From harbourside retreats to remote escapes, the UK has the most spectacular coastline that never fails to feed the soul. Estuaries and salt flats, sandy beaches and secluded cliff top locations, the hotels by the sea combine spectacular views, natural beauty and excellent customer service with sand, surf and occasionally sunshine as well. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s top 10 seaside hotels.
2019 Editor's Choice Seaside Hotels
Editor’s Choice Seaside Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Three Night 25% Discount Special Offer
Iona
The best tables in the sun lounge gaze across the water to Mull at this owner-run hotel occupying a row of crofters’ cottages. Menus embrace locally caught fish, hand-creeled langoustines, crab and lobster, organic garden produce.
Trefeddian Hotel - Spring Break Special Offer
Aberdovey
A hotel for family holidays, not boutique or trendy, but relaxed, with the beach just across the road, sea-facing lounges, packed lunches to order, children’s supper, tea on the terrace, a putting green, and good, old-fashioned hospitality.
Cary Arms & Spa
Babbacombe
You can arrive by sea and moor at this secluded hotel, which clings to the cliffs above the Teign estuary. Beach huts in tropical coastal gardens have wall-to-wall glass doors, a sunbathing deck, views across Lyme Bay.
Hell Bay Hotel
Isles of Scilly
Outside, calm protected beaches and dreamy views of outlying islets. Inside, rooms with a breezy New England style, an acclaimed collection of Cornish art and a menu highlighting gloriously fresh produce from the Isles of Scilly. Its crab shack is a popular summer fixture.
Treglos Hotel
Padstow
There is a real holiday vibe at this family- run, family-friendly hotel, with many sea- facing bedrooms, golf course, spa, partner surf school (‘coasteering’, kayaking, stand- up paddleboarding), and seafood platter lunches served on the deck.
Tresanton
St Mawes
All bedrooms have views across Falmouth Bay to St Anthony’s lighthouse, at Olga Polizzi’s relaxed but stylish hotel. You can sail aboard a vintage yacht or just hang out in the Beach Club, lunch on oysters or a crab sandwich with champagne.
The White Horse
Brancaster Staithe
There are Brancaster oysters and beer- battered cod on the bar menu at this family-run inn with views across the salt marshes to the sea. Close by are miles of unspoilt honey-hued sandy beaches, perfect for kite-surfing.
Artist Residence Brighton
Brighton
From sea-view balcony rooms to the basement Bunkhouse and ‘Below Deck’, this Regency seafront hotel is as cool and quirky as Brighton itself. Breakfast in The Set includes scrambled rare-breed Cacklebean eggs with local smoked mackerel.
The Seaside Boarding House
Burton Bradstock
On Chesil Beach, drawing inspiration from Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod, this is a hip but laid-back operation. All bedrooms have a sea view. You can eat on the terrace – crab sandwiches, home-made ices, Dorset cream tea.
The George Hotel & Beach Club
Yarmouth
On a shingle beach lapped by the waves, with sea-facing conservatory restaurant and terrace, this smart Guide newcomer occupies a historic town house between castle and pier. Many rooms have Solent or harbour views.
2018 Editor's Choice Seaside Hotels
Editor’s Choice Seaside Hotels
The White House
Herm
Visitors are not spoilt for choice of places to stay on this tiny, car-free island – they’re just spoilt at the island’s best and only hotel
The Nare - Complimentary Spa Treatment
Veryan-in-Roseland
‘Old-fashioned in all the best ways’, ‘a Cornish jewel’, ‘a real joy – almost a privilege – to stay there’; complements rained down from trusted readers after visits to Toby Ashworth’s hotel on the Roseland Peninsula.
Cary Arms & Spa
Babbacombe
At the end of a ‘precipitous, twisty descent’, ‘courageous’ visitors are rewarded with ‘unrestricted views and a genuine, good-humoured welcome’ at Lana de Savary’s ‘fabulously secluded’ cliff-face hotel.
The Blakeney Hotel
Holt
Standing right on the quay overlooking estuary and salt marshes, in a coastal village of flint cottages, gift shops and galleries, Emma Stannard’s hotel is ideal for outdoorsy family holidays.
Porth Tocyn Hotel
Abersoch
A Welsh rarebit on the tip of Cardigan Bay, this ‘lovely, wacky’ hotel is a family-friendly, family-run affair.
Tresanton
St Mawes
Up 137 steps, through ‘glorious’ gardens, ‘one of the most comfortable establishments I’ve ever stayed in’ occupies a higgle piggle of houses with ‘extraordinary views’ across Falmouth Bay.
