My favourite sea side spots
If you love the sea, you’ll really, really love these 8 special sea side spots
Do you have a happy place? Somewhere where you can feel the stress seeping out of your pores. Where your shoulders gently ease themselves away from your ears and where you the whirring of your brain slows to a quiet hum. For some people that sense of peace and calm comes with being surrounded by nature and the countryside. For others it’s the barren beauty of deserts or the majesty of mountains that soothes their soul. For me it’s always been the sea.
I grew up spending all my summers by the seaside with my siblings, in my grandparents bungalow overlooking the Channel on the Kent coast. I still can’t hear the sound of a seagull without being transported back to those days spent on the various, almost always windswept, sandy beaches, running in and out of the freezing sea, building sandcastles and eating ice cream. When my girls were growing up, by which time my parents had a holiday flat with panoramic sea views on the south coast, we took them there every weekend during the summer. And every year without fail we would pile into the car and head for Cornwall to spend a gloriously happy two weeks exploring the coastline. Our adventures and experiences have cemented Cornwall’s special place in my heart.
My love of travel is partly fuelled by my insatiable desire to be by the sea in as many different countries and continents as possible.
So if you love being beside the sea as much as I do, whatever the weather or time of year, here, in no particular order, are eight of my favourite ocean views.
The Fortress, Sri Lanka
Amazing hotel, amazing position overlooking an amazing wave-swept, sandy beach on the southern tip of this beguiling island
Kynance Cove, Cornwall
Choosing a favourite beach in my favourite place is like being asked to choose your favourite child. But if pushed, Kynance, where my girls and I spent so many gloriously happy hours on the double-sided sea fringed beach and clambering over the rocks, would have to make it to joint top spot…
Treyarnon Bay, Cornwall
….along with Treyarnon which has the special magic of a huge natural pool, high in the rocks where the water gets trapped as the tide goes out. You have to climb up to get to it from the beach, but it’s worth it. Stay at the Scarlet Hotel which overlooks nearby Mawgan Porth to make it even more of a treat.
Duvauchelle, New Zealand
For sheer majesty and jaw-dropping beauty you could pick just about anywhere along the coast in New Zealand. This shot was taken above the small town of Duvauchelle at the head of Akaroa Harbour on Banks Peninsula on the east coast of the South Island. We were on our way to a nature reserve where we kayaked along the sea edge in a huge cove, watching hundreds of seals chilling on the rocks.
Illetes, Mallorca
Beautiful cove, soft sand, clear blue sea, buzzy seafront, relaxed restaurant sitting over the water in the middle of the bay serving fresh, tasty dishes. What more could you ask for from a holiday beach?
Book at the restaurant to be sure of getting a table
Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, Australia
The clue is in the name. This beach is huge! Fringed with palm trees, the compact sand and clear water go on and on and on…
NB - Port Douglas is a much nicer spot to use as a base for visiting the Great Barrier Reef than Cairns.
Ucluelet, Pacific Rim National Park,
Vancouver Island
Rugged, astonishingly beautiful, edged with great walking trails. This is a sea-side experience that delivers any time of year. We were there in December, so although the sun did shine (some of the time!) it was still very cold.
Bournemouth, Dorset
Couldn’t leave this out. It’s not my favourite stretch of sea, I have to admit, I prefer a more natural, less built-up beach, but it is the one I visit most regularly and the memories I have of weekends spent here with my family mean I couldn’t leave it off the list.
Do you have a favourite sea side spot? I’d love to hear about it! Although of course, that’ll risk me having to add it to my growing list of can’t miss coast line.
