14 Best Beaches In Essex

The open-sea beaches, generally, because a child wants water they can stand in and sand they can dig, and the estuary side is a more interesting place for an adult than a three-year-old. Frinton on Sea Beach scores best of the fourteen and has a reputation for being the calmer of the resort beaches, which is exactly what you want with small children. The estuary beaches come into their own with older children who will look at the ships.

You are beside a working river rather than the sea, with the opposite shore visible and traffic on the water to watch. That is genuinely good company for a child of eight or nine and a bit of a puzzle for a toddler who came to swim. The water behaves differently, the ground behaves differently at different states of the tide, and the day tends to be about walking and looking rather than swimming. Go knowing that and it is a fine afternoon.

No, and it would be dishonest to invent one. Thirteen of the fourteen are flagged outdoor, and a wet beach is a short, cold experiment ending back in the car. What Essex does have going for it is that most of these beaches sit at the edge of a town, so a wet morning can be spent in the town and the sand kept for the afternoon if the sky clears. Plan the day round the forecast rather than round the beach.

Two at most, and only if they are neighbours along the same stretch. Beaches reward staying put: children need time to build something, get wet, get changed and start again, and moving on breaks all of that just as it gets going. The exception is a walk that takes you from one to the next along the shore, which turns the outing into a journey rather than a stay, and older children who would sooner be going somewhere get on with it well.