Where's like Whitstable but in the south west? Or West Wales?

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

DH and I have a weekend away sans kids. We loved Whitstable but it's too far.

What we liked: proper town. Plenty for tourists but also felt like a real place iyswim. Loved the Duke of Cumberland pub and would like to transport it to Cornwall I know it's fashionable to sneer at the "down from London" types but I'm after a grown up weekend and that's fine with me

Loved the beach and beach huts. Hoping for fresh salty walks and good restaurants.

Where should we go?

Tenby is nice? Ive never been to Whitstable.

How far do you want to travel? am a bit confused by your op. If you are traveling from London but Whitstable is too far then Wales and the south west are even further.

Sorry, not Tenby, we know it too well

It can get quite lairy at weekends, imho.

Tilder, sorry to be confusing. We're in the South West anyway, and Whitstable is 5+ hours according to Google. We've done lots of child friendly holidays but fancy something a bit more grown up.

Whitstable might be a red herring, sorry, I was just meaning somewhere with lovely restaurants and not necessarily things for children to do.

Yes if you are going from London then could take 4 hrs to Cornwall (although probably not much traffic this time of year)
We loved the Scarlett Hotel which is child free but expensive. You can walk along the coast to Jamie's fifteen restaurant, again it's pricey but excellent. Round the other side of the bay is stein town (Padstow)

If you aren't set on Cornwall, then Brixham in Devon, or the Jurassic coast in Dorset are both very nice. We stayed in Lyme Regis for a weekend last year, in a boutique hotel owned by Mark Hix. There are some great beach hut restaurants/cafes but doubt open in winter

Lyme Regis? Exmouth? Bournemouth, Poole?

Lyme Regis
Salcombe
Dartmouth

Dartmouth is a good bet, decent restaurants, pretty. The Dart Marina hotel is nice, as are the apartments (2 beds, 2 bathrooms but no views)

Poole isn't as far - it's a funny place though, Sandbanks beach is lovely but the rest of the town isn't that nice. I stayed in hotel du vin with dd recently, it was fine.

The Scarlet looks lush! But I've never stayed. Or the driftwood or Hotel tresanton (have stayed, it's wonderful) if you want to go as far as Cornwall. Fowey is pretty too.

St Ives is great, personally I think Padstow is overrated but I'd be happy to go there for a day. I live in Devon and had never been to Salcombe until recently and that's beautiful ditto Dartmouth.