How often do you go to the beach if you don't live by the sea?

[RealHousewivesOfTaunton]

We're not far from the furthest point in the UK from the coast. Our closest beach is a ~2 hour drive in good traffic. Holidays abroad excluded, I'd say we go to the beach maybe 3-4 times a year. This makes me feel a bit sad. I'd love to live on the coast and spend our summers on the beach.

If you don't live on the coast, how often do you go to the beach?

Not often enough. This summer twice so far to camp near a beach not far from Brighton. Beautiful sunny days and the sea was clear and turquoise. Bliss.

Maybe twice a year?

Summer holiday abroad we do a beach day to tick it off but spend the whole time counting the minutes when we can go back to the pool.

Perhaps a week away in Devon or something, a few walks on the wet sand. Kids go in in a wetsuit which takes twice as omg to get on as the time spent in the water.

We are not a beach family 😂 I like looking at the sea but quite happy to leave the beach for the dog owners & surfers.

I get an urge to see the sea every couple of months or so, something about the expanse of sky and sea is good for my mental health.
My favourite beach is about an hour away but there are nice enough ones closer.
I much prefer going on a cooler day though, I need shade when it's hot.

I was talking about this to a friend recently. I am very close to the beach where I live but growing up we used to go twice a year if we were lucky.

I understand the excitement (and lack of preparation) that I see from people when they visit our local beaches. It is exciting!

Never!
I was actually in Blackpool/Lytham for a week earlier this month too and didn't go on the beach at all.

This sounds exactly like me too OP. I'm about 2 hours from the coast. Growing up I lived about 14 miles from a coast so went very often. Now I go maybe 6 days/weekends and go on a beach holiday for 2 weeks most years. I only go for 6// days/weekends because my MiL lives in a coastal town and is 83 and DH and I go to visit her. DH goes a bit more often but I stay back to take DC to sporting commitments. I'd love to live by the coast. Maybe one day.

Never. Don’t like sand and smelly water

Never really and I only live 30/40mins away. I'm more of a forest person than a beach person. I grew up on a small island so literally surrounded by the coast and the sea, the shore was a minute from our front door and I spent my whole childhood on the shore or the beach. I'm just not a fan in adulthood.

I like going abroad but wouldn’t ever think to go to the beach in the UK. We go maybe once a year when we visit relatives that live on the outskirts of Brighton and they suggest it but even then it’s a more a walk down the promenade, not a sit on the beach.

I live close to the sea but rarely go as more of a woods and forest person.

First time this year since covid. Before that once a year for a week so went on beach most days whilst there, or sat on the prom with a beach and sea view. We live two and a half hours inland.

We do live by the sea and go most days in summer as the dog loves it (and smells permanently of the sea) but rarely in winter. Before we got the dog we’d go occasionally with DS but it doesn’t feel like a day out when you live there!

I love coasts rather than beaches, we go to a Suffolk shingle beach 1/2 times a year, north Devon once a year and a Scottish or Irish beach every other year. I like them bleak and windswept.

We're over 2 hours from the sea, we never go unless holidaying closer by. It's too far for an enjoyable day trip. Last year we went once to Tenby (on holiday at Bluestone) and then had a holiday to Ibiza. This year I went to Scarborough for the weekend so had a very windy walk on the beach, but we haven't planned any other trips.

I have a relative who taught at a school in Mouslecoomb, which is on the inland side of Brighton. The vast majority of the primary-age children there had never been to the seafront. She tried to organise a trip to the beach and had parents who just didn't understand the point or want their child to go.

We usually do a week over summer, and a couple of overnights for birthdays. No money this summer, so just did one birthday trip in January.

We’re between 45-90 minutes away from a beach, depending on whether we went pebble( bearer), Sandy, more remote, big/smaller town etc.

We try to go at least twice a month, for a walk along the coast.

Previously, lived two hours from coast, and then it was only a couple of times a year.

Theres alot better beaches than Brighton.

Whistable - picturesque , little town
Broadstairs /Joss bay / Botany Bay / Margate - Sandy beaches
Worthing - nicer than Brighton in my opinion,
Folkestone -
Deal - pebbly but nice little shops and nice to walk along
Bexhill - nice promenade to walk along, stony beach

A couple of years back, we tried to go to a new part of the Kent coast every weekend - real variety in what we found.

We live about the same distance from the sea as you and I'd say we go every school holiday from January to December. Different coastlines, our nearest is around 2-3 hours away and we have family on the coast around 5 hours away. I love the coast and really regret living inland. We go for a day trip as well as long weekends, and a week when we visit family, we visit the beach every day when we're there even just for a quick walk. Most of my relatives who live by the sea don't go at all. They are really scornful of the tourists who do, consider it to be dirty and won't even meet us at the beach when we visit for the kids to play together.

Two weeks a year plus several day or overnights. Love the sea too much to go long!

My DM has recently moved to the coast so visit the beach when there with DGS who is young enough to enjoy the sand and freezing water. Until she moved, never in the UK although I do love the sea - just not in this country.

I grew up very close to the coast but we almost never went to the beach (as in paddling, sunbathing, building sandcastles etc) but we would regularly walk along the promenade and I really miss that. There's something about the open view and the sea air.

As an adult, we live about 1hr 30mins from the coast and we never go. I love being by the sea, I love sailing on boats but sunbathing and sand doesn't appeal to me at all. We only go to the coast when we are on holiday or when we visit my parents (and always take DDs for a walk along the prom.)

Too many brown flag awards for uk beaches.

We used to go loads but u would t even paddle these days. Fucking private water companies dumping it into the sea raw.

We are in London, and it's about 1hr 45 min to the nearest beach from our front door. We go about once or twice a year to day trips to the beach, maybe 3-5 more times on holidays in UK/abroad, but it depends as we holiday in different places every year and sometimes it's not a beach destination. Last year we didn't do a beach day trip though as every weekend was a washout, or there were train issues, or we'd had something else prebooked.

I have a 6yo and 2yo so the journey is a bit long for the youngest. The stuff they like doing at the beach is digging in sand and splashing/paddling or funfair rides, which they can do at a big London playground or fountains and touring funfairs.

I used to live in Leicestershire and hated being so far from the coast. We moved away and lived for a few months somewhere very rural close to the coast, and I don't think a day passed that I didn't walk down the lane to the nearest beach. I now live in a city centre, but still get to the sea weekly, or more, I swim and am involved in coastal litterpicking, but actually I just like being by the sea. I will never live away from the coast again.

Almost never. In general, we don't really do beach holidays and we certainly don't do day trips as we live near Oxford/Reading, though I know a few families who do. Maybe once every year or two we have a short break that involves the sea. We're off for a few days in Dorset soon and that will hopefully involve a bit of beach, but other years our UK trips might all be inland.

Most of our holidays abroad don't particularly focus on the sea. It's not something I really hanker after! I probably prefer lakes, rivers, mountains. And city trips. Our last summer holiday was in Germany and involved some nice lake/river swimming and the occasional pool but no sea. I went swimming in the river here yesterday (walking distance)

I spent my teens living 5 mins walk from a dull pebbly beach. I don't miss it.