beach day at west wittering beach - Bubbablue and me
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Sunny West Wittering beach day

Whenever we go on holiday, I always try to take N somewhere that’s close enough to go to the seaside for a beach day.  We recently stayed in Southsea, Portsmouth – yes it has its own beach but it’s shingle like so much of the south coast around that area. But a short journey to West Wittering and N had the sandy beach he prefers.

beach day at west wittering beach - Bubbablue and me

Oh and I have the pretty beach huts!  Which were surprisingly unused for such a beautiful hot day in the summer holidays.

I wasn’t sure how much parking there would be, so we arrived at West Wittering at around 9 o’clock. We were parked just opposite the café and right near the main walkway through to the beach, by the toilets and lifeguards.  And getting there early meant we had a choice of a pretty empty beach with the sea at low tide.  A short walk along and we set up.  It was perfect because we were close enough to the car to be able to leave valuables in there and just get money out when we wanted to go to the café rather than having to leave valuables on the beach when we go to the sea.

pretty beach huts at west wittering
beach huts at top of west wittering beach

N is mostly a digger.  He loves to build sandcastles, but prefers to just dig holes.  Or in this case, take over other people’s.  Having a few holes near us did help other people stay a bit further away.  Unlike the Aussie woman who pitched her beach tent virtually touching the next family’s windbreak, so ‘we’ll know where we’re place because we’ll see the windbreak’. That would have really annoyed me (and she blocked out our view of the sea!). As time went on it did get really busy, although not as bad as somewhere like Weymouth, and no aggressive seagulls either.

owning holes on west wittering beach
digging at west wittering
surveying the beach

N wanted to go down to the sea to fill in his moat.  I had to explain the sea was out and he wasn’t going to get the water up fast enough, but he still wanted to go down there.  But we only made it to the ‘lagoon’ behind the sandbar.  It was actually great for young children to paddle and play without being washed out on inflatables.  N didn’t really want to go in the water though. 

Since Wales camping when he refused to body board, he’s not really wanted to try again since then.  We did get his board out because he wanted to pull it around and I thought he might paddle on it, but nope, he wouldn’t get on.  Compared to last year when I couldn’t get him off it, his mind this summer has certainly gone a bit skew whiff when it comes to water and boats.  Very strange.

walking at west wittering beach
collecting water at west wittering beach
deeper water for paddling
sun over the beach at west wittering
in the calm waters at west wittering
dragging the body board

Unfortunately the safe swimming area between the flags was really small.  Too narrow for everyone who wanted to go in the water  and I don’t think that encouraged N.  But the water was lovely just paddling and enjoying the warmth.

We’d bought our sandwiches for lunch earlier than lunch – it turned out to be a great move because when we went back at around 12.30 to get ice creams, the queue was out the door.  I don’t understand why the ice cream only windows weren’t open (it was pre-packed ice creams only).  The queue didn’t seem to be moving and I had the right change, so grabbed a member of staff to ask if we could just take the ice creams and give her the money to pass on to those behind the till.  Phew, at least it meant we didn’t have to a) queue for ages in a queue with people waiting for hot food and hot drinks and b) ending up with melting ice creams before we’ve even paid.

The ice creams just finished off our beach day (morning) nicely, and we headed off for an afternoon exploring somewhere else.  West Wittering is a lovely beach and although neither of us can hack more than half a day at the beach unless we’ve got lots of friends with us, I’d love to go back there some other time.

lunch time on the beach
avoiding photos at west wittering

Where’s your favourite beach?

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13 Comments

  1. This is our go-to beach. You even took a photo of our favourite beach hut! Thankfully we managed to visit West Wittering at least 6 times this year 🙂 We’re local but no of loads of people who holiday down their just to be near x #CountryKids

  2. We love West Wittering – it’s actually one of our favourite beaches. Unfortunately during tide changes it’s often a small swim zone but once the tide is in / out properly then it opens up #CountryKids

    1. As visitors it’s hard to know when are the best times to go especially when you know it’ll be busy. I always check tide times though then at least I’ve got an idea.

  3. West Wittering is a lovely beach and one of our favourites. We always try to get a beach day in there when visiting family over the summer. The ‘lagoon’ that forms in front of the sandbar is brilliant – my nieces always take my girls paddling and swimming in that bit. It does get very busy on sunny days though. Looks like you had a lovely day for your visit 🙂 #countrykids

  4. Oh wow what a gorgeous sandy beach – I have to say I also prefer sand over pebbles and rocks! Also what wonderful weather – making me miss summer already, plus thought beach huts are so cute
    Just popping over from #countrykids

    Laura x

  5. It does look like a perfect day, especially since it looked warm too! Absolutely love beach huts, especially photos of them 🙂 #countrykids

  6. This looks very like our Cornish beaches except we don’t have those lovely looking beach huts. I love their bright colours and styling, how strange that not many of them were in use. The safe swimming area was probably determined by the current and swell that day, sometimes ours is restricted too especially if there are dangerous rip currents out to sea. Best to adhere to the flags even if it makes body boarding tricky. How lucky you were with the weather and finishing with an ice cream is always the best.

    Thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids

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