Is living beside the beach every thing you hoped it would be?

[kippymcquick]

We live in the city and have busy lives here but we have a caravan in a seaside resort which I absolutely love. I adore the easy going lifestyle of being in a costal town. I mentioned to my DH about possibly moving there once we are older and the children are no longer living with us ( long way off atm)
He said surely it wouldn't be the same if you lived there permanently. Maybe that's true ?

Have you made the move and if so do ku have any regrets?

No. Especially since covid.

Our local coastline is rammed with tourists making any excursion unpleasant.

Because of all the tourists the local landowners are charging a minimum of £6 just to park the car, even for an ice cream.

I feel I've been priced out of the beautiful area I grew up
In. I tried three beauty spots last week and it was £6 in each one to park for even 30 mins.

I understand this charge for a day trip but not for locals popping out for an hour in the evening for a walk.

Why did you have to close the curtains @Awrite couldn’t you have enjoyed the sunset?!

Living by the beach for ten years. I hate the tourists now, they’ve ruined it. Every other house a holiday let. & our high street isn’t doing too well post-covid, there’s stuff closing down constantly. And this is a popular destination within easy reach of London. It’s a lie that there are great places to eat & drink outside a major city. There’s a few half decent ones, maybe two outstanding ones. Loads of shit ones that don’t care because they’ve got a constant stream of tourists coming in.

bah humbug

I'm a 15 minute walk from the beach, and have sea views. It's amazing. I'd love to be much closer. The only negative would be sand and in the future potential landslides or flooding

I was brought up near a beautiful beach in Northern Ireland, but moved away for uni. I always missed being near the beach, especially when I lived in London (Brighton beach is terrible, I don't count beaches that have no flipping sand!). Now I live on a promontory surrounded by glorious Australian beaches, and I bloody love it! There are apparently 19 beaches in Perth and I live near some of the best. The only day they get a bit busy in Xmas day but there is more than enough beach for everyone. I am also 40 minutes from the CBD so have the best of both worlds. I won't be moving again!

I think it depends a lot on whether you're hoping for a particular type of seaside lifestyle, which is very variable (affected daily by weather, tourists, how busy you are at work etc) and therefore more risky to move for, or whether you want to be by the sea because it speaks to your soul, which isn't variable and is more likely to mean you have a long term sense of feeling like you're at 'home' when you're there (ie even if tourists, weather, work etc are still a bit annoying, you still just feel better by being near the sea).

I'm a mountains person myself - I wouldn't move to the sea permanently because while I enjoy a seaside holiday, all the practical factors would mean I wouldn't get the year round joy from it. But I'd give up a lot of things to move to a little town in the Alps!

I can't see the sea from where I live unless I am walking up a hill but it's less than 2 miles away. It is true living somewhere is very different to being on holiday. If it is very busy in the summer it is likely it will be like that every day for several months. It is only half term and it's already hard to find a parking spot so more people are having to park in residential areas which is causing problems with emergency access in our small village. Then you need to consider the same location out of season, many coastal towns here aren't as quiet as they used to be out of season which is great for businesses but I remember in previous years some towns used to actually close down out of season meaning the shops and restaurants which would be open in the summer would be closed during the winter months and the town would have an eerie depressing feel but on the other hand you would have more freedom to explore the area while it was quieter.

I was born and grew up by the sea at one end of the country, moved to London and other cities for 15 years then moved to the coast at the other end of the country.

DH makes his living from the sea. Last night I genuinely saw dolphins whilst sitting in bed reading. I'm incredibly lucky. It can be tough but it's good for the soul.

I think it must depend on the town you choose. I live 10 mins from two seaside towns. One is quite 'naice' and full of middle class boutiques, eateries and men who wear pink trousers and women's who put jumpers over their shoulders on their way to the yacht club. The other is full of bargain shops, greasy spoons and old people having a fag on a covered bench while their dog poos on the promenade in front of them type of place. The people who live in the second town aways say how 'up and coming' it is but in the 30 years I've been here it has not upped or come anywhere. It's actually got worse!

I live 2 minutes walk from the beach (if we’re having a barbecue and forget the ketchup we just run home to fetch it) in a city on the south coast. Best of both worlds and I love it.

@LittleBrownJug - only because I needed to go to sleep and I need blackout for that.

There will be another lovely sunset tonight.

I always dreamed of living by the beach - now I do and I'm there practically everyday, come rain or shine.

I absolutely adore it but it's very different living here as a local compared to visiting as a tourist.

I've always lived less than 30 mins drive from the sea and I don't think I'd want to move further inland permanently. It's a tourist hotspot and I don't mind that either, all the kids with ice creams and the thought that they've come all this way to where we live because it's really nice. Also the chippy really ups its game in the summer so we're all winners.

We're a short drive away and I love this life, been here a decade now and no regrets ever.

