Perhaps one of the very best things about living in the south west of the UK is being able to spend long summer evenings on the beach. We hot-foot it there after picking up the kids from school, armed with our portable barbecue. If the weather is wonderful it's a no-brainer - just take a blanket, sausages/burgers, rolls, pickles, French's mustard, radishes and ketchup. A pot of crispy onions are also always a good idea.
We always take our Ghillie Kettle to the beach too - we are still in England, after all, so a little cup of tea is pretty much essential to ward off any cool wind nipping at your toes. We stack our tea bowls into a tower and take these, cushioned by the blanket or wedged into the cooler, and we've found it invaluable to take one of our small oval serving dishes too - they are the perfect size for a stack of hotdogs waiting for kids to finish a game (usually Pétanque, on a slope). No beach trip is complete without some Salt & Shake crisps too - they take me straight back to summer holidays in Cornwall in the 90s, they taste better on the beach.
Below are a few of our essentials for a successful beach trip, plus some of our favourite spots for evening beach barbecues - each comes highly recommended. All of these beaches also happen to have beach cafe's, which are often v handy for ice creams to finish the evening...
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Portable BBQ, Small Oval Serving Bowl, Ghillie Kettle, Beach Blanket, Tea Bowls, Salt & Shake from your local grocery store
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Crackington Haven
Just over the border in Cornwall, this wonderful cove has everything - rock pools, good waves, sand! There is also a fantastic beach cafe which does summer BBQ evenings - think a whole mackerel with delicious salads, phone before you go to check whether it's on! Also a good idea to check the tides, as if it's high there's very little beach left and you might just have to sit in the pub instead.
Widemouth Bay
A big sandy beach that's dotted with giant boulders, with sand dunes at one end. Lots of room for building sandcastles and towers of rocks, and racing through the sand dunes. The car park is overlooking the beach so it's an easy one if you've got loads of stuff!
Putsborough
A vast expanse of sandy beach - perfect for BBQs, beach boules (and balls). It's the beach we go to most often - even if it's a scorcher of a day, there'll be lots of space to run around. Dogs are welcome on the main part all year round. Walk from the car is about 5 minutes, if you can park in the main car park. The beach cafe does excellent scampi and chips but often closes too early for an after school supper!
