Saunton

Saunton beach, about 2 miles out of the village of Braunton, is a popular destination for tourists and locals. Car parking, at £4 a time, is fairly expensive, but worth it if you're going to spend all day there. The sands stretch out for miles and there are plenty of sand dunes for the children to play in when they're fed up of making sand castles. There are also rock pools and a couple of caves in the side of the cliff to explore.

Facilities include a toilet block, showers, shop, ice cream kiosk (not Hockings I'm afraid) and a cafe/bar. The beach is privately owned and the owners decided recently that they would not employ life guards so it's not quite as safe as next-door Croyde, but that hasn't seemed to deter anyone. The car park fills up just as quickly as it used to so it's wise to get here early.

We took a risk today and didn't arrive until 2.00. A rather nice young man waved us into a spot with his yellow flag and we found a spot on the sands which was wet enough to build sandcastles on but not so wet that we couldn't sit down. Sixty-five sandcastles and one sand-car (which rather more closely resembled a boat) later and my children decided it was time to make the long trek to the sea. Well two of them did. Grumpy teenager decided it would be more fun to lie about and listen to something vaguely musical on her MP3 player.

We played 'Count the dead crabs' on the way down to the waters edge then decided there were too many of them to bother. The water was lovely and warm and the waves not too high. Just right for us but annoying for the surfers. Half an hour later we made the long trek back up the beach and warmed up in the sunshine. A great afternoon.

Point of Interest:This was the beach where Robbie Williams filmed the 'Angels' video.