Tenby Beach, Wales

There are many beautiful beaches in the UK.  There are so many that are a bit out of the way and not explored as much.  We will look at some of these here.

In the south of England, people flock to Bournemouth and Brighton beaches and they can be very crowded on a hot day.  Instead, try West Wittering, a National Trust property that features a long sandy shore and less people.  It is about one and a half hours from London.  When I lived there, this is where I would go for a day out. 

In Somerset, Brean beach has a 7 mile stretch of sandy beach which is flat and clean. In North Somerset, instead of heading to Weston-super-Mare, head a bit north to Sandy Bay Beach.

There are many well-known beaches in Cornwall but one of my favourites is Marazion Beach which looks across at St. Michael's Mount. This is a large safe, sandy beach between Marazion and Penzance.

Instead of busy Torquay in Devon, go to Blackpool Sands south of Dartmouth. It is a great place for families as the beach is very safe. You can go kayaking and paddle boarding here and there is a sheltered cove to swim in and a children-only sandpit.

Beautiful Holkham Beach in Norfolk is widely known for being one of the best sandy beaches in England but it is more of a walking beach than a swimming area.  It is a National Nature reserve and has many nesting birds here.

People love to walk the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales and here you will find many isolated and quiet, sandy beaches.  An example of these is Skrinkle Haven (parking is 500 metres down the road at Manorbier Youth Hostel) but there are 140 steps down to the ocean.  The water is a bit cold!  A beauty is Barafundle Bay which is a half mile walk from the National Trust carpark.  Or you can walk two kilometres here from Broadhaven South beach. Other beaches can be reached by car such as Tenby beach and Saudersfoot beach by towns of the same name.

Scotland has many sandy beaches but the water is quite cold all year long. On the west coast is Achmelvich Bay in the Scottish Highlands.  Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris is very Caribbean like until you test the water temperature!  There are so many sandy beaches on the Outer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands too.

In Northern Ireland, you will find beaches in County Londonderry (the 7 mile beach at Benone Strand), County Antrim (long isolated stretches of beach at White Park Bay and soft white sands at Portrush), and in County Down (flat sandy Murlough Beach and 2 miles of flat, sandy shores at Tyrella Beach).

​Enjoy exploring the beaches wherever you are this summer!

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England, UK

Tennis Season is upon us!

From May until July every year is the season for professional tennis tournaments on grass in England.  The smaller tournaments are warm ups to the prestigious tournament and one of the four Grand Slam Tournaments - The Championships, Wimbledon.  In 2026, it runs from June 29-July 12.

The main tennis tournament leading up to Wimbledon is the HSBC Queen's (London), It is on at the moment (it started on June 6 and runs until June 14th for the Women's Tennis Association). This year there was a surprise contender - Serena Williams made an appearance playing doubles. The men will play from June 13-21 (ATP for the Association of Tennis Professionals).

Some of the top players slated to play at Queen's are Jack Draper (UK), Tommy Paul (USA), Holger Rune (Denmark), Denis Shapovalov (Canada), Alex de Minaur (Australia) and Lorenzo Musetti (Italy).  On the women's side are Elena Ruybakina (World #2 from Kazakhstan), Amanda Anisimova (USA), Emma Raducanu (UK), Victoria Mboko (Canada), Belinda Bencik (Switzerland), Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine), Victoria Mboko (Canada) and Leylah Fernandez (Canada).

A tournament that was already held this month was the Lexus Birmingham Open which was frorm May 30-June 7 at Edgbaston Priory Club.  Otto Virtanen (Finland) was this year's Men's Single's champion, beating out Colton Smith in the final in straight sets.  Alexandra Eala (Philippines) was the Women's Single's champion, winning over Nikola Bartunkova 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.                               

Other tournaments this June will be:

Lexus Ilkley Open from June 7-14 at the Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club in Yorkshire
Lexus Nottingham Open from June 13-21 at the Nottingham Tennis Centre
Lexus Eastbourne Open from June 20-27 at Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club
Lexus British Open Roehamption from June 28-July 3 at the Roehampton Tennis Centre

Tickets for these tournaments are less expensive and easier to come by. Outside of the Wimbledon and Queen's Tournaments, you are most likely to see top players at the Eastbourne tournament.

The line up for top professional players for the Eastbourne tournament is entirely different than the line up for Queen's.  At Eastbourne this year will be women players such as Jasmine Paolini (Italy), Madison Keys (USA), Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia), Maria Sakkari (Greece) and Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic). On the men's side will be Taylor Fritz (USA), Tomas Etcheverry (Argentina), Gabriel Diallo (Canada), Jaume Munar (Spain) and Francisco Cerundolo (Argentina).

Tickets for Wimbledon are by auction. You will have more of a chance of attending if you live in Wimbledon.  Many people line up early in the morning to get a ticket in one of the stadiums for the day.  Outside of that, you can get an entrance ticket and get into the grounds.  There are monitors inside the grounds to watch the tennis and usually on what is referred to as Henman's Hill, named after the English tennis player Tim Henman who received an OBE after he had a successful career as a professional tennis player for England.  He won 15 ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tour titles in the early 2000's and was the first English player to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the 1970's.  Scotland's Andy Murray won at Wimbledon twice (2013 and 2016) and won the US Open in 2012.  There was talk of changing the name of Henman's Hill at that time but it never took hold.

If you are a lover of the game of tennis, now is the time to indulge!  Go see a game if you can and get your raquet out of the closet and head to the courts.  Wherever you are in the world, there is sure to be one near you,  

In the UK, the Championships Wimbledon is covered every day by BBC.