Tynemouth, Tyneside
Why? A metro ride from Newcastle, Tynemouth’s aptly named Longsands beach is Tyneside’s surfing capital, with some of the best UK surf north of Cornwall, plus all the trimmings. Surfy cafe Crusoes is right on the beach. For cyclists, the classic Coast and Castle cycle route heads up to Northumberland. Or just hang out on Tynemouth’s Georgian Front Street: a cosy row of independent shops looking seaward towards the clifftop ruins of Tynemouth Priory – as haunting as Whitby’s better-known abbey. For good tucker, check out Irvins Brasserie or the Staith House, both on North Shields’ regenerated Fish Quay, a 15-minute walk along the north bank of the Tyne from Collingwood Monument (Admiral Lord Collingwood gazes out to sea from a lofty pedestal). Just two metro stops to the north at Whitley Bay, check out the domed Spanish City ballroom (the north-east’s Blackpool Tower) on the seafront, which is due to re-open next year.
Stay Collingwood House has two groovy four-person Victorian-modernist apartments from £225 for a three-night winter break. Above a former shop on Front Street, Martineau House is an award-winning B&B with quaint rooms and views. Rooms from £95.
Oban, Argyll, West Highlands
Why? A hub for Calmac ferries sailing to the Inner Hebrides, Scotland’s self-styled seafood capital is a busy little harbour town – with dreamy views across the Firth of Lorn to the Isles of Kerrera, Lismore and mountainous Mull. Off-season it’s easier to get a table at one of its lively, fishy restaurants; my favourite is the family-run Oban Fish and Chip Shop (116 George Street) which does great monkfish scampi (goujons) and salt-and-pepper squid. On fine days, head for the empty white-sand beaches at Ganavan or Tralee on Benderloch; or hike up the hill to McCaig’s Tower, a curious 19th-century colosseum lookalike and the best place in town to watch the ferries slip into the harbour at sunset. Warm up with a wee west Highland malt in the Oban Distillery opposite the North Pier.
Stay Greystones has architect-designed sea-view rooms from £110 B&B in a turreted, granite villa. High Cliff Oban (01631 564134, highcliffoban.co.uk) is the more traditional B&B option, with doubles from £85.
Portmeirion, Gwynedd
Why? You can pretend you’re on a Mediterranean holiday: when Sir Clough Williams-Ellis built Portmeirion in the 1920s, he had in mind a version of Italy’s Portofino on the Dwyryd estuary. His make-believe Ligurian village has an Italianate piazza, a domed Pantheon, loggias, statuary, topiary, colonnades, cobbles and watery vistas, all framed in cherry laurels and Monterey pines. Some of it was built from architectural salvage (the Bell Tower clock came from a demolished London brewery). Nobody lives here – the pretty cottages are holiday lets or hotel rooms – but there’s lots to keep you busy: smooth creamy sands, walks to hidden coves and views across Tremadog Bay, plus cafes and restaurants, including gelateria Caffi’r Angel Ices, (try the Welsh whisky flavour). There’s a food and craft fair on 6-7 December, and Snowdonia national park is 10 miles away.
Stay The Portmeirion Hotel (chintzy but right on the quay, closed until 5 December) and Castell Deudrath (more stylish, leather sofas, oak floors). Winter packages offer dinner, bed and breakfast for two from £130 (portmeirion-village.com)
Boscastle, Cornwall
Why? Ten years after being devastated by floods, this rugged Atlantic village is back to its old self, with knobs on. And in winter it comes into its own – atmospheric dark slate and granite, craggy cliffs, moody green water in the harbour inlet, and smoke curling from the chimneys of old sea dog cottages. There are real ales and open fires in the low-lit Cobweb Inn , and real witchery in the once-flooded Witchcraft Museum – open in winter for first time this year. Even the National Trust shop is still open. But the walks are the thing. Go west, on the rocky footpaths to Bossiney Cove, or on to Tintagel, blessedly empty in winterafter a summer . Or go east towards Bude, for a roller coaster of high cliffs on one of the loveliest stretches of the north Cornish coast.
Stay Boscastle House, open from February, with rooms from £100. Lovely Penally Cottage , right on the harbour, sleeps six from £362 for a four-night break.
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
Why? More graceful than neighbouring Hastings (the two are joined at the hip), St Leonards enjoys a legacy of grand terraces and squares planned by architects James and Decimus Burton in about 1830. It looks a bit shabby these days, but chic, too, in an edgy, Hoxton sort of way. People come to shop on boho Norman Road – big on vintage, retro, Russian art, gluten-free – or to parade up and down the prom between the wreckage of Hastings Pier (all set for a grand reopening next year) and the art deco behemoth, Marine Court (the tallest apartment block in Britain when it was built in 1937). There’s more architecture at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, only four miles away. Michelin-listed St Clements Restaurant does a cracking Sunday lunch. The winter sunsets are legendary.
Stay Zanzibar is right on the seafront, with stylish rooms and the Pier Nine restaurant (plus complimentary hot chocolate at bedtime). Author Kathryn Flett’s arts and crafts cottage on Caple Gardens sleeps eight and has nice wallpapers and an optional beach hut.
Southport, Merseyside
Why? Go for the cast-iron canopies and glassy Victorian arcades on Lord Street (Southport’s wide central boulevard is supposed to have inspired the Champs Elysées), the Marine Lake (birds, boats, bridges – open all year round), Christmas lights and Britain’s oldest, second-longest pier: take the tramway for blustery views of the Mersey. If it rains, there’s the excellent Atkinson theatre and gallery or the eccentric British Lawnmower Museum. The seafront is a little dreary – the curse of the concrete retail park – but the beach is vast; miles of yellow sand reaching down to Formby Point via the Ainsdale Sand Dunes national park (the largest dune system in the country). Southport’s stable of cool restaurants includes Warehouse – co-owned by Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard – and the V Café at the The Vincent (see below) for cocktails and the finest sushi.
Stay The clubby, urban Vincent Hotel has sleek, deco-style rooms (steel, dark glass, rainforest showers) from £113. Or try the Ambassador Townhouse with rooms from £65, minimum stay two nights.
• This article was amended on 19 November 2014. The first entry was originally titled “Whitley Bay, Tyneside”; it has been corrected to “Tynemouth, Tyneside”, and the entry amended.
