England's coast changes character every few hours of driving: Atlantic granite in the far south-west, red cliffs and chalk stacks along the Channel, shingle and dunes in the south-east, then the saltmarsh of Norfolk and the castles and islands of Northumberland. The retreats that suit it vary just as widely, from island hotels that open only in the warmer months to year-round houses built for wind and weather. Travelling clockwise from the Isles of Scilly, here is how the options compare, and what to plan for.
The Isles of Scilly: plan the crossing first
The Scillies lie some thirty miles beyond Land's End, and getting there is part of the planning. A passenger ferry sails from Penzance through the main season, and small planes and a helicopter service link the islands with the Cornish mainland, weather permitting. Luggage allowances on flights are tight and sea fog can delay departures, so leave slack at both ends of the trip.
Hell Bay Hotel is the only hotel on Bryher, the smallest inhabited island: low buildings painted in washed blues and greens, set around gardens and a heated swimming pool, with the Atlantic breaking on the western shore and pale, sheltered sand a few minutes' walk east. Many suites are effectively small apartments with sea-facing terraces, and the kitchen, with three AA rosettes, leans on crab and lobster from the day boats. It opens from late March to mid-October; rooms from around £210 a night.
Star Castle Hotel on St Mary's is a star-shaped fort of the 1590s on the Garrison, the headland over Hugh Town, its ramparts and dry moat still intact. Rooms inside the castle are small and thick-walled, while the garden suites are lighter and more spacious. The family also make wine on St Martin's, and each morning launches from the quay below carry visitors out to the other islands. It is typically open from early spring to late autumn, from around £190.
Cornwall: north coast surf or south coast shelter
Cornwall's two coasts behave differently. The north faces the Atlantic, with big beaches, surf and exposed headlands; the south is gentler, with estuaries, sheltered coves and harbour villages.
The Scarlet at Mawgan Porth is an adults-only hotel built on the clifftop with sustainability as its starting point: planted roofs, biomass heating and a chlorine-free pool filtered through reeds. Rooms face the sea, some with outdoor baths or decks, and hot tubs and a sauna line the cliff edge. Rooms from around £275.
On the Roseland Peninsula, Hotel Tresanton climbs the hillside above St Mawes in an old yacht club and a cluster of fishermen's cottages, with mosaic terraces and views across Falmouth Bay to St Anthony Head. Rooms are pale and hung with Cornish art, and guests can sail on the hotel's 1939 racing yacht. From around £290. A few miles east, The Nare Hotel sits directly above Carne Beach and is traditional by choice, with antiques, cream teas and dogs in the bar, plus outdoor and indoor pools and a vintage motor yacht of its own. From around £328.
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Devon and Dorset: tides and the Jurassic Coast
Burgh Island Hotel is the coast's great set piece: an Art Deco hotel of 1929 on a tidal island off Bigbury-on-Sea. When the tide is out, guests stroll over the sand; when it is in, a high-stilted sea tractor ferries them across. The period interiors survive, from the glass-domed Palm Court to the ballroom, and dressing for dinner is encouraged. Outside are a clifftop walk, the Mermaid Pool among the rocks and the Pilchard Inn, a fourteenth-century pub by the beach. From around £420.
The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site runs from Exmouth in Devon to Studland in Dorset. At its eastern end, THE PIG-on the beach is a gabled Victorian house looking over Studland Bay to Old Harry Rocks, which operates as a restaurant with rooms whose menu follows the kitchen garden. The look is deliberately faded; the beds and bathrooms are not. Treatments take place in huts at the foot of the garden, and a path through the dunes leads down to the sand. From around £215.
The south-east and East Anglia
The Gallivant faces the dunes at Camber in East Sussex, where the sands run for miles at low tide. It is pared back and wellness-minded, with daily yoga, a Bamford spa and no televisions in some rooms, and dogs are welcome. Harry's, the restaurant, buys from the fishing boats of Rye and Hastings. Rye itself is four miles off, and trains from there reach London St Pancras in around seventy minutes, so weekends fill early. From around £205.
North Norfolk is a different coast again, of saltmarsh, creeks and shingle spits, and some of the best birdwatching in England. Morston Hall, a flint-and-brick house on the coast road near Blakeney, is small, and dinner is a set daily menu from Galton Blackiston's kitchen, which has long drawn Michelin recognition. Boats leave Morston quay to see the seals at Blakeney Point; grey seals pup there in winter, which makes the colder months worth considering. From around £320.
Northumberland: castles, causeways and quiet beaches
England's north-east coast is far quieter than its south, with long empty beaches and a chain of castles. Doxford Hall Hotel & Spa is an 1818 house in farmland a few miles inland between Alnwick and the sea, with thirty-six bedrooms and a proper spa with a pool. Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh castles, boat trips to the Farne Islands from Seahouses and the road across to Lindisfarne are all within easy reach. That causeway floods at high tide, so check the published safe crossing times before setting out. From around £185.
When to go
For the Scillies, May to September gives the most dependable crossings and the longest days, and both featured hotels close through the winter. Cornwall and Devon are busiest in the school summer holidays, when lanes and car parks fill; June and September are quieter, and the sea is at its warmest in late summer. The east coast is at its best for birds in spring and for seals and empty beaches in winter. All rates quoted are indicative starting prices and vary with the season.
