If you fancy a day at the beach while staying at Somerset Holiday Cottages, there is plenty of choice. You can drive northwards to the Somerset coastline or south to Dorset, where you can quite literally walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs and explore the Jurassic coast.
Here is some information to help you choose the best beach for you.
Somerset coast
Weston-Super-Mare – 50 minutes
Weston offers a quintessential British beach resort experience, with its donkey rides and Grand Pier chock full of fairground attractions. The sandy beach is perfect for children wanting to play with buckets and spades, while the pier also has a soft play and 300m long indoor Go-Kart track if you need some rain cover. There is plenty of wheelchair and buggy access to the beach thanks to numerous ramps, along with various car parks.
Weston boasts one of the largest natural beaches in the UK – as well as being two miles long it is very wide when the tide is out due to it having the second highest tidal range in the world. For a quieter experience, the Uphill Sands (south) end of the beach is far more unspoilt, although it can be busy with kite surfers and other wind-sports enthusiasts.
Brean – 50 minutes
Just a couple of miles down the coast from Weston is Brean. Its seven miles of sand and dunes make this a great beach to visit on a summer’s day as there is always plenty of space. The eastern end of the beach is dominated by the 320ft high Brean Down. Climb up to the top where you can take in the views of the Bristol Channel and Somerset Levels.
Kilve – 1 hour
The village of Kilve lies at the northern end of the Quantock Hills, and is slightly inland with a track leading down to the sea from a pay and display car park. This is not so much of a beach for lounging or swimming, but is the perfect place for rock paddling and fossiling. When the tide goes out it reveals spectacular rock formations, which are full of ammonites and even the bones of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Enjoy a cream tea at the pretty Chantry Tea Gardens in the remains of a 14th century chapel, once used for storing barrels of smuggled spirits.
Dorset coast
Lyme Regis – 1 hour
Lyme Regis is a charming seaside town, with an assortment of independent shops, cafes and art galleries. You can take a stroll around the harbour wall, known as the Cobb, and watch fishing boats bring in their hauls. The main beach is part pebble, part sand, and is very family friendly, with shallow water sheltered by the Cobb. Behind the beach is a wheelchair and pram friendly promenade, bordered by colourful beach huts which are available for hire by the day or week. Of course, fossiling is what Lyme Regis is really well known for, and the best place to do this is on the farther side of the Cobb, on Monmouth Beach. Fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods have been found in abundance here – and there are still more to be discovered! You can find out more at Lyme Regis Museum, which is built on the site of the seafront home of Mary Anning. Anning, who began fossiling as a child in the early 1800s, went on to make some of the most significant geological discoveries of the time, with her discoveries including the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was just 12 years old.
Charmouth – 1 hour
Just a couple of miles along the coast from Lyme Regis, the smaller and quieter Charmouth is also famed for its fossiling opportunities. The village has a couple of pubs and cafes, and the free Charmouth Heritage Centre offers guided fossil hunting walks. The beach itself is undeveloped and bordered by cliffs. The beach is divided in two by the mouth of the River Char, which lends itself well to paddling in. A mix of sand and pebbles, it is very family-friendly with shallow water and safe swimming.
Burton Bradstock – 1 hour
The pretty village of Burton Bradstock with its thatched cottages and cosy pubs, is slightly inland from the beach, which is served by a National Trust car park. Hive Beach is made up of shingle with a much steeper shelf underwater and strong currents at times – so care needs to be taken when swimming. Very dog friendly, the beach itself is served by just one establishment – the smart Hive Beach Cafe – where you can enjoy locally sourced food, including fresh fish and seafood.
Weymouth – 1 hour, 5 minutes
Dorset’s version of Weston-Super-Mare, with arcades, donkey rides and Punch and Judy. Don’t tell Weston, but we think Weymouth has the better beach – it’s miles long and sandy, with calm and shallow water making it perfect for families. Just a short stroll away is the busy working harbour, with fishing trawlers moored alongside pleasure boats, sea rowing gigs and even the odd superyacht. Overlooked by rows of colourful Georgian townhouses, it still retains an old-worlde charm, despite the many modern bars, restaurants and fish and chip shops which also overlook the waterfront.
