No quiet holiday locations anymore

[hiddensuffering]

3 year old is likely Autistic/ADHD and I’m diagnosed. Where are really quiet holiday locations in the South West? Ideally near a beach. Child can’t cope with busy and loud places and loves being around nature. Somewhere for us to recharge.

It’s so hard to find a quiet seaside town and I crave somewhere peaceful without too much going on and lots of people about. Does a place like this exist??! AIBU to think it doesn’t 😬

I always feel overwhelmed by the south and how many people there are when we visit. Feels too much.

I prefer Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, the Lakes. All much more peaceful and unspoilt.

Another vote for Northumberland, or North Wales where Black Rock Sands at Porthmadog is huge and fabulous. Also some of our beaches here in North Yorkshire, Filey is lovely.

Pembrokeshire
Aberfforest
Lower fishguard
Newport
Etc

https://tuckenhaymill.co.uk/about

we went here, it was lovely. Pool, outdoor and in, games room, outdoor ping pong etc. quiet walks around. Walk down lanes to nice pub restaurant. Very quiet but enough to do
one of our nicest holidays
.

Just look for a small village on the coast surely? Perranuthnoe or Gorran Haven off the top of my head but there must be dozens more. Often the beaches are tidal so you either need to pick a week when the tides are in your favour, or be quite flexible with which hours you spend on the beach.

This is assuming you are happy with a beach, maybe a pub and a beach cafe or two and don't want a load of other activities nearby.

Have a look on self catering cottage sites, look on map view and go for the smaller places.

Different vibe but Guernsey's also hard to beat for huge, empty beaches. The sea's not the warmest early in the season.

OK not the SW but Tywyn in Gwynedd Wales is a very quiet seaside town with a nice beach and long promenade. No hotels but lots of self catering accommodation. Even bank Holidays are bearable!

Approximately where do you live and are you constrained by school holidays?

What sort of budget?

I’ve always found Studland Bay or Camford Cliffs have quiet bits of beach outside school holidays. The beaches are gently sloping and sandy (is sand okay, or would you prefer pebbles?).
(Dorset)

If you wanted isolated, look at Lundy Island (not much of a beach and has cliffs). Landmark Trust rents out a few properties on the island.

I would look at the south coast of Cornwall, from Kingsand/Cawsand, there are beaches like Portwrinkle, then towards Looe there’s Seaton, Polruan, Fowey, Carlton Bay near St Austell.

As PPs say, come in term time.

Parts of the Gower peninsula would fit these criteria. Rhossilli beach is so enormous you would have no difficulty avoiding crowds, and there are no entertainments, just beach and sea. You do need a reasonable level of fitness to get down to the beach via steps.

South Wales on the Gower would suit

Awesome quiet beaches in Northumberland

Northern Scotland is superb for a quieter holiday. I would recommend Aviemore, beautiful, so much to do, plus the kids go back earlier there. Xx

NW highlands:
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/our-pick-scotlands-west-highland-beaches/

Moray:
https://www.livebreathescotland.com/beaches-in-moray/

The north Devon coast is quieter than Cornwall. Woolacombe is miles long and as long as you move away from the main path you will be able to find a quiet space. Saunton and Croyde or also ok.
Minehead has a butlins but a lot of visitors stay in the complex and it isn't really busy except in school summer holidays.

There are plenty of quiet places in the south west, whereabouts in the SW are you wanting to travel to?
Lynmouth in North Devon is beautiful. Watermouth Bay, Combe Martin or Westward Ho! also in North Devon. Budleigh Salterton, Teignmouth, Seaton, Beer, on the south Devon coast or Lyme Regis or Swanage in Dorset. In Cornwall Porth Leven, the Lizard, St Agnes St Just, Polperro, Looe.

Find a river instead. I live on Dartmoor and while some of our more popular spots (the ones with visitor centres and toilets and ice cream get busy holidays and weekends), honestly the average person doesn’t venture much beyond the car park. 😂

In the summer, I can go out for the entire day and hardly see a soul. People truly venture like 200m from their car, picnic, then go home. There are also loads of small beaches and coves, especially in North Cornwall which can be quite quiet. Maybe not in school holidays, but we often go and are nearly the only ones there. I was at Crackington Haven 2 weekends ago and there were like 10 people on the beach and no screaming. I think mine were the only children. Will it be like that the first weekend of August? No, but I’d say it is for the bulk of the year.

If you’re closer to Dorset, Ringstead Bay beach. The bit right by the cafe gets busy in summer, but if you walk down the coast path going in the Weymouth direction for 5 minutes to the wood and head onto the beach there, it’s very quiet.

Lots of Scotland has quiet beaches. Some of the islands off the west coast are easily accessible from the mainland

We love Trevornick Homidays Park near Newquay. They have ready tents, caravans and cottages and it’s utterly peaceful.

I was going to suggest this too! It’s a popular beach in summer months but it is enormous so you can walk away from the crowds easily. Especially if you’re going in term time it should be relatively quiet. I’d recommend maybe staying more inland. Nearer Exmoor is super quiet, stunning countryside and some lovely small rental cottages with hot tubs etc where you won’t hear a thing. You’d then be looking at about a 45 min drive into Woolacombe though.

Agree. Anywhere more than a mile from a car park is pretty much deserted (big Dartmoor and SWCP fan).

However, isn't the DC in question 3? Makes it harder to hike off into the blue yonder.

Villages in my neck of the woods that could suit (small and not an overcrowded honeypot, yet still within reach of a decent beach): Coverack, Mullion, St Keverne, Lamorna, St Just, Prussia Cove.

I think it's because there are no sizeable towns or even large villages for miles- it's a funny corner of Cornwall. I bet Caerhays Castle has holiday lets, big estates usually tend to be good at cashing in on tourists.

(Isn't it called Porth Luney, officially?)

If you want somewhere quiet and rural, you surely don’t want a ‘seaside town’? There are loads of airbnbs in the countryside where I live (rural west Cornwall) - we have one two, and are on a farm 10 minutes from the coasts but down quiet country tracks. Your other option if you are set on being right next to a beach is to either go very out of season (i.e November or January) to a holiday caravan park sort of place, or pay a vast amount of money to rent a holiday home on the coast path somewhere.

Nowhere nice is going to be quiet in school summer holidays. Go term time in June or September while your DD is 3. We stayed in a lovely caravan park near lizard point that was nice and quiet great sea views and walking distance to a beach. It was dirt cheap in the first week of July, think about £100 for a week.

I know it’s the wrong area but if quiet beaches are what you’re after then I can thoroughly recommend Cumbria or Northumberland. Beautiful beaches and even on the hottest days there’s barely a soul there. We stay at (not sure if should post this - please delete if not allowed) https://www.airbnb.com/h/astercottage with our children aged 11 and 13 and it’s just a short drive to a number of stunning beaches.

I'd echo West Wales. Lots of little quiet beaches like Cei Bach or Mwnt.