Ten Reasons to Go To Weston Super Mare seafront!

I am going to list below 

the TEN REASONS 

you really MUST 

go to 

Weston Super Mare. 

After reading them you can even watch this short 10 minute 

edited soundtracked video 

Vlog of our day :-)

1. It may not be the most golden of sands, but it is not a pebbly beach. Hoorrahh! At low tide it can be muddy but that's only near the water. I adore the sand! Even when the sand is dark/wet it's all the better to make sandcastles with and yes it sticks to you, but as soon as dry, falls off just the same as the white/golden stuff. Ignore the reviews that speak of mud - near the road it's as lovely as this even at low tide so dive right in like my Aaron:

2. The Land Train along the sea front is wonderful. I made a video of our trip on it this Thursday. It goes at a decent speed and provides a quick pleasant way of seeing some views. It enabled Aaron to spot the playground which we'd never otherwise have found as we hadn't planned on walking down that way.

3. The Grand Pier is fab. This is my friend Jane's video of her 11 year old's birthday party there:

4. The Weston Wheel is fab. I will be uploading a You Tube vid in the coming days! Yes the capsules are open, but the railings are good and high. You get to really enjoy the weather and the views on a sunny day. Also love the music they play on it. If you hate that feeling where your stomach rises as a ride descends, you don't actually experience that on the Wheel, which is GREAT as I hate that too. Literally cannot bear it. The Wheel goes at a good pace without that happening - thanks be to God!

5. We've been twice now and Aaron just ADORES the donkeys namely Jake, Paddy and Sandy :-) A ride down the beach and back up is a very reasonable 2 pounds!

6. There is a Premier Inn right on the sea front (they're one of my favourite hotels). Love their consistently high standards throughout the chain. I haven't yet stayed at that one though but we saw it from the Wheel (as you will hear when I finally edit and upload the footage).

7. There is a fabulous adventure playground with a water park (splash pad) on the seafront. It's 1.50 pounds to get in but free till 1st May. It's well worth a visit

8. It's a beach that is largely unspoilt. You feel as if you are being transported back to the 1960s (in a good way). It doesn't have the franticness of Brighton and the prices are way more reasonable!

9. There is currently a fab sand sculpture on, which is very affordable to access.

10. The best bit of Weston Super Mare is it doesn't get insanely busy like other beaches. Yes I took these pics in April (including the one below) but there is truly a slower pace of life in Weston that will chill you out and lower your blood pressure in a way that Brighton cannot (maybe my personal opinion) but you can't beat a holiday in the West Country to chill you out. Look at the speed at which a local says Brighton compared to the speed at which a local says Somerset. Says it all really ;-)

A lot of regeneration has taken place at Weston Super Mare including rebuilding the Grand Pier which was sadly burned down in 2008, and reopened in 2010, so it is spotless. We love the carousel (think horses like Mary Poppins style, on a merry go round - just opposite the entrance to the Grand Pier), which we went to last Summer, but sadly it wasn't open on our recent visit of Thursday 16th April.

When we stay at home, Aaron often makes me want to climb the walls, but at Weston, HE was climbing the walls. I'd say that ranked as one of his favourite parts of the day:

If you are within driving distance go on a day trip and if not, stay for a few days/a weekend. You won't regret it. I love the old fashioned cafe on the seafront where you can get a plate of chips for a pound. Told you it wasn't Brighton!!!!

Our trip to Weston made us very happy indeed

Liska xxx

A Day at The Beach Doesn't Have to Be Hot Especially if it's Weston Super Mare

So, last weekend, at the end of half term, we headed off for the beach. May as well end half-term with a bang eh? It was overcast and not particularly hot but that wasn't the reason we were going. We wanted to go on the rides, enjoy the "sea" air, look out to "sea" and just generally be there. Hubby doesn't like the heat, so it was the perfect day to go. Aaron's not yet done the whole beach thing (his last time at the beach was Summer 2012, a day trip to Brighton) so he wasn't nagging us to paddle or anything like that. PLUS he'd just been (I nearly forgot there) on Wednesday of half term, to Southend with me, ALL of his cousins, and my brother in law. So to him now, beach means rides. By the way did you know that Southend has the longest pleasure pier in the world - no I didn't either! Anyway rides is what we went to both beaches for. Great eh! No beach for 2 years and then 2 in 1 week. Like buses, you wait ages and two come along at once!

Will have to re-train Aaron when the weather kicks in, that sun, beach, sand and sea, means towels, picnics, cossies, sun cream, tans and sandcastles, and NOT rides.

You can tell by how he's dressed that it wasn't a particularly warm day:

He's sporting his brand new bucket and spade, as he's never owned one bless him!

I join in with #CountryKids when I can because Aaron is SUCH an outdoors active boy and because he ADORES animals and is fearless unlike me:

On honeymoon, would I go on a camel ride? Would I 'eck. But suggest a donkey ride to Aaron and on he hops, and even makes his Dad pay four times as he refuses to get off. I think if he could have done he'd have taken one of them home. Dare I go to Coombe Mill when he literally won't want to leave?

So, above kind of gives you an idea as to how a beach post has become a #CountryKids post. My boy, preferred more time with the animals than on rides. I am so glad I get out and about with him as much as I do, as this boy was built for the great outdoors. Don't get me wrong, he has about 15 favourite shows on TV, so he's not a complete farm hand, but he is a robust adventurer!

By the way, it's deliberate that he is on a donkey called JAKE as Jake and the Neverland Pirates is his favourite show on TV.

As enamoured as he was with the donkeys, what then made even more of an impression on him was the Weston Wheel,

The views from up there are spectacular which you don't really get from my photos - sorry. Hopefully you can see the bars on the right hand side of the beach photo to see that that is an on ride view :-)

What I haven't told you is Aaron did not at all want to go on. We had to drag him on convince him! Yet he couldn't get on quick enough for the second ride and as this pic shows, due to the cool temperatures (it didn't actually rain) there were no crowds, so bliss, no queues!

Whenever Aaron's had a good time, he doesn't want to leave. This was the "I don't want to go home yet pose!"

Which was closely followed by the "you will if I carry you pose"

But bless my fun seekers, on the way to the carpark they stopped at an arcades place (we got kicked off the pier as it closes quite early). So we stopped in somewhere, after the above, and they ended up having a full game of ten pin bowling. Considering I was on the team at Uni, you'd think I would have joined in, but my gout had given up the ghost by this point so I sat on a high bar stool and just enjoyed watching them have fun:

Oh, before I forget, apart from some GREAT donkey photos, this is my favourite photo from the day:

With our beach day in the bag, the next day, the Sunday, the last day of half-term, when the temperatures soared and everyone else was at the beach, we spent the day gardening:

I did a bit much, despite going easy, and ached for the next few days after. Clearly I need to do it more often and get fit. Who knew gardening could be exercise ;-)

Bye for now,

Liska xxxx