Where to stay for Northumberland holiday

[Sarahm8]

We are planning a holiday in Northumberland next easter, but I'm not sure where would be best to stay. We'd like somewhere with a nice beach. Is Spittal nice? Or embleton? Seahouses? Thanks!

Another vote for Alnwick as a base. As people have said it’s ideally based for visiting all along the coast, and in-land. Have a great time! I absolutely love Northumberland!

Druridge bay looks nice, are the beaches there easy to get to from warkworth?

They're all lovely.
I would say Seahouses is a good base for a family holiday. Great beach and very close to Bamburgh and Holy Island. If the boat trips to the Farne islands are running you can see puffins.

Ooh that sounds brilliant 🙂

Druridge bay is a bit further from the main places most people want to visit.

We have been going up to Northumberland regularly for the last 20 years or so.
We stayed near Druridge bay in September. amazing beach about 7 miles long and not at all busy.
In the past we have stared in Almouth, but this year we found that area to be extremely bust and we spent almost no time there at all.
We liked Druridge bay so much that we have booked to go back in May. It’s still and easy drive if you want to go to Amble, Almouth etc to do the touristy bits.

Thanks! Is druridge bay the same as low hauxley beach? I couldn't quite work it out on google maps. If so it looks like we could stay in amble and get there very quickly as well as to warkworth beach?

Definitely go to Barter Books as the previous poster suggests.
If you love bookshops you will be in heaven there.
I've moved abroad and I really really miss Barter Books. We used to drive up there for a day out from Newcastle just to go to that shop!

Thanks that sounds perfect! I'll definitely visit there wherever we stay! 💜

Rothbury, lots of Air B&B in s choice of price ranges, It's on the edge of the National Park by the river.

I think Low Hauxley is the southern end of Druridge Bay. There is a circular walk that you can do between the two which is around 10 miles.
There is a good visitor centre at Druridge Bay with a cafe ( not been in it) and parking is free for the first hour there….you still have to get a ticket though. An hour was long enough for us to tire the dogs out on the beach with a ball!
Plenty of parking on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon too. Probably much busier in peak Summer holidays.

Sorry, forgot to say Amble to Druridge is easily done by car…we walked the beach in the morning then went for fish and chips on Amble!

Can I just ask was that a 'summer ' bus or does it run all year round? Thanks

@Verywindyday Thats great thanks!

Bamburgh all the way. First went as a child nearly 20 years ago and it holds a special place in my heart! Seahouses is more 'seasidey' if that makes sense

@wavingfuriously we were there in February so it must be an all year round bus.

We usually get a cottage in between Bamburgh and Seahouses. Love it up there.

Whereever you stay you'll need a car unless you have very small kids who will be happy pootling to the same couple of things every day for the whole holiday (and that's fine, once upon a time I was one of those kids, happy to spend a week on the beach building sandcastles and poking in rockpools!).

So really, where you actually stay just boils down to whether you want to be able to eat out, have a drink and walk back.

We went in May half term this year & stayed in Bamburgh just behind the sand dunes. The beach & castle were stunning! We loved Alnwick for the Gardens & Lillidori & Barter Books; Cragside was also really nice. Holy Island was ok - but wet that day & didn’t realise the NT castle closed early or that the Abbey ruin was so expensive! Very windy that day but had a nice meal in one of the pubs & ice cream & driving over the causeway was an experience.

@APurpleSquirrel Beautiful! 🙂

Coastal - Alnmouth, Embleton, Low Newton, Beadnell, Warkworth get my votes.

Amble and Seahouses for a trip

Inland - Rothbury, Hexham, Morpeth

We stayed in Seahouses town a few years ago and it was fab. Handy for the farne island boat trips and Bamburgh. Also has a decent supermarket, chippy, bakers and a few restaurants IIRC (it was a few years ago). I would say that if you stay in one of the character cottages in the town, then parking might be a bit tricky ie narrow roads etc.

Can I put a vote for Ford and Etal estates in? Lovely countryside and close to the Cheviots and not that far from Berwick.

Will you have any DC with you? There’s a small sandy beach and shallow bay next to the pier in Amble which is great for kids paddling. There are plenty of holiday lets in the area, restaurants etc, then it’s a short drive to bigger beaches at hauxley and Druridge Bay or Warkworth. Our DC preferred the smaller beach at Amble and it felt safer to me. There’s also a beach within walking distance which is good for rockpooling.

I recommend visits to Warkworth castle, Bamburgh and Cragside. Northumberland is great, you’ll enjoy it wherever you stay.

Can you split the stay between Northumberland coast and Lindisfarne? We stayed 3 nights in Northumberland and really loved Alnwick, interesting old town with impressive castle, lots of shops.
Craster, old fishing harbour, is worth a visit with a cliff top walk to Dunstanburgh Castle perched on the hill. Fab pub in Craster - Jolly Fishermen’s - especially if you like seafood. You need to book we ate in the conservatory part overlooking the sea.
We managed to see a lot during those three days as it’s all pretty close and then spent four nights on Lindisfarne in the pub. Amazing island, plenty to see and do, we saw seals and interesting contrast between causeway open (tourists everywhere) and closed (very quiet)! Be warned that everything (except pubs) close when the causeway closes because most workers live on the mainland.
It was the best part of our Northern tour!