So if you were in Ambleside or Winderemere and wanted a day on the beach...

[QueenOfIndecision]

with your DC, where would you go? i'm thinking maybe near cockermouth but DH reckons grange over sands (isnt' that just an estuary?). Help please? Have a car so could drive a reasonable way to a decent beach.

Grange-over-Sands is quite nice, but not very beach-like. Lots of sand, but the sea is miles away.
St Bees?
Morecambe for a more "traditional" resort, albeit a bit down at heel.
Arnside.
Blackpool.
(Used to live in Ambleside years ago, but haven't been to most of these places for years. St Bees is the best, from what I remember.)
Also there are some decent beaches on Walney Island (near Barrow) although Walney itself is a bit bleak, IMO.

Hmm; St Bee's is a bit close to the Sellafield nuclear reactor for me, Lytham St Annes is okay.

Arnside used to be lovely and has a really good chippy on the waterfront, again havent been for a few years so it could have changed. There are small beaches all around but not the traditional big places. The beach on Walney is nice but as the previous poster said Walney and Barrow is not quite picture postcard places. The best fish and chips in the lakes is on Walney Island, its called Andy's and is worth a trip in itself. Ulverson os a pretty town on the way worth stopping at.

thanks everyone. i wondered if there were some of the coast north west of the lakes but it makes sense to go south. didn't realise morecambe was so near (rubbish at geography!)

think it's going to be morecambe or arnside. Thanks!