in some of these and have friends who live in all these areas.

I fear you don't know what you must be getting into. Where do you currently live and where are you planning to move to? Say Wimbledon to Bournemouth?

KingdomScrolls · 28/08/2021 21:47

@Effybriest I couldn't afford it so I worked full time plus nights in a second job and bought a shared ownership flat, which I subsequently sold and bought a wreck of an old house in still doing up years later. I moved work local to where I now live, so not earning more than anyone who grew up here.

PallasStrand · 28/08/2021 22:12

@Hellocatshome

Where do you all live that is so crammed with tourists? Even peak tourist season here just gets a couple of camper vans parked by the beach and a few strange faces in the pub at night.

You must not live on the Northumberland Coast.

No, I’m in Ireland, as I said earlier, though I lived in England for years.

What is striking me is that pretty much everyone who says they live by the coast is talking about towns and beaches crammed with tourists — and I totally get that in relation to some high-tourist footfall spots — but surely there are also people on the thread who just live in a rural area by the coast which isn’t a tourist hotspot?

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 28/08/2021 22:18

but surely there are also people on the thread who just live in a rural area by the coast which isn’t a tourist hotspot?

Yes there are a few of us on the thread

garden4569 · 28/08/2021 22:31

I live 10 min walk to nearest beach and a 30 min walk to 3 other beaches, I never get tired of it. Each season brings different moods if the sea and it can chill you out, excite your sole or just make me exceptionally happy. The tourists don't bother me, most are having a great time and it makes for good people watching! One of my kids is not bothered about the beach, another loves fishing and rock jumping and another sunbathing swimming etc. I say go for it, it's given me an ongoing quality of life that I didn't know existed when I'd lived in land locked places.

MojoJojo71 · 28/08/2021 22:33

Move to the north east OP, lots of lovely areas not far from a beach. Newcastle if DP needs a big bustling city.

I live 5-10 minutes drive from several lovely beaches. We don’t often have a beach day as such but sometimes if I’ve had a tough day after work instead of going straight home I’ll drive to the coast and walk along the beach for a bit to relax, it’s lovely

fizbosshoes · 28/08/2021 22:52

At the moment we are similar that we live nearly 2 hrs from the sea and I hate the fact its so far. (We have very rarely tried it for a day trip although I know a lot of MN woud say a 4 hr drive is fine) My DC are both at good schools where we live now and we have kind of committed to staying in the area til they finish school. But I think even living 20-30 min from the sea would be amazing.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 08/09/2021 15:41

Started work at 0600, early finish, in the water at Cresswell by 1315. It was rammed, people were sitting at most 50 yards apart. Milkshakes at the Drift afterwards. Now glowing with sun and crispy with salt. /Smug

RBKB · 08/09/2021 15:49

No the novelty does not wear off. Laughably, I thought I had left it too late when we moved (DC were 7 and 8). Currently DC20 is down on the seafront playing badminton and DC22 and I are about to go for a post-work walk. Paddle boarding and swimming and sea side bbqs and plenty of jobs for teens...it's fab. I love running and walking and cycle to work. We used to feel all sad when we left this town after a day trip. Now we feel like we are on holiday all summer!! Perhaps wise to be a short train rise from a decent city though?

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