Seaside Living

Just wondered if anyone here has relocated to live at the seaside, or has aspirations to in retirement? Have you been happy with your decision or is it a bit desolate after the holiday season? Or are tourists a pain in the summer?

I fancy moving up to Northumberland so will be interested to read people's experiences.

The former owners of my place bought a south coast bungalow - but the news from other neighbours they kept in touch with was that the coast is dead in winter and they had some regrets about moving.

Funnily enough, I was very taken with Northumberland and considered it as a potential relocation. However, I have only ever been in July. I'm not sure what it would be like in the middle of winter. The North Sea is bloody cold for living right next door to.

My mum moved to a sea side town and now hates tourists lol loves the quietness of out of season, but she does miss the youngsters as its all old biddies in winter

I have tourists are a pain, but I think it depends on where you live, when I was living a few miles inland and quite remote it was easier as there were just fewer people around in general. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else really, I guess it depends on where you were thinking of moving too as to how easy it is. Do you want a town, say like Brighton or Aberystwyth, or do you want somewhere more off the beaten track and rural? if you want somewhere more rural then you have to be prepared for the idea that you probably won't get the same choices as you would in a larger place, things like phone and broadband can be patchy and reliable and that you'll spend more in petrol driving about as you have to travel to shops, doctors and hospitals. If you live rurally then at least you'll be less likely to get stuck in traffic, apart from slow moving tractors and numpties who dawdle along and stop suddenly to look at a view, here a big traffic jam is about 20 cars in summer.

I like to be near the seaside , but not enough to chose to go there in my retirement. In retirement one needs trusted friends, a location where one would feel comfortable and meet like minded people to socialise with ., I can always go for the day to the seaside and explore .
leogirl.

Yes I relocated to Newquay Cornwall when the kids were little, and when I get the chance I'd like to move permanently back to Cornwall..

In a general sense - home owners will have far more choice as to where they can choose to live.

In Private Rentals typically from outset only a 6 month AST is offered - with a rolling Periodic contract automatically following on thereafter - unless Landlord serves the mandatory 2 months Notice. Average duration of a Private Tenancy is around 4.5 years per EHS though a fair few are a lot longer.

Across the UK there are around 1 million pa vacancies arising in Private Rental Sector (PRS).

Only around 27000 pa in Social Rental Sector (SRS) will become newly available to those who are not already an existing Social Tenant - over 92% of the circa 365,000 pa Social vacancies are churned among the existing Social Tenant group.

I think most of us like the idea of a retirement by the sea. I think I would choose somewhere pleasant and inland by a few miles so there is some reprieve from tourists but also easy to spend days by the sea. Winter by the sea is desolate but that can be nice too.

I enjoyed winter season by the sea, pretty much everything is closed though. Most places in the town were surf shops and gift shops with a few exceptions. Not a lot to do for entertainment in winter. That didn't bother me much. I'd head to a smaller place next time, St Ives or somewhere with an art network would be nice.

This is the ONLY rental available in St Ives on RightMove - but a few flats for sale from £270k

https://media.rightmove.co.uk/dir/crop/10:9-16:9/98k/97471/123215870/97471000635690IMG070000max476x317.jpeg

I think most of us like the idea of a retirement by the sea. I think I would choose somewhere pleasant and inland by a few miles so there is some reprieve from tourists but also easy to spend days by the sea. Winter by the sea is desolate but that can be nice too.

I agree with you. There is something nice about a tourist area without the tourists.

I like the hustle and bustle of cities for my everyday life but the seaside in the summer is a welcome contrast. I wouldn't want to be by the seaside all year round.

Anyone remember the film about the bloke who went to some Scottish island and lived in a cottage by the sea, befriended an otter cub and watched it grow?....I remember thinking how far he must have had to walk to get to the shop for his baccies, and wondering how come the sea never flooded him out.

"Ring of Bright Water", I think, Terry. Unfortunately, the film ends with the otter being clobbered over the head with a spade by one of the dastardly ignorant country loving locals.

I had always thought that I would like to move somewhere quieter on retirement and I had planned the great escape, but after a friend's experience of doing that, I decided that you have to be careful of where you choose as you can be too isolated. So now I am thinking along the lines of Leogirl.
As you get older, you need to be where you can access services and facilities. My friend moved to a small village that was an hour's drive from the nearest motorway and you needed to drive to the nearest large town to access any services. Then with failing eyesight and not being able to drive and not on a good bus route either, she was forced to move back to where she came from. And then it may be difficult to do that, if you are moving back to a more expensive area. Unfortunately, the places that I have considered would put me in a similar situation. So now I am looking for a small town with easy access to open countryside. And guess what, that makes the house prices that much higher. Plus the area where I live has a fairly benign climate, so that is something else to factor in.
Ideally, I would like trees, hills and the sea within an hour's drive with good access to a doctor, dentist, hospital, supermarkets, on a bus route and not in the centre of town, but easy access to a live music venue and places that I can go birdwatching. I don't want much. ;)

I think winter in seaside towns can be desolate with everything shut and boarded up, but if you live outside a tourist town then a coastal winter can be glorious, being on the coast you tend not to get the constant grey overcast that afflicts so many towns and cities. You have much more colour as the countryside changes through the seasons, the sea chnages too as does the wildlife. Winter out of the city becomes something you have a relationship with rather than something to be endured.

Minnie's right though people do retire to the coast and don't really think of how they're going to cope when they can no longer drive and things like that. But, like anywhere else you can move somewhere thinking it has execellent transport links and a good comunity, fascilities etc and then it changes over the next 10-20 years, buses and trains get cut, shops shut and hospitals get conglomerated into huge places serving several nearby towns and communities. This has and continues to happen everywhere, so I'd say be realistic, but go for it. At least many small rural and seaside places still have a community, people help thier neighbours out, you know your neighbours! To me makes a huge difference, you might have lots of stuff nearby in a big town or city, but you can still feel isolated and in reality you maybe more cut off, isolated and alone in a city than you are in the country.

I live by the sea and would say it's an all year round place. Obviously, busier in the summer and on sunny days when the trippers arrive by the carload. Parking and congestion can be a problem but if you are local, you know the shortcuts. We have what most towns of a similar size have- all the big name supermarkets though like many towns we suffer from high st collapse. We have a hospital, a 'university', an 8 screen multiplex, bowling etc. Within 30 minutes there is some beautiful walking country and scenic drives; 30 minutes in the opposite direction and you are on the motorway. Oh and very cheap housing

In that case, perhaps I will move to where Karen lives then. :)

I think you've also got to decide if you want to live on the east or west coasts, the east is generally drier and colder and the west wetter and warmer, but both are windy.

Finding a dentist was very hard in Newquay, all of them private, the main hospital was miles away in Truro, with a smaller haspotal for some non emergency outpatient treatment. Not sure if that's changed but it did make things tough for medicals. Especially dental emergencies.

Lots of places all over Britain have become "dental deserts" with no NHS providers, only private and not so many of them either in a few places, we have a national shortage of dentists.

Thank you, lots of interesting points of view. I've just realised I nearly always choose holidays by the sea and wondered whether it's where I belong :-) I would probably have a hard choice between Northumberland and Wales. Maybe renting to try it out would make better sense than selling up and relocating at first though.

I think so Rosie, and spend time in mid winter in both places, also where abouts in Wales? South Wales being basically he same latitude as London is a lot milder than up here in the north, its lighter later in summer and darker earlier in winter up here, west Wales Cardigan-Aberystwyth area is nice, but lots of hills, very rural away from the coast, cheaper but really really beautiful.