The Sunday Times July 21, 2019 17SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY; GETTYDREAM DESTINATION A ride at Dreamland. Above, Margate
Harbour Arm in the sunshineRamsgateBroadstairsMARGATE1 milewide, bright promenade,
gawping at a sun starting to
set. The beach was still
rammed and the children built
some of the worst sandcastles
I’ve ever seen, while people
who were white in the
morning took selfies and
realised they were now red.
It was gorgeous and a bit
edgy, just like home, and while
the point of a holiday is to get
away from home, I didn’t care.
Ezra said one of his shells
looked like a ghost. He loves it,
and keeps it for memories in
a box by his bed.least. Which means, especially
when it rains, show me the
nearest tuppenny shelf
machines — the games that
still dominate arcades around
our shores. At an arcade in
Margate, I gave my son a load of
2p coins and they entertained
him for half an hour. Bliss. I
could look at my phone.
My dad used to go to
Margate when he was younger,
and I assume he played on
the same machines. They
certainly didn’t look new, but
after tokens and a few coins
had clattered down, and Ezra
had exchanged his meagre
winnings for some tat, I’ve
rarely seen him so elated. He
was also learning important
lessons about disappointment,
because what is life if not a
shelf filled with money that
keeps on offering the hope of
cash, only for you to hear it
paying out somewhere else?
The four of us had a double
scoop of ice cream each
afterwards, as we sat on theabout making said children
happy. It is a lesson some learn
the hard way, on a long-haul
back from New York because
the grown-ups wanted to see
The Ferryman on Broadway.
I’ll take the possibility of
smiles over tantrums any day,
please, for the next decade atall ages. It is spick and span,
which parents like, but, more
important, packed with classic
postcard rides such as
dodgems and waltzers, and
a rollercoaster to leave their
stomach way up there.
After all, holidays with
young children are really alltowns have that, quite literally,
in spades.
The other attraction the
best resorts have is fairground
rides. Once again, Margate
has an advantage here. Its
landmark Dreamland park,
built in the 1920s, reopened
in 2015 and is ideal for kids offrom Scarborough to Southend,
but certainly not in a place
like Southwold, in Suffolk.
This was not a boutique trip.
Kids don’t care about Aesop
soap: they just want to prod
a bit of seaweed tangled up
with cod-and-chips paper,
and classic British seaside
Sennen or park at Trevedra Farm, up the
cliff at the back of the beach.31 AM MEALLAN, HIGHLANDS
Proof that the most magical beaches
don’t need blue skies is the wilderness at
the end of the road out of Oldshoremore.
In sunlight, with huge dunes and treeless
hills falling into the sea, it could be in
South Africa. In the whiplash rain of a
Scottish spring westerly, though, it looked
like the embarkation point for purgatory.
I thought I was alone, but a couple from
Halifax were huddled in the lee of a rock,
sipping tea from a flask. When they found
out my mission, they urged me to drop
Am Meallan from the list. Sorry, Peter and
Rosie. It’s nice to share.32 ALNMOUTH, NORTHUMBERLAND
The 17th-century Schooner Inn, on
Northumberland Street, is the most
haunted hotel in Britain, claiming about
3,000 sightings of more than 60 ghosts —all victims of Alnmouth’s past as a refuge
for smugglers, fugitives and other
troubled souls. On a sunny day, though,
there’s no sign of the supernatural. South
of the village, the fast-flowing River Aln
winds through the dunes to Alnmouth
Bay. To the left of its mouth, a wide,
sandy, family-friendly beach. To the
right, a glorious four-mile walk along
the sands via Warkworth to Amble
Harbour Village, where Mocha Mondo
serves the best coffee in Northumberland
(mochamondo.co.uk).33 CUCKMERE HAVEN, EAST SUSSEX
There’s no artistic licence in Eric
Ravilious’s 1939 watercolour of Cuckmere
Haven. The river really does squirm like a
silver snake, and the floodplain creeks
really do reflect the sky. What Eric didn’t
show was the wild shingle beach and the
white cliffs of the Seven Sisters rising like
guillotined hills to the east. There’s nowt
here but bracing walks and views, so pack
a picnic and follow the footpath for a mile
south along the river from the Seven→ Continued from page 15Continued on page 20 →33
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