A few days at Sandsend near Whitby

Sandsend North Yorkshire

There is something special about being so close to the sea that you can hear the waves breaking, smell the sea air, walk along a sandy beach just in the water etc, particularly when you feel tired and in need of a rest. So we are spending a few days at Sandsend Cottages near Whitby and specifically the cottage known as The Porthole. It has rave reviews in TripAdvisor and even if you base your judgement on those who only find it “Very Good” (8) as against all of the others which find it “Excellent” (153 at the time of writing), it is hard to imagine that staying there will be something you would regret.

Google Earth shows a long empty sandy beach with Whitby a couple of miles away at one end (right hand side of picture). The internet also indicates that a bus goes comes along the road below the cottage in both directions every 30 minutes and hence we can walk along the coast until we get tired and use our Bus Passes to come back etc. It seems to have all of the ingredients of a quiet, easy, relaxing few days off.  Hopefully it will still be out of season and we will have much of it to ourselves.

Reality is almost the same as hope (although we both suspect that during the peak holiday season, it will be heaving with people and parking will be very difficult).

The Porthole is high up on a hillside above the road and offers superb views of the bay, beach and sea. As a sample, I offer you:

A view from the Porthole balcony

On the beach, tide out, looking towards Whitby (south)

On the beach, tide out, looking away from Whitby (north) 

The southern end of Sandsend

Sandsend from the Beach

The Porthole from the beach - the Porthole is the single storey brown building in the middle of the picture and just below the tree line, to the right of the brown house and the left of the white house.

We can confirm that the location is idyllic (probably more so out of season).

For children there is nothing to do except run on the beach,

paddle in the very cold sea, make sandcastles, fly kites, camp, eat ice cream and behave like a child. The beach is also a “dog free zone” during the summer.