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Is there anywhere in the UK, that has a lovely sandy beach and is also a buzzy city.?

204 replies

JennyTals · 29/11/2024 13:15

It has to be sandy beach only

OP posts:
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Zestyfrost · 29/11/2024 16:33

Chichester? With the Witterings.

SouthernComfortable · 29/11/2024 16:35

Whitley Bay? LOL.
See "Vera" They are always wearing winter clothes, even when the trees are in full leaf.

florasl · 29/11/2024 16:38

TiggyTomCat · 29/11/2024 15:23

West Wittering beach and Chichester?

This is my suggestion too, there aren’t many nicer (and cleaner) beaches than West Wittering!

DevilledEgg · 29/11/2024 16:39

Definitely look at the north east. We have amazing beaches 😍

AInightingale · 29/11/2024 16:39

I know you said UK...but if you are prepared to travel to Ireland, Cork and Galway would tick both boxes. Beaches are magnificent and they're both large cities. Terrible drive involved off the ferry though.

Papyrophile · 29/11/2024 16:41

Exmouth College is one of the largest comprehensives in the UK. It has over 3000 students across three campuses.

JennyTals · 29/11/2024 16:41

West witting, last time I went there it was full of flies,and it feels like a long drive from chichester and the parking is a pain

OP posts:
LaPalmaLlama · 29/11/2024 16:42

overmydeadbody · 29/11/2024 16:06

"Bournemouth" is massive. Going to the city centre on holiday doesn't give you the right perspective. There are lots of lovely and buzzy areas stretching along over seven miles of sandy beach. I love it.

Yeah, Bournemouth town centre is admittedly a Grade A shit hole now (although there are signs it's improving- got an Ivy now) but apart from the lack of good shops, the whole Christchurch-Bournemouth-Poole strip is a good place to live- great beaches, beautiful countryside, good pubs and restaurants, amazing sailing/ kite surfing/ SUP, loads of sports facilities and some of the best weather in the UK due to its microclimate. It's a Uni town which offsets the retirees a bit in terms of demographics. There is also a reasonable amount of higher paid jobs (JP Morgan, Sunseeker etc) so it doesn't have the underemployment problems that many seaside towns have and is also commutable to Southampton which also has quite a few big employers, and at a stretch, London (only really doable if you don't have to go in every day but I know a few people who do it 2/3 days a week. However.... you need a healthy budget if you actually want to live within a 30 min stroll to the sea. It;s not a cheap place to live.

TheThreeCheesesOfTheApocalypse44 · 29/11/2024 16:43

FKAT · 29/11/2024 13:45

No definitely not. There are some lovely towns next to beaches and there are some buzzy cities that might have the odd patch of grubby sand but no.

I mean, I've lived in Liverpool and have never once come across anything that can be described as a beach there.

You've lived in Liverpool and managed to avoid the miles of beaches on the wirral ?? How ??

We go there for the beaches and parks, West kirby for one is a fab little place with a 20 minute train ride direct to Liverpool.

Then there's Formby beach, Crosby with the Anthony Gormly statues, Meols etc etc. All within a few miles of Liverpool.

LetThereBeLove · 29/11/2024 16:47

boulevardofbrokendreamss · 29/11/2024 13:41

Depending on what you mean by city

Bournemouth
Newquay
Reigate

Reigate is nowhere near a sandy beach! DD lives there.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/11/2024 16:48

I was going to suggest Edinburgh, but actually my main tip is that before making a huge life change, not just for yourself but for your school-aged child, please please please do a lot of research and thinking, including spending time in the place you're thinking of moving to. Scotland is very different from England, as I know pretty well. I am Scottish but we moved to England when I was 10 and I've lived there ever since. I now go back regularly to see my very elderly Mum because my parents moved back to Scotland when they retired. It's not as drastic a change as moving overseas but it is a huge culture change to move from one part of the UK to another. Not something to be done lightly at all.

ChessorBuckaroo · 29/11/2024 16:49

trivialMorning · 29/11/2024 15:57

I mean, I've lived in Liverpool and have never once come across anything that can be described as a beach there.

Top 10 Beaches in Liverpool

Crosby about 20-30 minutes drive from city centre - so like you I've not seen it on trips to Liverpool but close enough to be consider near it.

Lots of Liverpool footballers live in that area. Gerrard has a house in Formby (used by Klopp when he was manager, and he would often go for walks on the beach). Lots of ex Liverpool footballers live there today (Southport for example, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen). Red Rum trained on the beach at Southport. They either choose there or the Wirral (former manager Rafa Benitez still lives in the latter), although a smaller number are in Cheshire.

That stuff in the summer with those EDL scumbags (many from Luton and elsewhere) who infiltrated Southport, it was dreadful to see such a beautiful area have these cretins come in. None of them were welcome.

verabarbleen · 29/11/2024 16:58

Bournemouth?
Or you could stay in Brighton and take a train to some close by sandy beaches . I think west wittering and climping are sandy and not far on the train or by car

GranPepper · 29/11/2024 17:01

As a matter of interest, where are you staying at the moment? What are the good and not so good things about it? Why is a beach important to you?

ChanelBoucle · 29/11/2024 17:03

We stayed with friends in Poole recently - it was lovely. Great beach, lovely walks, and a buzzy area with lots of quirky shops, cafes and restaurants. Down by the harbour we went to a lovely fish restaurant. I would say it’s got A LOT more going on than Exmouth and it’s more on a par with Exeter due to the fact it feels more like a town than a tourist trap, but with a beach (Exeter doesn’t actually have one).

