Sure, summer brings the bucket-and-spade brigades to the seaside. But unfold your OS map and follow your nose for adventure off the beaten track, and there are still places where you can make the first footprints on the sand, skinny dip in a tidal pool, and enjoy just the natter of oystercatchers for company. You’ve just got to know where to look.
We’re talking secret coves and remote beaches. Forgotten villages, tumbling waterfalls, and tucked-away landmarks. Places with no phone signal, no car parks, no queues. Just space, sky, sea… and that quiet thrill of feeling like you’ve found something no one else has.
Here’s where to start. Just keep it to yourself.
Lannacombe Beach, Devon
Tucked at the end of a twisting single-track lane, Lannacombe is one of South Devon’s best-kept secrets. Backed by green hills and flanked by rocks, it’s the kind of place where time slows to a salty pause. No shop, no surf school, no fanfare – just a pocket of sand, sea, and space to breathe. When the tide’s out, clamber over to neighbouring coves or follow the coast path to Start Point for jaw-dropping views. Hideaway in the nearby village of East Prawle, or in one of our holiday cottages nearby in Devon, and reward your efforts with a pint and live music at the quirky Pig’s Nose Inn.
Kilve Beach, Somerset
Raw, moody and made for wanderers, Kilve Beach awaits on the edge of the Quantocks. Not a beach for sunbathing, its layers of limestone and shale scattered with ammonites and driftwood is a place for fossil hunters, rock scramblers and storm watchers – a treasure trove for the curious. Pack your walking boots and set out from a historic coastal retreat in Kilve to explore the wild undercliff, or walk out past the crumbling cliffs where time has etched its signature into stone. Just one of the hidden gems to discover while on a coastal holiday in Somerset.
Burnham Overy Staithe Creek, Norfolk
Down a dusty track and over the sea wall, the tide-bound and timeless Burnham Overy Staithe feels like another world. Here the ocean ebbs and flows through snaking creeks, sailors potter about with ropes and dinghies, and a long boardwalk leads you out towards the whispering dunes of Holkham. It’s one of the few places where you can paddleboard with curlews and seals for company, then eat crab sandwiches on the quay. Norfolk coastal holidays at their most nostalgic.
Tater Du Lighthouse, West Cornwall
Perched on a lonely outcrop between Lamorna and Porthcurno, where the South West Coast Path weaves along sheer granite cliffs, Tater Du is Cornwall’s youngest lighthouse – and one of its least visited. You won’t stumble across it by accident. This is a landmark you earn. The walk in is rugged, exposed, and breathtakingly beautiful, with views back towards Mousehole and out across open ocean. The lighthouse itself stands sentinel above the rocks, gleaming white against gorse and sea mist – a modern monolith on an ancient shore. There are no facilities, no road access, no easy route. But that’s the point.
Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex
Discover the South Downs’ wild side. Where the Cuckmere River snakes to the sea beneath the white chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters, you’ll find one of the most iconic – yet peaceful – spots in East Sussex. But don’t stop at the viewpoint – keeping walking along the riverbanks to reach the shingle beach itself. No road. No crowds. Just river, sky and sea.
Steephill Cove, Isle of Wight
You won’t find road signs to Steephill. Despite being just a mile from the bustle of Ventnor Bay, this impossibly pretty smuggler’s cove is only reachable on foot – via coastal paths, past the subtropical sprawl of Ventnor Botanic Garden, and between old fishermen’s cottages. Lobster pots, striped deckchairs, crab pasties eaten on the seawall… it’s a pocket of the Isle of Wight where time slows down and the world slips away.
Sandwood Bay, Scotland
Way up in the Scottish Highlands near Durness, Sandwood Bay is only for the adventurous. The only way in is a 4-mile hike each way, through wild moorland, past hidden lochans, sparkling streams and mirror-flat lagoons that glint like glass. The reward worth every step: a wide arc of pale sand, turquoise sea, and not a footprint in sight. No phone signal. No facilities. Just pure paradise. But unless you’re carrying a tent and supplies, you’ll have to tear yourself away in time for the walk back before dark.
Runswick Bay & Hayburn Wyke, Yorkshire
If you’re heading to North Yorkshire, the secret’s out about Runswick Bay: Just nine miles from popular Whitby, this tucked-away smuggler’s village with a sweep of sand and fossil-rich cliffs was named one of the UK’s top secret beaches by the Independent last year. Want a better kept secret? Follow a leafy trail to Hayburn Wyke – a woodland waterfall that tumbles over rocks into the sea, not far from buzzing Scarborough.
Haverigg & Hodbarrow Lagoon, Cumbria
Unpretentious, uncrowded, and totally unspoilt, Haverigg sits on the edge of the Duddon Estuary. It’s not the first place you’d think of visiting on a trip to the Lake District – more the kind of place you stumble upon by accident and end up never forgetting. There’s a vast, windblown beach, a quiet village, and a lagoon where terns and oystercatchers dart over the water. Follow the sea wall to the old lighthouse, or just sit and breathe it all in.
Mupe Bay, Dorset
Forget Durdle Door. To find one of the Jurassic Coast’s real secrets, you need to time it just right to go one step beyond Dorset’s well mapped beaches. Mupe Bay lies within the Lulworth Ranges, a military firing zone closed to the public most of the week. But when the red flags are down, a hidden path opens up to a stretch of coast few ever reach. From Lulworth Cove, a climb over Bindon Hill leads to this wild, wave-battered cove where limestone stacks rise from the sea and the only sound is the crash of surf. No ice creams, no crowds, no footsteps in the sand.
Book Your Cottage and Discover Coastal Secrets
So, what are you waiting for? Stray from the pack this summer and discover these hidden gems. Book your seaside holiday cottage, and pack your walking boots and a sense of adventure.
