Are there any decent, liveable seaside towns in UK which aren’t silly expensive or horribly rundown?

[Moidershewrote]

Basically that - DH and I would really like to relocate with our 2 primary aged kids to live by the sea (near a sandy beach) in either England or Wales - ideally we’d like a half decent primary / secondary schools, friendly community feel with clubs / kids activities etc and not run down/full of pound shops etc and access to train station within approx 5 miles and local buses would be great. We’d love to live somewhere that is walking distance of a beach.

It feels like we’ve looked into so many places and for one reason or another we end up discounting it - usually because either schools seem crap or no train station or no community feel.

Places we’ve immediately rejected are:

• Kent (grammar schools / Kent test)


• Brighton (too expensive / pebble beach)


• Portsmouth/S’ton/Plymouth (too big / towny feel)


• Essex/Somerset coastline (not the right vibe for us)


• E/W Sussex (not sandy😆)

Would love to hear any personal recommendations from people who have moved to another coastal town with kids / or live in one and think it’s brilliant (and why)🙏 We do love Devon, Dorset, Anglia.. Would consider Wales, or NW/NE England.

Oh thank you, I don’t know Hampshire very well so this is really helpful.🙌🏻

Some of the places named in the south are ££££

We also really love Totnes but as it’s not by the beach we have discounted (for now!).

Need to be by the coast for health reasons as 2 of us has bad asthma and allergies so the sea/salty air is supposed to be really beneficial (drip feed sorry!)😬

Partly the kids, but mainly as it’s just easier to go for walks, more pleasant to sit on for days out etc..

Yeah, it comes over that was as that’s where we live now and have been working out way out along the coastlines from here, but definitely open to moving further out!

Thanks, but I’ve only seen stones - where’s the sandy part? 😅

We're on holiday in Alnmouth and I'm now sufficiently in love with the place that I've googled house prices and jobs 😁. It's within a shortish drive of Newcastle and commuting distance to Edinburgh by train - IMO access to a city is important as your DC get older, as well as broadening work options. No idea about schools though.

Another recommendation for Exmouth. I have family there so visit very often - it's basically my second home, and I'm seriously thinking of making the move down from London myself within the next year or so.

Huge pluses:

1. Enormous sandy beach - miles and miles of it. And it's a beautiful beach too, with a stunning outlook across the mouth of the estuary over to Starcross and Dawlish. At the far end are the red cliffs that mark the start/end of the Jurassic coast (depending on which way you're travelling). You can walk for miles along the coast path which has breathtaking views - I love walking for a couple of hours over to Budleigh Salterton, which has another brilliant and scenic beach (put big pebbles rather than sand).


2. Recent and ongoing investment - the promenade was done up a couple of years ago, with new shops and restaurants, which are lovely and very boho - designer coffee, arty gifts, etc. There's also an amazing new watersports centre. Last year new flood defences were built to protect the entire seafront. Several very expensive new housing developments have also gone up over the last few years which are attracting people with money to the town. It is definitely up and coming.


3. Very well connected - there is a train to Exeter that takes 30 minutes, and that comes every 30 minutes. The train line also runs along the estuary so it's a lovely journey. You can very feasibly work in Exeter and commute to and from Exmouth. Along this trainline you can also get off at the gorgeous riverside villages of Topsham and Lympstone.


4. Good amenities - there's a huge secondary school in the town itself (it hasn't had a good reputation but it's recently had a new head and is on its way up again), but if you wanted to go further afield, there are excellent private schools in Exeter, which your DC could easily get to on the train - there's a big leisure centre, all the big supermarkets (including a lovely M&S), plenty of shops that normal people need - this isn't a seaside town that's just all gift shops - an independent cinema, bowling and amusement arcades for when the weather is less than great, etc etc.


5. Great location - Exmouth is surrounded by beautiful, historic towns and villages, loads of other gorgeous beaches and seaside towns, incredible rolling countryside, and not far from Dartmoor. You can enjoy the best of coastal and countryside life while still living in a thriving, busy town where people actually live year round.


6. Affordable - you can buy a decent sized family home for £350k. Obviously houses can go up to the million pound plus mark, but if you just want a bog standard semi or terrace, it's very affordable still. I don't know how much longer that will be the case, though!

The only negatives for me would be that the town centre needs investment - the shops aren't great - and I'd love to see more art/culture/music within the town itself - but as I don't live there and am only a frequent visitor, there may well be more going on in those areas than I realise.

I would say that Bude in Cornwall has a very similar vibe and I'd happily live there too - but it doesn't have the transport connections of Exmouth which is why I prefer it. It takes a hell of a lot longer to get out of the country when you're up on the north coast.

Good luck with the move!

