Camber Sands beach on a summer day with families on the golden sand and dunes

Family days out at Camber Sands

The beach is the headline act, but this coast has plenty of understudies ready when the weather turns or small people need a bit of novelty.

Beachside Cottage is set up for families: a travel cot, highchair and books for children, a fully enclosed garden, a garage so the buggy and beach kit never clutter the hall, and the sand a short walk away. Here is how we would spend a week.

Who it suits

Families with babies to teens. Toddlers get lagoons and rock pools; older children get kites, steam trains, karting and funiculars. Most of it is within twenty minutes of the cottage.

The beach with children: Aim for the two hours either side of low tide for warm, shallow lagoons. Swim only between the red and yellow flags when lifeguards are on duty (early May to late September, roughly 10am to 6pm). Keep children in sight near the water and away from the harbour mouth. A wristband scheme for lost children runs from the coastal office in season.
Facilities: Toilets by the Central car park and at the Welcome Centre (Changing Places facility). The village shop covers beach-day basics.
Getting about: Bus 102 to Rye in 15 to 20 minutes; most days out below are 10 to 35 minutes by car. Two parking spaces at the cottage.
At the cottage: Travel cot, highchair, children’s books, enclosed pebbled garden, a garage to park the buggy and beach kit, Smart TV with your own streaming sign-ins for rainy evenings, washer dryer for sandy clothes.

Sunny-day plans

Learn to fly a kite

Eastern end of the beachLessons from around age 12Power kites for everyone

Camber is one of the best kite beaches in the country. The licensed schools run taster sessions in kitesurfing, landboarding and kite buggying for older children, and simply flying a power kite on the sand makes a brilliant afternoon. Rye Watersports offers gentler paddleboarding and sailing on flat inland water. See the watersports guide.

Steam train day

Dungeness, 9 milesRomney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway

One-third-scale steam locomotives that have run along this coast since 1927. Childhood distilled. Ride from Dungeness up the coast and back with faces glued to the window, and climb the Old Lighthouse while you are there.

Hastings Old Town

About 35 minutesA full seaside day

Two Victorian funicular lifts, tall black net shops and a working fishing beach, the free Shipwreck Museum (a genuine gem), Hastings Contemporary gallery, crazy golf, arcades and rock pooling at low tide.

Rock pools and fossils

Pett Level and Fairlight, about 20 minutesLow tide onlyWellies on

At low tide the beach uncovers rock pools and even the stumps of a prehistoric sunken forest. Tide table checked, always.

Hides and binoculars

Rye Harbour, 5 milesFreeCafé at the end

Rye Harbour’s bird hides turn a morning into a proper safari. Children love ticking off avocets and oystercatchers, and the Discovery Centre café waits at the end with hot chocolate.

Golden sand dunes with marram grass at Camber Sands, East Sussex, looking down to the beach and sea — Low tide leaves warm lagoons and streams, the best natural playground on the south coast.

Rainy-day plans B, C and D

Rye Heritage Centre

Rye, 4 milesTown model and penny arcade

The sound-and-light town model is a charming twenty-minute potted history that children and adults both enjoy, followed by vintage penny arcade machines upstairs. Old-fashioned patience, old-fashioned joy.

Go-karting at Lydd

About 15 minutesRuns whatever the weatherBook ahead

An outdoor kart circuit with karts from small sizes upwards and a diner on site.

Kino, Rye’s cinema

Rye, 4 milesNew releases

A lovely independent cinema in the heart of town, and the ultimate wet Wednesday plan.

A ready-made family day

A morning on the sand while it is quiet, a picnic in the dunes, an afternoon steam trip from Dungeness with an ice cream at the lighthouse, fish and chips in Rye on the way home, then one round of the penny arcade if anyone is still standing.