To ask what life is like at the coast?

[Peasbewithyou]

Posting in AIBU for traffic.

If you live by the sea, do you like it and what job do you do? (And do you like that?). If you can tell me where (ish) you are that would be helpful too!

We currently live in a pretty landlocked part of the British Isles but I have always wanted to live by the sea. Lockdown has made me really think about priorities and our lives and I am now considering making some big changes. Why the hell have I never lived by the sea if it’s something I have always wanted to do!? It’s not like we don’t have much coastline in this country! DH is in an industry where he can probably work remotely but is looking for a new job anyway. I feel like I need a new career after being a SAHM for a couple of years and not really being sure I want to go back to my old industry. So just trying to figure out what it’s like away from the London / South East bubble, by the coast!

Grew up by the coast, and my parents and family still live there.
Jobs they had/ have:
teacher, school canteen
local shops
farming and related work
police
ice cream factory!
police
sales rep
civil service
self employed musician
bar/restaurant staff

Cons: if it's a touristy area, house prices are high, big difference in busy-ness in and out of season. Weather can be very cold and windy in winter. Depends on proximity to nearest town, can feel very remote. What are transport links like? Nearest cinema? swimming pool? theatre? Delivery costs of takeaway? What are your other interests - is there a nearby club? Gym?

I love living by the sea but it has no advantages for my dc. They are not outdoorsy at all and avoid going to the beach at all now they are teenagers.

Fortunately We are close to a town and big city so ideal for shops, leisure facilities, nightlife and culture too.

Cumbrian coast here. I'm in a fairly rural, small town. Population of around 7k.

Pros - gorgeous scenery, mostly very quiet beaches, extremely dog friendly, several different beaches to choose from, very low house prices.

Cons - can be isolated, especially in winter. You do have to travel a fair way to get to places like the cinema, large shops etc (40 minutes each way), very few jobs unless you're willing to travel each day, very little public funding spent here. Poor roads. No takeaway/Uber/taxis.

In terms of jobs - I'm a dog walker and DH works as a plasterer, but travels 40 minutes each way to work. There are lots of people in the building trade here, but otherwise it's retail and hospitality mostly. A few people travel to work at BAE or Sellafield but you're looking at long days and a long commute if you do that.

I absolutely love it here, but it's not for everyone.

There are potentially other areas of the Talk board you haven't factored/considered as well

Why the fuck did you have to say that? Lots of posters are happy to give the OP their thoughts so why he a twat?

It really will depend on the area. I grew up by the coast, in some way it was idyllic, in other ways far from it.

Cons were:
Cliquey locals who didn't like incomers.
Schools not great.
Lack of facilities such as hospitals, bigger shops, colleges and universities (big consideration if you have children.)
Limited career opportunities.
Everything closing down in winter.
Very busy with tourists in summer.

Pros:
Scenic and lovely to have the beach on the doorstep.
Fresh air and more freedom.
Relatively safe and low crime rate (where I lived)

South coast in hampshire

Close to a town and two cities (though traffic can be a pain) so plenty of jobs

Its not very touristy where i live but its slightly more touristy a mile up the coast

I'm 7 miles from the Sussex coast but can see the sea if I walk through field behind our house. I'm a benefits adviser.

The downsides are that the weather tends to be a bit less predictable and it can change really quickly and that we get a lot of tourists/traffic in the summer. I don't think I'd like to live in one of the big resort towns and wouldn't live in Brighton if you paid me!

We'd like to move away from the SE when I retire next year, and I don't think I'd be happy in a landlocked county. It's great to be able to pop to a beach whenever you feel like it. We love Herefordshire and Shropshire, but they don't have sea ...

My parents live by the coast. A 5 minute walk away from the beach. They love it there. My dad commutes to London and my mum is a carer for my brother. They regularly walk to the less touristy part and take a bottle of wine, a blanket and a radio. My kids love visiting as they like the pier with the rides, crabbing and splashing in the sea. One of my biggest regrets is not moving to the coast myself, but I don't want to move my boys schools again.

I live in a seaside town in the North East. Love it! I have worked from home for many years. The area doesn't get massively busy but when it does, we tend to avoid the crowds. It's lovely to be able to walk to to beach anytime. It's free guaranteed entertainment for the kids. I was brought up in the Midlands and loved seaside holidays when I was a child. Love the fresh sea breezes and seaside smells!

I lived in a coastal town prior to having DCs (Deal in Kent).

I hardly ever went to the beach though and didn't appreciate it at all.

Now I think: what a waste.

Live in Cornwall. Not right by the sea but have both coasts within a 20 min drive. I’m a teacher, DH is a vet, we both grew up here and came back in our early 30s to have our family. Really love it.

Lots of my friends and colleagues live in Falmouth, which is very buzzy and right by the sea.

Small coastal town in Scotland, 30 minutes bus / 15 minutes train journey to nearest City (with museums, restaurants etc). Good local supermarkets within walking distance, several others plus cinema complex within 10 minutes drive. There are small interesting local events - festivals, small museums, visitor attractions - but it's not really a touristy area.

Weather is definitely colder and windier than further inland. Windows need cleaned more often than anywhere else I live (sea salt in the air plus seagull shit). We had a big problem a few years ago with camper vans and mobile homes. The carpark at our local harbour became popular on 'free camping' websites and was over-run with sometimes 20 or 30 vans, leaving no parking for locals who came to walk their dogs. It was deemed the best spot for tourists to stay for a week while they got the bus into the nearest city. Some of the campers behaved badly - noisy, emptied cassette toilets in the public loos, emptied grey-water down the street drains. The council had to put in barriers and enforcements.

