Help me find a southern seaside town for day trip this weekend!

[millefeuille2]

I've just realised it's a bank holiday this weekend and we have nothing planned. We = two adults, a 4-yo and 2-yo.

I feel like a day trip to a seaside town within an hour's train travel from London could work. Something like Brighton but maybe calmer/less busy? The little ones love all the usual things - playground, seaside, bit of relaxed shopping, coffee shop/cake.

Can clever MNetters help me find a good place? (We've recently been to Southend and Broadstairs, so not those again please.)

Leigh on Sea is lovely.

Margate is a shit hole, we went last summer and left to go to Herne bay instead. Not sure if there is a station there.

The toilets were an inch deep in piss, there were used needles all over the place, groups of pissed people on the beach at 11am being really offensive. Gentrified it is not.

Just do not let your kids in the water anywhere on the South coast <- not envy

Thank you Tories and Tory voters for the turds in the sea

I doubt most people will be prepared to pay out to go abroad for only a weekend when/if their finances are in such a dire position. I second the poster who says avoid 'popular' spots during the long weekend as they will be rammed. We live in such a place and NEVER go out during these times. Far too busy - especially if you've got young children

Take a flight to Scotland. The school term has already started and they've had their bank holiday.

I think there's many locations around the UK that had sewage pumped into it last week. I wouldn't be going into the sea anywhere for a little while 🤢

Hastings or Eastbourne good

We're in north London. Kings X and Euston both easy for us. Thanks everyone.

And got it, won't go in the sea. Went in the sea in Broadstairs earlier this summer and seemed ok though!

Bexhill nice too

Hmm. Frinton on sea in that case. Your side of London. Lovely sand. Old fashioned genteel and different from the resorts you’ve already taken them to.

This is so bloody irresponsible. We are in the extreme throes of a climate crisis, so to suggest using flights for a daytrip like you'd use a local bus really isn't on.

Walton on the naze or southwold

Get the high speed train to Folkestone from St Pancras. Lower Leas Coastal Park for playgrounds, Harbour Arm/Old High Street for shopping and cake, and the Sunny Sands for beach.

For Frinton:

If Liverpool is fairly accessible to you, then you can relax into a straight train run and get their activities out at a table. Avoid trains that change at Colchester.

The train station is at the opposite end of Connaught Ave from the sea, but it’s the main shopping street and a nice stroll down. So you can buy what you need as you go. No arcades in anything like that, no drunkenness. It wasn’t until this millennium that they even let a fish and chip shop open in the sea side of the level crossing (they were afraid it would lower the tone). It’s very child friendly.

Liverpool STREET^ (doh)

Love Littlehampton and Worthing is quite nice too - miles and miles of beach at both of those so always able to not be too crowded together.

I'd definitely check what the water is like before you choose where to go - surfers against sewage - but Margate is a really good family friendly day out. It does get busy but so will everywhere. I suspect it would be less busy than Brighton.

Definitely don't go to Bexhill! Lovely place but it's been all over the news because of the raw sewage dumping. To be honest, I'd skip the beach and go to a nice lake or reservoir like this one, which you can get to on the Tube.

I don't want to encourage people to go to Frinton because then it will get too busy but it is a fabulous beach, if you're looking for golden sands and no tat. If you want amusements and food stalls, go just up the road to Walton. Check tide times for both, there is basically no beach in either town at high tide.

We are going to Margate, I know it’s not popular on MN but we like it and go often as there is a direct train right from my local station during the summer holidays so no need to mess around travelling the central London or changing trains, I can get it from my house straight there, I don’t relate to the posters experience of needles everywhere or drunk people, never witnessed that personally and the toilets weren’t any worse than any public toilets I’ve been in in London, seems they are not affected by the sewage leak either.

Folkestone isn't too bad or Minnis Bay/Birchington which is about an hour and a half from London

I love Margate. It is a bit rough and ready in parts but I prefer that to Brighton for example, which is basically Soho-on-Sea.

If you plan to travel by train, check which days any strikes are planned for.

Don't swim in Folkestone!

Hastings has loads of stuff for kids but the pier.