I wouldn't discount Somerset as it's a beautiful part of the country but look into Somerset as a whole no just Weston super-mare there are villages dotted all along the Somerset coast line and many have absolutely fantastic schools just to name a couple of places.

• watchet
• Minehead
•blue anchor (properties don't come up here often)
•portlock

But some advice is if possible to spend a year renting wherever you decide to go as seaside towns are not for everyone (busy during the summer months and even in some places need to add an extra hour onto a small journey and dead in the winter)

Leigh on sea & Westcliffe on sea in Essex both fit your criteria and are lovely areas.
Both are increasingly popular places to relocate to from London.

Worthing is brilliant, lots going on for children, it’s sandy when the tide is out, if you want to save money look at Eastbourne which is cheaper and lovely.

Its the crime I would be interested in, most areas of Kent on the coast have a really high level of crime, they are pretty though.

For example, Worthing 2.4% lower, national crime rate England, Wales & NI , Morecambe 28% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI, Ramsgate 48% higher, national crime rate England, Wales & NI.

You also have to think about jobs for children as they get older, they shouldn’t have a problem in Sussex.

We have looked at Worthing and Eastbourne and in both the children go down to the beach with school, none seem to be bothered by the pebbles.

I desperately looked for a cheaper alternative to Sussex with good connections to London/large city and low levels of crime, I didn’t find one so we’re saving up 😆.

Another nod for Swansea/Gower - meets all your requirements;
-great schools - no grammars or academies and very few go private.
-well connected by train; hourly to London and takes 2 hrs 45 mins and same train goes through Cardiff and Bristol.
-loads of activities for kids and I found things much more accessible than in London as wasn't having to schlep across town. Good for teens too, not just little ones.
-great sense of community and a very friendly, lively city.
-beaches speak for themselves, they really are breathtaking and each has its own character.
-lots of green spaces in the city - Brynmill, Singleton, Cwmdonkin parks, Clyne Gardens all close together in west swansea and woodland, mountains and countryside on the doorstep

• buses, while not amazing (and are expensive) are adequate and in some areas eg near the Uni are quite good

-shopping for clothes is a bit crap but Cardiff an easy journey away and for me at least the benefits massively outweigh this

Places like Killay, Sketty, Tycoch get the best of both; still in the city, but a stone's throw from Gower.

what's mumbles like in the winter?

You do need to walk over the stones to get to it, but there are large areas of sand for hours around low tide.

Gower is lovely in the winter. Mumbles is still quite busy as it is a residential area as well as a tourist destination. Swansea is a city so doesn't go quiet off-season. Obviously it rains and is cold, but the beaches are spectacular in all seasons - surfers are out all year round. I love autumn/winter walks and we are out in all weathers.

@1952VincentBlackLightning yes when I have visited it struck me as a place people lived in not just visited but obviously as I don't live there.

We really like it.

It's definitely worth an off-season visit, as long as you prepare for every kind of weather within a few hours! We go rockpooling all year round, lots of year-round sea swimmers here (I'm not quite brave enough!). We love wandering around the coastal path on wild windy days.

@1952VincentBlackLightning Excellent username! That’ll be the song in my head for the rest of the day.

Rather short sighted ruling out Kent because of the KT, you don't have to sit it 🙄

There's lots of gorgeous villages north of Morecambe (Bolton Le Sands, the Kellets etc etc) that are within spitting distance of the sea but much nicer places to live. Watch the generalisation that "the north" is cheap though. Some parts might well be but others aren't. If it's nice, you pay for it wherever you live.

Tynemouth/cullercoats/whitley bay
It’s about 15 mins drive to Newcastle and beautiful beaches.
Tynemouth is the ‘poshest’ but Whitley bay is bigger and fast becoming the hipster place to be.

Op - take the time to read the replies on here. The Kent Test is completely optional and only taken if the parents want their child to go to one of the grammar schools in Kent. There are only about 30 grammar schools, plenty of others to choose from.

I'm not really a seaside person, I think most UK seaside resorts are pretty grey and miserable in the winter, and quite rundown even in summer, but Teignmouth has some decent shops and is ok and is close to Exeter. Compared with eg Torquay which has nice residential areas and the seafront is nice, but the town centre is really horrible.

South Wales is lovely but remember you have to learn Welsh to get a job there if you work in the public sector (and potentially the private sector if it is something like a utility which comes under the Welsh language legislation).

North Wales might be an option too but I think some of the towns along the north coast would be pretty miserable in the winter, though you have Chester, Liverpool and Manchester within easy reach.

Formby is nice and has red squirrels!

Yup! There are lots more red squirrels around in recent years too, numbers have definitely risen since I was a child :)