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Britain’s best and worst seaside towns

I notice nobody has mentioned my hometown of Paignton.

I can confirm that it is utterly dire. All the sketchiness of Torquay without any of the (few) redeeming features.

I only live 25 miles away but it wouldn't bother me if I never went back. Last time was about three years ago and it was stupendously depressing. It was never great, but like so many UK seaside towns it has really declined rapidly.
It is a shame, I remember great nights seeing good bands in The Spinning Wheel back in the mid-seventies. Though I preferred Brixham as a resort. We were last in Paignton in 2003.
 
Hebden Bridge of the SW. Nice, but full of anti-vaxxers, hippies, etc.
Totnes was voted the happiest place to live in England a few years back. Must be all the hippies who settled that went to Dartington Hall that I knew.

Makes sense. I play cricket with a lad from Totnes and he's like a cross between Jeremy Corbyn and Joni Mitchell
 
Pretty much all the seaside towns on the Kent and Essex coasts are shit holes. I used to go to visit a mate in nick at HMP Standford Hill on the Isle of Sheppey. Afterwards, I once took a drive around the island and ended up in a kip called Leysdown-On-Sea. A horrible, run-down dump, complete with manky chippies, half derelict amusement arcades, and St George's flags in the windows of most of the scabby residential properties.

The prison was less depressing.

Botany Bay beach is really nice though and Broadstairs pleasant enough.
 
Botany Bay beach is really nice though and Broadstairs pleasant enough.
Broadstairs seems like it's trying really hard not to be shit and for the most part manages, but is hated by the rest of Kent for its troubles. The other problem is that if you turn the wrong corner you find yourself in Margate or Ramsgate.
 
It is nice town to visit, but a mate of mine moved there as a returning Devonian for his retirement and has regretted it - too many blue-rinse Tories. Some other friends also moved there from Ottery but left again as there wasn't much for the kids.

Yeah I grew up in a comparable place in North Devon and it was pretty dull for kids. But for now I need to be somewhere I can commute to Exeter from and it seems nowhere in Exeter itself will let us rent a house with a dog :(
 
What's Totnes like?

Love/hate for me. Great record shop, couple of bars and pubs, and a few people doing interesting nights/radio (Generating Steam Heat if anyone knows them), but as LynneDoyleCooper says, also lots of hippies and Good Life poshos, not to mention some conspiracy loons of the worst kind:

 
Sidmouth aka the town at the mouth of the river Sid isn't well enough known to appear in these lists but is fantastic. There's no tacky arcades and it isn't full of second homes.

The frequent rock falls don't kill too many people to deter visitors and as long as you sit away from the base of the cliff you're ok.

The cafe at the top of Jacob's Ladder does massive bits of cake.

Went there last summer when it rained like crazy at Beautiful Days, was very impressed with the place, seemed like a very liveable town

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No. If you sleep somewhere else then it's a holiday. People who don't have holidays abroad aren't having staycations here.

There’s a difference between how some people think words ought to be used, and how they are actually used. A quick google shows this rather new word is variously defined, and as i said is therefore dependent on context. You have no right to mandate a particular use.
 
That's a shame. Our old house was opposite a popular dog walking park in the city centre but got snapped up as another student house.

Yeah we thought we'd have no trouble with the student numbers likely to drop sharply. Covid 19 has apparently passed by landlords and agents completely though as they all still want proof of employment, proof of income, landlord references etc etc. Me and Mrs Frank both have lost our jobs and our homes over the last few months so we don't have any of that stuff :(
 
There’s a difference between how some people think words ought to be used, and how they are actually used. A quick google shows this rather new word is variously defined, and as i said is therefore dependent on context. You have no right to mandate a particular use.
It's the North American holistay. Just because capitalism and classism lead to there being different tiers of holiday (staycation - aspirational daytrips and according to your definition holidays that aren't abroad) doesn't mean we should adopt that usage.
 
Nah, a staycation is staying at home - the place you live - and doing stuff at or from home. If you stay overnight at a place that isn't your home, that's a vacation/holiday.

No, staying at home isn’t any kind of cation, it’s simply staying at home.

However if you want to use the word that way, fine. Just don’t be upset if people misinterpret you because they take staycation to mean staying in the UK rather than going abroad.
 
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