What's a really great UK seaside city or large town to live in?

[LAHallucinations]

As the title says really. I've lived in a small town in the Home Counties all my life and I'd like to move to the coast within the next year. The trouble is I have very few restrictions/criteria for where I could move, so I'm struggling with very bad choice paralysis. Whenever I do find somewhere I think would suit me, I search for threads about the place on here, and inevitably they'll be a handful of comments saying what a shithole that place is, which just sends me back to square one (even if most other comments are very positive).

So no negativity please, just places that you think are really good to live in.

The only essentials are:

• Must be by the coast (doesn't need to have a sandy beach, just some good coastal walks)


• Must be a big town or a city (I don't drive so I want everything nearby and plenty of things to do/opportunities to meet new people)


• Mustn't be somewhere really 'rough' or rundown

I work from home, I don't have children, and I have a large budget, so none of those things are an issue.

Where would you recommend?

If you are used to the home counties weather then a Northern coastal town may be too much of a shock. Very cold and bleak in the winter and summers can be crap too.

Hove is basically a nicer part of Brighton? So you get the bars/restaurants and shops but not the undercurrent you get in Brighton.

Also have friends in Margate who are very happy.

OP doesn't drive and wants to live by the sea in or near a city...

I presume you'd like to live in Norfolk, Roselilly36?

Rye isn't on the coast.

About 40 minute walk from the town centre!

Truro is most certainly NOT a seaside town. Decent pubs though

In fact less than40 min walk

so I’d definitely say Rye is on the coast!!

Well, yes, but a bleak kind of beach from what I remember. Not the kind of thing you'd do frequently. If the OP lived in Mumbles she could be down at the beach in 5/ 15 minutes. From there she could walk all around the coast of Wales if she wanted. Set off east from Mumbles and once you're beyond the nice bars and cafes and Verdi's ice cream and pizza place you can hit the clifftops and walk to Langland with stunning views and a drink or lunch at Langland Brasserie and the bus back to Mumbles. Rye is lovely but tourist-orientated. I remember it when it was a proper working town with a cattle market and a hardware store in the 80s, when I loved there. All gone now.

Google camber sands!!!

One of THE most stunning golden sand beaches in the uk!!

About 2 miles from central rye

A bleak beach?? 🫤

The OP doesn't drive.

@TheLadyofShalott1 , we’re very close to Poole but bailing as a real pain to get to family in Exeter, Bristol and Cardiff and had enough of long treks to stations. I understand what you are saying about Weston but know a fair few people who have moved there from Bristol recently. I thought it might just be a quirk amongst people I know for some reason but then read this :

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/somerset-seaside-town-one-most-6340458

Even my friend’s sister who was going to move to the Cotswolds was saying it’s now up and coming and she knows loads of people looking to buy there. I’m not recommending the OP move there but it has and is changing apparently .

I like Hythe, in Kent.
A very pleasant, historic town on the coast with the added interest of the Military Canal. Nice sense of community (great year-round sea swimming group if that appeals). Good local amenities, high street independents and a decent Waitrose. Some beautiful characterful houses.
Sandgate, the next 'town' along is the same.
Stunning coastlines.
Both are but a few minutes on the bus from Folkestone which is fast becoming social-central.

I'm going to say Cardiff, it's a great city. Amazing transport with a friendly vibe with lots of stuff going on. Cardiff Bay is lovely and the beaches of Barry, Llantwit major, Ogmore and not far away. I've moved here and I absolutely love it. It's a really beautiful city.

Stop calling it Weston-super-mud you ignorant twat.

When was the last time you went there. Such an ignorant twat. Unreal.

As for Bristol. What? Just ignorance personified!

Nice one. I love Cardiff.

But then we have so many Cardiffians down here (in Weston Super Mare) and it is after all only a short jaunt across the river I'm sure we can count ourselves as fellow cosmpopolitans (unlike a few ignorant posters on here).

ok I stand corrected about Edinburgh. I guess with it being on the first of forth I aLways consider it to not really be the seaside.

Stop calling it Weston-super-mud you ignorant twat.

This has made me laugh so much 🤣🤣 😂

Tbf Edinburgh isn't exactly a resort. I mean there's no pier or penny arcades or anything.

The OP didn’t specifically ask for a resort though, just a coastal town/city.

Aye yes definitely; should have been clearer that's what I'm referencing, sorry. She says coastal, but for lots of people coastal means 'resort' which is why they wouldn't consider, say, Edinburgh or Immingham or Gravesend (or indeed Barcelona or Piraeus) to be coastal. So when someone says they never thought of Edinburgh as being coastal I'm sort of thinking to myself I can see why you wouldn't, because it's not a resort.

Oh sorry I see what you mean!

Fair enough, I didn't explain that!

I lived there unfortunately for many years.

The sea only looks blue on very rare days.

Most days of the year it does look like mud rather than sand.

If you wanted to go for a swim in the channel good luck to you, as well as the dangers of the sinking mudsand around you as you go further out, it feels like you are nearly in Wales before it gets deep enough to swim in - granted that is when the tide is out, which happens about twice a day.

It has nearly the second highest rise and fall of the tide (the highest being the Bay of Fundy in Canada, but adjacent to Maine in the USA).

If you are not very careful when at the southern end of the beach, you will end up sinking in the mud/sand even if only walking on the beach.

Of course we locals know about that, but most years one or more tourists have had to be rescued.

The only good thing about the beach is the donkeys, and I am not even sure about that as they always look sad.

Since the pier reopened after the fire you cannot take dogs on to it.

The "amusement" arcade on the pier is very noisy, very expensive, and not at all welcoming. Although Tiffanys Restaurant at the end of the pier used to be quite nice, but I haven't been in there since Covid so I have no idea what it is like now.

As for the rest of WsM, the shops are great if you love charity shops, but it does have all of the basic fastfood outlets, and burger King is not only in the Sovereign Centre - if it is still open - there is now one in the old Frankie and Benny's, opposite one of the 5 Costa's in the town (that I am aware of) - mind you Costa is my favourite high street Coffee shop, so that is ok with me.

And.

WsM has an Aldi and a Waitrose!
It also has a Lidl and a Sainsbury's,
An Asda and a Morrisons.
There might be more, I haven't been in some parts of town for a while.
WsM also used to be the town where every city in the city in the UK seemed to send it's drug addicts for rehabitation, has that improved at all yet @stayingpositiveifpossible ?

Please do not get me started on the long drawn out fiacso of the Tropicana, the best thing to do with that was when Banksy honoured us with a visit, and created
DISMALAND! The funniest, or saddest thing about that, was that so many Westonians were proud of it, not realising that Banksy and most of the rest of the country were laughing at us 😭

Don't get me wrong @stayingpositiveifpossible , in a way I love WsM, but I think that has much more to do with my loved ones who still live there, and my memories, rather than any of the town's "assets"...

Lastly, I have to agree with you on one thing,
I am an ignorant twat - about a lot of things, but sadly for you I am reasonably sure that
I am real - but please don't quote me on that one, as I am not at all positive.

Lastly, lastly, don't worry that I will scare off our bread and butter, the lovely citizens of the Midlands who visit annually. They really do love all that Weston-super-Mare has to offer. Maybe someone from there would be kind enough to give all of WsM's highlights, and put me to shame? Please?