There is lots of outside space (and big skies) which felt great during lockdown, always somewhere to go. Although every sunny day the beaches were overrun with people having picnics and barbeques.

It can be squally, windy, grey, cold. But one evening like this makes up for it all... (that was Friday night).

And when my dgc come to visit they just run and run, or spend hours collecting shells on the beach.

Would help if I added a photo...

Live on the south coast in a city, best of both worlds. I love it. Swim in the sea most days.
I grew up in a smaller seaside town though and hated it - busy during tourist months, dead with no work opportunity in the winter. Very high levels of deprivation/teenage pregnancy/unemployment

I grew up in Whitstable in Kent. When it was run down / scruffy.
It was insular, poor schools / hospitals, choice of shops.
Property expensive for locals due to 2nd homes / poor employment.
25 years later it is much more 'hip' but noisy / dirty / expensive.
Drowning in tourists at weekends / summer.
Very pretty / quaint. Restaurants much improved. Cracking sunsets.
Still insular though!

I now live in North Northumberland.
Empty, clean, stunningly beautiful.
Poor choice of schools / hospitals / shops.
Property is expensive for locals due to poor / low paid jobs and 2nd homes and holiday cottages.
Less insular.
MUCH colder.
But empty, clean and beautiful.
Cold!

I would choose a regular town that happens to be by the coast over a tourist town. Like a previous poster, I’m from formby and Crosby beach is lovely too. Both are good towns to commute to Liverpool for work, for example. Then there’s Southport - was a tourist town once but now a little rundown in places and the sea is never in! Whereas live in crosby or formby and you can get a lot closer!

It's wet, and soon to get wetter. Many coastal areas (and some others) will be under water by the end of the century, and even if they aren't under water themselves, some of the infrastructure they need to function will be, so will still be uninhabitable (and covered in water not long after too).

flood.firetree.net/

I live by the sea - well estuary, but we have a beach and harbour within minutes. It's also the capital city of Scotland so job opportunities pretty unlimited both from here and the true seaside commuter towns. Personally I am a pupil support assistant (TA). I find just being able to see the sea each day good for my mental health and prefer it massively to when I haven't been close.

I’m on South Coast in Dorset work in DP business (not touristy) we are not far from Bournemouth. I wouldn’t recommend it as traffic is horrendous in summer and just popping to the supermarket can be a nightmare if you go at the wrong time. Nearby beaches get packed so we stay away or go to less well known ones. Although it’s a lovely area and we love our home once DP retires we will move back to my home county as it’s just not all it’s cracked up to be

Some of the campers behaved badly - noisy, emptied cassette toilets in the public loos, emptied grey-water down the street drains
where else should they empty the cassettes?

@Thingsthatgo - 'For me, the most important thing about it is that it gives me the sense of being near the edge of the land, rather than in the middle (I used to live in the middle, and I felt strangely claustrophobic). Maybe it’s a sense of freedom.'

That's interesting. I always feel trapped when I'm by the coast. You can't go any way you like. I live in the middle of the country.

South East Coast, love it. Loads for young children to do. If you go to the beach and it starts raining its so easy to go home for half an hour until it stops
The weather is always better than they predict because we are in a bay
Parking is expensive along the seafront. My only advise to moving by the sea is to buy a house with a driveway
Where do you favour OP?

I’m another one on the South Coast, live to the west of Southampton on the outskirts of the New Forest about 5 minutes drives from an estuary and about 15/20 minutes drive from the nearest beach, I avoid the main roads to Bournemouth at weekends and holidays and even though the nearest beach is pebbly it’s lovely to visit as it’s not so crowded and, as other have said, there are some great cafes and restaurants overlooking the water and over to the Isle of Wight.

I work at the cruise terminal (well, when the cruise industry starts up again!) and love it down here, wouldn’t move back to London where I’m originally from.

I answered the other one but will answer this one too - South Wales here, moved a couple of years ago from the outskirts of London and love it. DH is in IT and I’m self-employed. We live in a tiny village but only 5 miles to the local town for bigger supermarkets, restaurants, cinema... and not too far from Cardiff for work or cultural stuff.

The plus sides for us are:

• DH’s commute (10 minutes up the roads rather than 60-90 minutes on the M4) - though he has been working from home since mid March
• community spirit
• the catchment primary and secondary are excellent
• we’re closer to family now, we used to see them once or twice a year when we lived in the SE, we now see a lot more of each other and it’s great
• we can get a doctor appointment for this week rather than next month like in our old surgery

The down sides:

• we can get stuck when it snows (which is not often enough to justify forking out for a 4x4), so I’m now sort of a prepper
• the schools are not in the village so can’t walk there, but the transport provided by the council is decent (pre corona times, we’re having to drive at the moment, which I hate)
• the wind

And I just found out that when the sea level rises by 60m we will become an island...

We live in Brighton
DH works for tfl and commutes (wfh now).
I'm a student and work p/t in an office/call centre.

We've been really greatful for the beach in lockdown, our favourite family activity atm is to drive to Shoreham for dinner (take away fish and chips or McDonalds) and then walk along the beach/throw rocks in the sea until it gets dark.