How about Totnes? It’s small but quirky and pretty buzzy.

nameXname · 29/11/2024 17:05

Please forgive me if this repeats what has already been said. I've taken so long to think about this and type it, that I see that there are pages of fresh posts. But here goes, anyway:

Quite apart from schooling, taxation and the legal system, which others have mentioned, Scotland has a different culture from England or Wales. And different languages. And different traditions. Of course you can learn them - and be welcomed - but it might require a bit of adjustment to begin with. Plus it has very different politics....

Portobello beach is a good half-hour by bus from the city centre; longer from other city districts. There is some street parking but it gets busy. So does the beach. But many people like it: https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-scotland/lothian/portobello.htm
There are other beaches within about an hour or so drive away: https://www.kayak.co.uk/news/beaches-near-edinburgh/

Edinburgh is also:

  • one of the five most expensive places in Scotland to buy a house (the others are St Andrews, two outer suburbs of Glasgow - Beardsen and Newton Mearns - and Giffnock (further out, SW of Glasgow)
  • horribly over-full of tourists, especially in the festivals (plural) season. The Royal Mile is full of tacky shops selling tourist tat. And dirty and crowded.
  • cold in winter, cool for most of the rest of the year. (It's the same latitude approx as Moscow, though of course the climate is moderated by the sea.) According to the Met Office, the mean daily temperature in July/Aug is just over 19 C, and between 7 - 8 C from Dec to Feb. And it's very often windy.
  • not all beauty and glamour. There are some rough districts, and a big gap between rich and poor. There is serious poverty and disadvantage. Life expectancy in some districts is falling. https://www.edinburghhsc.scot/the-ijb/jsna/populationanddhealthinequalities/ There are drugs (over 100 drug-related deaths in the city in 2013).

Compared with Glasgow, I find it aloof, uptight and unfriendly. But I know Glasgow much better, so this might be unfair.

It's a fabulous place to visit, but I would not like to live there.

Edinburgh is also, of course, very very beautiful, with a great range of art and music - all kinds- and drama, and world class galleries and museums with activities for children, plus foodie stuff and lots of fancy shops and restaurants, and the summer festivals and a (very busy) Christmas market, and parks and historic buildings and universities with all kinds of opportunities, and a botanic garden and a zoo. So perhaps these may compensate for the above.

Portobello Beach - Lothian - UK Beach Guide

Portobello is a popular sandy beach in the Edinburgh suburb by the same name, slightly less than 2 miles east of the city centre, offering views across…

https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-scotland/lothian/portobello.htm

rockstep · 29/11/2024 17:08

Catabogus · 29/11/2024 15:43

Argh - Margate is horrible! Not buzzy, and not a city. Very run down and unpleasant. It doesn’t remotely fit OP’s criteria! (The beach is lovely though)

True, I live not far away. No one local uses the main sands in Summer, there are some nice beaches further up from there but only enough stuff to do for a weekend or week away IMO.

TheCrenchinglyMcQuaffenBrothers · 29/11/2024 17:12

LetThereBeLove · 29/11/2024 16:47

Reigate is nowhere near a sandy beach! DD lives there.

There's a 'Sandy Beach' on a lake there though, isn't there? Not the sea obvs.

twilightcafe · 29/11/2024 17:13

Maggispice · 29/11/2024 15:07

There's somewhere in Hillingdon with a man made sandy beach.

Ruislip Lido! 🤣

It's on the Tube line, so you can get your kicks in London

hopeishere · 29/11/2024 17:15

Belfast has some lovely beaches close by in Helen's Bay / Cultra.

AxolotlEars · 29/11/2024 17:16

Various beaches in West Wales

mydamnfootstuckinthedoor · 29/11/2024 17:18

Edinburgh. Nice beach at Portobello, and the city nearby.
Broughty Ferry (by Dundee) great beach and lively seaside town, short ride into Dundee.

ChessorBuckaroo · 29/11/2024 17:20

gingercat02 · 29/11/2024 16:09

That matters in Scotland and Northern Ireland (which has magnificent beaches but not so much buzzy cities apart from Belfast)
Kids don't do reception. P1-7 is different ages to England
www.scotland.org/live-in-scotland/schools-and-childcare

Beautiful beaches in the Portrush, Portstewart, Castlerock area. All right next to one another. Then the north Antrim coast to the east with Giants causeway, Ballycastle, and if you want to see the closest part between Ireland and Britain you go to Torr head where you get a great view of the mull of kintyre in Scotland 12 miles away. That whole coast is stunning, no really buzzy cities though. Just very tranquil.

Movinghouseatlast · 29/11/2024 17:28

Edinburgh. Fab city and the beach is fantastic.

St Ives is buzzy in the summer. Obviously not a city or a town, but if you're arty there's a lot there.

SereneCapybara · 29/11/2024 17:29

Mochudubh · 29/11/2024 13:50

Aberdeen has miles of sandy beaches but it's f'n freezing unless it's summer, which to be fair can be anytime between April and October, you just don't know what day it'll be.

Tynemouth is lovely and you can get the Metro to Newcastle city centre, we've stayed at the Royal Quays a couple of times which is handy for the outlet village and a short walk to the Metro.

LOL. My DSis lives in Scotland and says the same thing about the day that is summer. :)

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