Clacton on Sea

It was the week after I'd got my British driving licence and a car. I had been waiting for this moment for a long time. I was very eager to go on my first ever long drive out of London. From where I live in East London (Ilford, Manor Park, eastHam etc...), Clacton on Sea is about 75 miles away (postcode is CO15 6JS) and is about 1 hour and 30 minutes drive. I was not very confident of driving on the motorways, dual carriageways and countryside roads and hence after a bit of convincing, a friend of mine agreed to come with me in the car, who was going to meet me directly at Clacton Via the train otherwise :). We booked a hotel called "The Cabana" (Postcode - CO15 1UL) which was rated highly by booking.com.

Initially I intended to book a caravan but due to delay in booking, I couldn't find any at the time of booking which was on a Friday and we planned to travel the next day. The Cabana was a bed and breakfast. We paid £59 for a double room with all basic facilities including free WiFi, free breakfast and sea views. The owners, Catherine and Mark, were very friendly and nice. The rooms and the B&B seemed clean and tidy. It was just a few minutes' walk away from the sea. The Pier and the high street was also about 7 to 10 minutes' walk away from the B&B. Off street parking was free and just opposite to the hotel. There is a bowling ground in front of the hotel and apart from the sea views we could watch live bowling from the hotel room :). Usually on the day of check in we prefer having English breakfast at some local Wetherspoon. Luckily there was a Wetherspoon (Moon and Starfish - CO15 1PU) in the high street. It was very busy. We had reached at about 1:30 PM and hence there wasn't any breakfast and they said that the brunch option was taken off the menu. So, I had Lamb curry with naans and pulao rice and my friend had a veggie burger, chips and onion rings. We paid about £13 for this meal.

For some reason my friend wasn't in a state of mind of eating what I ordered for her. So, she just didn't eat most of it. Since she was still hungry we found a classic place called Toby Carvery (Postcode - CO15 1NW). It was like a huge pub and did some kind of Pub buffet. However, since my friend is a vegetarian, she ordered Broccoli & Brie Parcel with J2Os. There were nice sea views from this pub. After finishing her lunch, we went to the beach. It was a nice and clean blue flag sandy beach. I think Blue flag beaches are quite nice and clean and one of the best beaches in Europe. There were colourful beach huts, cafes and walls with cool graffiti, some people were riding on motor boats.

There were a few rocks on the beach presumally to create water puddles for people to play in. The houses next to the beaches had nice gardens and there was a very beautiful and well maintained garden between the high-street and the beach. There were loads of amusement rides near the pier. Also at a walking distance there was a gold course as well. The first day we decided to order a takeaway from Hungryhouse but then decided to order from Dominos. We got a nice large Veg Volcano with 10 slices for about £16. The next morning breakfast was server between 8:30 and 9:30. The free breakfast was quite nice and included the following - milk and about 5 different boxes of cereals to choose from, tea/coffee, orange juice, 1 fried egg, beans, 2 beacons, 1 sausage, toasted breads, about 6 butter cuboids for the bread, grilled tomato, 1 hash brown.

After a nice breakfast we went to the high street and bought 2 pairs of slippers to stroll on the beach. The water forming the waves wasn't very cold and hence we could get our feet in the water and in the puddle mentioned above. It was fun to just chill on the beach. Although there was one annoying thing that happened. After checking out and before heading to the high street to buy slippers, when we headed to my parked car to keep the stuff in the car boot, we found loads and loads of tiny spiders all over my car. There were some on the car next to mine and my friend spotted and removed almost 10 spiders crawling over my coat. While at a local cafe the owner told us that during this time of the year due to winds tiny spiders are all over Clacton and even in the air! Apart from this tiny bit of annoyance, the trip was nice. If you like nice and clean and quiet beaches, then Clacton on sea is the place to visit!