‘I visited UK’s most beautiful and cheapest beach to see if it’s worth the hype’

Woolacombe in Devon often appears in rankings of the UK's most beautiful beaches, and now it's also been revealed as the nation's cheapest beach for a day out.

A study conducted by Omio found that Woolacombe had some of the cheapest prices for the likes of pints, ice cream and bottled water, not to mention it also boasts some of the best sunny weather.

READ MORE: 'Best beach' in London has 'outstanding beauty', golden sands and nature walks

It all felt like excellent timing considering I'd just booked a holiday to this popular summer hotspot, to find out what all the fuss is about.

From the moment I arrived at the beach, it was instantly understandable why it's hailed as one of the most beautiful on British shores.

Woolacombe Beach has a huge stretch of soft, golden sand, and it's remarkably clean, with clear waters – there were plenty of bathers under the watchful eye of the lifeguards.

It's not often that you'll be on a UK beach and truly feel like you're abroad, but here it was easy to forget I wasn't actually somewhere like Spain or Turkey.

However I didn't make it into the water; not only was it a little too chilly for my liking, but on the day we visited there were a LOT of jellyfish.

Our party had a dog, so we headed to the dog-friendly stretch of the beach near some colourful beach huts. (These could be hired from £30 for a day, but we didn't bother as we were only staying for a few hours).

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the prices in Woolacombe. Because it's so popular, I was expecting to pay rage-inducing prices for snacks and drinks, but generally they were not as bad as you'd think.

• 

  'I ditched the UK for country with 88p pints, sun, cheap rent and extreme strippers'

Although tourists have slammed the town's parking charges, for a full day out they felt fairly reasonable. Parking at the main Esplanade car park was £10 for the day, while the Marine Drive car park is about £8 and still easily under a 15-minute walk to the beach.

The beach's toilets were free to use and actually had toilet paper and hand soap, which isn't always the case with public toilets. The loos were also just a few minutes' walk away from the beach itself.

As the British weather was – for once- playing ball, a pint in the sun was a must.

There were plenty of off-licences right by the beach so we originally stocked up with a few cans, but later in the afternoon a trip to the pub was a must.

While booze wasn't always the cheapest, generally we paid around £5-£6 for a pint. Again, it's not particularly cheap, but for a tourist hotspot I felt like it could have been a lot worse, especially as we opted for pubs within easy reach of the beach.

A round of drinks was rarely more than £25 for a group of us, including wine and some rum and cokes.

Food felt a little more steep. A classic fish and chips was typically coming in at around £7-£10, which felt like a lot but at least the portions were generous. Just prepare for big queues!

As for an ice cream? Omio's research found that the average price came in at about £1.81. I found it was a mix – for classic cones or tubs, we were looking at about £2.50. This included some ice lollies which felt very steep, so in hindsight I'd recommend just going to the supermarket and buying a pack if you're in a group.

Overall, I was impressed with Woolacombe. I wouldn't call it a cheap day out, but I think for somewhere that's so popular, has great facilities and ridiculously pretty sands, it's well worth a visit!

Got a holiday story to share? Email us at [email protected].

Source: Read Full Article