More upmarket English/Welsh seaside resorts?

[nappyaddict]

Me and DP want a weekend away at the seaside. I like Southport, Brighton and Bournemouth and would like ideas for places with a similar feel.

Stripey Knickers

Croyde - pretty, quaint, nice beach, great walk on Baggy point also overrun by families and 'surfers' from London, particularly campsites and pubs. Much nicer out of the main season.Try the Rock pub in georgeham for a roast...

Woolacombe - similar but bigger, gorgeous beach. very expensive parking! Nice mini golf and Barricane Beach awesome for Sri lankan Curry on the beach in the evening

Ilfracombe (biased cos I live there) - pretty harbour, very 'real' high street (ie lots of fairly shabby independent shops) and some fantastic restaurants. Tunnels beach awesome on wet and dry days (indoor play as well as very child friendly beach.

Croyde and Woolacombe are all about the beach, there is much more to do in Ilfracombe...

Enjoy!

Thanks guys.

I had one of the best holidays I have ever had in a beachside cottage in Croyde

mind you, we had a heatwave for the entire 2 weeks

think "bikini and bodyboard, walking to the beach at 8am" and you get the picture

bbq's and summer evenings

sandy, beachy cottage 2 mins walk from the sands that allows dogs after 6pm

utter bliss

Watergate Bay, Cornwall.

Scarborough, you can get there on that ridiculous Penzance to Aberdeen train (cross country trains), change at York.

Personally I just get a bit fed up of Croyde in summer, that's all, it's not really big enough for the numbers that turn up there, the surf can get really crowded...Glad you had a great time there AF, it is a very beautiful place.

SKSS-Have an awesome time - I'm sure you'll be a North Devon convert by the time you leave, there are very few that aren't...

it was a moment in time, swans

the heatwave helped, of course

as we packed up the car to come on day 14, it started raining, after a fortnight of 28degC

That was probably as I returned home from 14 days in Spain...

Bet it was May 2009...

no swans, it was July 2006

If you want close & posh & you're south east you really should go to Suffolk - Southwold is lovely, in fact all along that coast is beautiful (though you might want to avoid Sizewell B in your tour )

However, if you want posh in Wales, we are much posher than Tenby up in north Pembrokeshire.

I used to live in Ilf and I concur with eating swans - it is a ropey ol' place really, but seriously some og the best restaurants in the area. The Quay on the harbour (owned by Damian Hurst, has all his artwork on the wall) is excellent, as is the Gendarmerie on Fore Street.

Croyde is a great place, but gets absolutely mobbed in high season. Has nice pubs (agree the Rock in Georgeham, just up the road from Croyde, is great).

Woolacombe I am not that keen on (actually this is biased as when I was at school in Ilfracombe as a teen we used to scrap with the Woolacombe surfers, still think they stink of piss to this day) but the beach is lovely, and is full of surf shops if you like that sort of think . The beach gets mad busy - if you like a bit of peace, you can trudge to the middle (about a mile), or you can go to the other end of the beach called Putsborough, which is far nicer, you get to there on country tracks via Croyde (is signposted). Putsborough is lovely, has a cafe and everything, but doesn't get half as busy as the Woolacombe end of the beach. Watch the sea because there is a viscious undertow which can pull you out.

Best beach bar none is Saunton (between Woolacombe and Croyde) - a lovely long beach with dunes behind.

Also try teh Tunnels beach in Ilfracomebe - it is a private beach, and you access the pebbly beach via tunnels dug by welsh navvies in teh Victorian days. It has a sea pool there as well which kids love - really safe and sheltered. It also has a BAR - I used to go there after work when I lived there, grab a glass of wine and sit there with my feet in a rock pool.

Hope you have a lovely hol stripey.

Agree about Putsborough getorf. Best beach of the lot IMO. I love Saunton but it doesn't really have rock pools which are an essential!

Putsborough it a pita to get to though in the summer and the parking gets rammed.

Yes, it can take over an hour to get from Puts car park to Croyde (only about 2 miles away or so) at leaving time.

Worth it though.

Yes Orm you are right about Rock Pools at Puts - but the best place for rock pools is Rockham Bay - it is really off the beaten track (about a 2 mile walk along a coast path and down a load of steep steps) but it is so beautiful and secluded.

Oh I miss beaches

I can often be found at The Tunnels in Ilfracombe of an afternoon

Putsborough is lovely - and I like Wooly too Some lovely holiday cottages in Georgeham and Mortehoe rather than staying in Wolly itself.

Salcombe?
North Norfolk - Brancaster, Burnham Market?
Lymington?
Southwold?
Aldeburgh?
etc
etc
etc....

I used to have a season ticket for tunnels - i practically lived there.

The nearest beach to me now is Weston Super Mare. Or Barry Island.

When I first moved here, I was homesick and missed the sea.

DP tried to cheer me up and took me to Weston for the day.

I took one look and snarled 'that is NOT a beach'

Oooh Lymington may be a possibility. Only 3.75 hours away or Scarborough at 4.25 hours.

Where do you live NA? I didn't think it was possible to live 3 or 4 hours plus from the seaside ANYWHERE in Britain???!!!! Sorry, that isn't meant to sound funny, but genuinely interested.
The central point of the UK is only just over a hundred miles from the sea, isn't it? I live pretty central and I can be on South or East Coast in 2.5 and 2 hours respectively.......!!??!? Bit don't you have coast closer to you than that?

I live in the West Midlands, where do you live?

I love Salcombe, Dartmouth, Lyme Regis, Sidmouth, Beer, St David's (Pembrokeshire), Broadstairs... and Tenby is ok too - beaches are beautiful there

Probably the poshest and most ironic pier in the UK.

elle macpherson apparently holidays at Sandsend just up the beach from Whitby so that should surely qualify as upmarket Havent seen her myself but its a lovely little village with posh tea shops, a couple of good restaurants, small hotels and a pub. Nice safe beach and river for little ones. But the sea's cold up there!

No-one has mentioned Southport yet so here is my two pennorth...

I lived near there for 10 years.

DO NOT go there if beach life is important to you. Southport is at the mouth of an estuary which is silting up and as a consequence the beach is very long and turns to gelatinous black mud long before you reach the sea. The sea very rarely comes up anywhere near the sandy part of the beach. As a kid we had hours of fun watching holiday makers try to walk down the beach to the sea and come back covered in mud.

Having said that, there are some lovely shops and a new multiplex cinema. The highlights for me as a child were the Pleasureland fairground (a real old-fashioned fixed fairground with some realy good rides, put Legoland and the like in its place and much less crowded!) and the mini railway. Pleasureland was closed down, though i have heard rumours of it opening up again. Not sure about the mini railway.

It does have a feel of an old-fashioned seaside resort, and does have quite a contingent of retirees and old peoples homes. However, I think there is snough to keep small kids amused, just a big shame about the beach.

However, a little way up the coast (just a few minutes drive from the centre of Southport) are lovely sandy beaches at Formby (also has a red squirrel reserve) which are definitely worth a visit. The sea comes right up to the beach here as it is outside the estuary mouth.

Yes, on balance I would say it qualifies as shabby genteel!