The Beach
Bude
With its cocktail bar and sea-facing terrace, Susie and Will Daniel’s buzzy hotel overlooking Summerleaze surfers’ beach is ‘a mecca for the young of Bude’.
The Pig on the Beach
Studland
Forged from the coastal villa of an aristocratic MP this ‘gloriously Gothic mini-Hogwarts, all gargoyles and turrets’ gazes out across the sea to Old Harry Rocks.
The Seaside Boarding House
Burton Bradstock
White walls, pleasant staff, bright sunshine, blue, blue sky, sparkling sea just over the road…’ For one reader this year, everything hit the spot at this cool small hotel overlooking Lyme Bay.
Idle Rocks
St Mawes
‘The situation, the view and interior are all marvellous,’ writes a reader this year, of Karen and David Richards’s ‘superb hotel’ (Relais & Château) right by the harbour wall in a fishing village on the Roseland peninsula.
2017 Editor's Choice Seaside Hotels
Editor’s Choice Seaside Hotels
Soar Mill Cove Hotel - Summer Family Staycation Saver Special Offer
Salcombe
‘We couldn’t have enjoyed it more or been more welcome,’ write trusted Guide correspondents this year, after dropping by at Keith Makepeace’s long-established, family-run hotel with views across National Trust coastline to the open sea.
The White House
Herm
Visitors are not spoilt for choice of places to stay on this tiny, car-free island – they’re just spoilt at the island’s best and only hotel
The Nare - Complimentary Spa Treatment
Veryan-in-Roseland
‘Old-fashioned in all the best ways’, ‘a Cornish jewel’, ‘a real joy – almost a privilege – to stay there’; complements rained down from trusted readers after visits to Toby Ashworth’s hotel on the Roseland Peninsula.
Romney Bay House - Three Night Special Offer
New Romney
In the otherworldly landscape of Romney Marsh, this extraordinary 1920s house was built by Clough Williams Ellis for Hollywood actress Hedda Hopper.
Cary Arms & Spa
Babbacombe
At the end of a ‘precipitous, twisty descent’, ‘courageous’ visitors are rewarded with ‘unrestricted views and a genuine, good-humoured welcome’ at Lana de Savary’s ‘fabulously secluded’ cliff-face hotel.
driftwood hotel
Porthscatho
‘Wow! This was good.’ A regular Guide reader offered high praise after visiting Paul and Fiona Robinson’s ‘delightful’ hotel that gazes across Gerrans Bay on the Roseland peninsula.
The White Horse
Brancaster Staithe
‘One of my favourite hotels,’ writes a trusted reader, who spent four nights at the Nye family’s inn with views across salt marshes to the sea. ‘Good location, nice room, excellent food.’
The Old Coastguard
Penzance
This ‘youthful, buzzy’ spot, say returning guests this year, is liked for its ‘good rooms, helpful, friendly staff, excellent food – and no flashy bits’.
The Pig on the Beach
Studland
Forged from the coastal villa of an aristocratic MP this ‘gloriously Gothic mini-Hogwarts, all gargoyles and turrets’ gazes out across the sea to Old Harry Rocks.
Idle Rocks
St Mawes
‘The situation, the view and interior are all marvellous,’ writes a reader this year, of Karen and David Richards’s ‘superb hotel’ (Relais & Château) right by the harbour wall in a fishing village on the Roseland peninsula.
Hotels chosen in 2016
Editor’s Choice Seaside Hotels
Hell Bay Hotel
Isles of Scilly
‘The surrounds are dramatic, the interiors pretty spectacular too.’ Readers report much to enjoy at Robert Dorrien-Smith’s gloriously isolated island hotel.
The Colonsay
Colonsay
On an island of white-sand beaches and rocky inlets (human population 135; seals, otters and eagles unnumbered), Jane and Alex Howard’s 18th-century inn sits at the centre of village life, with quiz nights and live music.
The Henley
Bigbury-on-Sea
‘As superb and lovely as ever,’ Martyn Scarterfield and Petra Lampe’s Edwardian holiday cottage turned guest house is ‘a home-away-from-home’ for many devoted returning visitors.
Dunvalanree in Carradale
CARRADALE
Alyson and Alan Milstead’s restaurant-with-rooms is ‘a lovely place, excellent for all its quirkiness,’ says a regular Guide reader in 2017.