Living on or near a nice beach does make you quite picky about where you go on holiday. we went on a cycling holiday in the Algarve and were told we must visit what some magazine had voted the world's most beautiful beach. It really wasn't! But (very nearby) and hard to get to beach which generally only locals bother with is WAY nicer!
We visited the caribbean for the first time in January, and while the weather was warm, and the beaches were lovely, I did come away thinking xxxxxxxxx beach is nicer!
So we tend to do city or mountain holidays because we have neither of those things!

We would love to do this too, when DD is older.

Only certain beaches though, not hugely touristy ones with fairs and amusements etc.

I can’t imagine getting bored, the only problem I would envisage is traffic problems, which would be a big one.

We rent a holiday cottage several times a year (Kent coast, 10 minute walk from the beach) and my soul is definitely happier near the sea. I feel peaceful, calm and at ease. I love the escapism.

However I already know I couldn't live by the sea full time. We live in central London and I can't see us ever giving up all that London provides.

We moved to a seaside town a couple of years ago. 15 mins walk to the sandy beach - I'd like to be closer though!

It's lovely but I don't make the most of it really. I thought I'd be sea swimming every day - truth is I've not been once this year yet. We do come down to the beach or do a coastal walk most weekends though, and I love that. It's blissful just wandering along the cliffs, getting an ice cream in the summer or a coffee in the winter and staring out to sea for ages.

We originally wanted a house much closer to the sea. I think if I could actually see it from my house I'd be there more. I tend to forget about it otherwise! But I do like the slower pace of life here, and people who come and stay are always envious 😄

Ok to add a bit of the negatives to balance:

Everywhere’s rammed in kids holidays. It takes ages to get to work and back home.

Cars parked all along your road so you can’t swing into your drive so you have to drive past and approach from a different angle.

It’s very windy so your plants outside get battered and not much survives a winter apart from ugly hydrangeas.

Windows and cars get covered in salt/sand and never look clean. If you clean them you are guaranteed a seagull pebbledashing it 😩

It’s very windy so your plants outside get battered and not much survives a winter apart from ugly hydrangeas

hey now….ive got roses and cherry trees and all sorts in my garden 😀

(not 100% sure of what a hydrangea looks like so we might have those)

to be fair as others have said all our comments rely on the type of beach….no sand here for example, as we live on the south coast it would be a lot more touristy if it was sandy

I lived in a seaside town for 10 years and loved it (town was a bit sad but the gorgeous beach, little cafes and restaurants were more than enough compensation) It never got old for me; waking in the morning to the sound of seagulls meant I had that holiday feeling every day, we had a dog and toddlers so went pretty much everyday whatever the weather, even stormy weather is prettier at the beach 😁

I worked in a town further inland and I knew the exact point on my commute home where the sea comes into view and it blew me away every day how lucky I was.

Dh grew up there though and never really got my love for it (he loves the mountains). Pils still live there and it's always the first place I go when we visit.

When I retire I would like to move back to the coast.

I lived in a sea front flat in Brighton throughout my twenties. I loved it. I didn’t go on the beach all that often, but I looked at the sea all the time. It never got boring, the view was always amazing. I loved the sun sparkling on the water on sunny days, I loved watching storms roll in from the horizon and the huge waves smashing over the marina walls. I loved the fireworks on the pier every Saturday night through the summer season, reflected in the water. But most of all I loved the full moon lighting up the sea, I’d stare out at it and hum Moon River when I got home late at night. I sometimes feel a pang when I think of my little flat there.

I grew up in a seaside town and absolutely loved it. I have so many wonderful memories of going to the beach as a child on a sunny day - heading down with a picnic and rubber dinghy! As a teenager I'd hang out on the beach with my friends. I really do miss the sea now I live inland.
The only issue is a lot of seaside towns are quite deprived. My home town is and as a result a lot of people (including me) left for better job prospects. If you move to a deprived town your children may well move away - but of course that's true of anywhere. I'd try and move to a more prosperous seaside town.

Fascinating reading all these posts, I lived by the sea for a year and so have experienced it but can truthfully say it does absolutely nothing for me. Don't like the wide expanse of it and loathe the wind. I live in the middle of the country now close to forests and big hills, mountains and streams are definitely my thing.

I grew up in the North Cotswolds - so pretty, but very much inland.

I now live in a slightly run down seaside town, less than 5 minutes from the beach. MN tends to despise the town, on the rare occasions it’s mentioned. I love living here. Every so often, when walking on the cliff tops, or biking down a hill which overlooks my town I feel complete happiness. During lockdown, too, my dc appreciated living here, and frequently said so.

As an added bonus, living in East Kent means that the weather tends to be better than the rest of the UK.

I would miss the sea (and the weather) enormously if we moved away.

I think they’re great if you don’t have kids or they’ve flown the nest and you’re a bit older. I don’t think they’re ever amazing places for kids to grow up because there’s never anything there for them to do when they get older. The closest big cities with actual activities are always an hours drive away which isn’t ideal.