Amble, Northumberland
At the mouth of the River Coquet, Amble has transformed itself into one of Northumberland’s most likable coastal stops. The harbor village is compact and friendly, with the popular pods: small wooden cabins housing food stalls and local makers, bringing fresh energy to the waterfront.
The Northumberland Seafood Centre is right on the seafront: a curved, modern structure with seashell mosaics on its exterior walls and a “lobster hotel” on the inside for the most snappy of the local seafood catch to safely hibernate while they’re carrying up to 20,000 eggs. They also sell hot kipper sandwiches and Lindisfarne oysters, perfect for devouring on Amble Links beach, a soft curve of pale yellow sand fringed by long grass, hogweed, and fox gloves.
Less edible, but just as beguiling, are Amble’s puffins, which number up to 40,000 during their nesting season spent on Coquet Island, a mile or so offshore. Take a summer boat trip for a close-up sighting before rounding off the day with a seafood platter at The Old Boathouse, which features hot and cold smoked salmon, pickled herring, mussels, and dressed crab.
Southport, Merseyside
There’s a surprising link between breezy Southport and the boulevards of Paris. This elegant seaside town, just north of Liverpool was home to a young Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1840s. After returning across the Channel to write himself into history, it’s believed that he modeled the Champs-Élysées on the long, straight, arcaded sweep of Lord Street. It’s easy to believe, such is the look of the orb-shaped streetlights and manicured gardens in what is far from your average Northern seaside town.
There’s a surprising link between football and the Pharaohs at The Atkinson, an arts center and museum whose star attraction is the extraordinary collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts collected by Victorian adventurer Anne Goodison, the husband of the engineer under whom Everton FC’s former stadium (now used by the women’s team) is named. Don’t miss a sighting of a rare surviving Ba-Bird here, a wooden figure placed on top of coffins to help spirits fly away.
Southport Pier (the second longest in Britain after Southend) has been closed for the last few years due to safety concerns. But that won’t stop you exploring one of the widest beaches in the country, so vast in fact that when the tide goes out, as much as two miles of soft sands, studded with tufts of marram grass, are exposed before you reach the water.
Come the evening, and you can sample a small piece of Bonaparte’s legacy at the Auberge Brasserie, which serves up Gallic comfort staples such as coq au vin, confit de canard, and parfait of chicken livers with toasted brioche.
