A brief guide to visiting Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire
Everyone’s heard of the (sometimes tasteless) campsites at Skegness. But there’s a lot more to Lincolnshire’s coastline than just this.
Exhibit A is the coastal town of Sutton-on-Sea, which has a very different feel than the brash lights further south and is not quite as busy either.
I’ve been coming to Sutton-on-Sea all my life. Both my parents were taken here on holiday as kids, and it’s a favourite haunt of my extended family. There’s just something nice about being on the Lincolnshire coast!
I’ve put this short guide together to give you some information about visiting. Putting it together made me super nostalgic, and I hope it inspires you to visit.
About Sutton-on-Sea
Sutton-on-Sea is a small town on Lincolnshire’s coast in the east of England.
Sutton is so out of the way that you would never stumble on it; if you didn’t intend to visit, you would never come. It’s an hour’s drive from Lincoln and half an hour from Skegness, the nearest hotspots for visitors.
The town itself is fairly mundane, with a couple of hotels, takeaways and general shops. But that’s fine, as the draw lies at the beach.
The beach
Lincolnshire’s coast is rimmed by one long beach. Reinforced by pumped sand and concrete sea walls, it’s home to a long sandy beach, which at low tide becomes a wide, flat expanse with flowing streams entering the ocean.
It does have to be said: Sutton-on-Sea’s beach is not for you if you want white sand or picture perfect views. The sea floor around here is incredibly muddy, so the foreshore can sometimes include mud flat areas, and the sea is an unattractive shade of brown.
As a child, I took no notice of the sea’s colour and dove right in – and you’ll see plenty of families and groups of kids doing that now. But as an adult, the thought of getting in that water makes me go eek. It just doesn’t look clean and I wouldn’t want to get in there.
The sand itself isn’t the nicest to be honest either. Sand dune-type grasses grow in much of the area above the high tide mark, which makes the sand contain all sorts and gives it a grimy feel.
However, there remains plenty to be had on the beach itself. My particular favourite is the plentiful shells you’ll see on the shoreline. And if that doesn’t take your fancy, there’s a paddling pool in summer where kids can splash around.
Beach huts
For some, Sutton-on-Sea represents a step back to a more traditional holiday.
Sutton has previously been known for its beach huts, which run along the seafront in both directions. Some of the most brightly painted ones were along a colonnade. They had little balconies so you could look over the area behind the promenade, over the boules lawn, tennis courts and play area. If you were wanting to look over the sea (and let’s be fair, that’s why most of us are there), there was a front area where you could do that too.
When visiting as a kid, we always rented a beach hut for the day or week: whatever we were up to. My aunt rented the beach hut on the end for the summer season and I was always quite smug about it, as the end one had about two feet more space than the rest of them on the main stretch. That two feet feels quite exciting when you’re six!
Sitting on the striped deckchairs, sheltered from the sea breeze, feels like the archetypal British holiday.
The current situation
If you visit Sutton-on-Sea tomorrow, you won’t get the picture postcard view. The colonnade on the main stretch which hosted many of the beach huts has been demolished due to safety concerns. The play area, bowls lawn and tennis courts are gone.
Instead, you will find a building site. The Council has a regeneration project there now; they are promising to replace them with an ultra-modern building with cafes, flexible space and a viewing platform.
How this building will suit the town remains to be seen – it’s quite different to what’s already present! I’m hoping it will be a good use of space, but it’s hard to tell at this stage.
On a positive note, you can still rent beach huts all along the promenade going north towards Mablethorpe or south towards Sandilands, to invoke the same kind of holiday feeling. The paddling pool also hasn’t been touched, so you can still splash about there.
How to get to Sutton-on-Sea
Being around an hour’s drive from the nearest city, Sutton-on-Sea is generally not accessible from public transport. Therefore, it’s best to drive.
There’s plenty of parking, with a large car park just five minutes’ walk from the beach. There’s also plenty of free road parking in Sutton-on-Sea; just turn left off the High Street when you’re entering the town and the criss-crosses of roads contain an abundance of places to leave your car. There’s some free road-side parking along the High Street and other roads too, but these often have a 1 hour time limit on them.
If you’re visiting from a nearby Lincolnshire village, buses are also an option. Bus routes connect Sutton-on-Sea to Alford, Spilsby, Louth, Grimsby and Skegness. But for the most part you’ll already have needed to drive to reach those towns…
Where to stay in Sutton-on-Sea
I’ll be honest: the accommodation at Sutton-on-Sea is relatively limited.
There are only a couple of hotels. The only one I’ve stayed in is the Bacchus, which is also the largest of the establishments. I’ve found my stays there to be a mixed bag, as it is a bit dated but still quite expensive; I guess that’s what happens when there isn’t much competition.
Another choice would be one of the many holiday homes for rent in the surrounding area.
The third and final option would be to stay at a camping or caravan site a bit outside of the town. There are many options on the outskirts of Sutton-on-Sea and nearby Mablethorpe and in the surrounding countryside. Most of these campsites are a bit out of the town so you might need to drive in.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about staying a bit further away from the town. There isn’t much going on in the evening in Sutton so you won’t be missing much.
Where to eat
As you’d expect from a village, Sutton isn’t exactly overflowing with dining options. There are a fair few takeaways and a couple of restaurants to pick from.
My favourite takeaway is Waldo’s, a fish and chip shop. When I was younger they also operated as a restaurant, and I loved visiting. They used to sell ice cream in plastic penguins which I was obsessed with!
The Sea Breeze is probably the most upmarket option in the town. I last went as a teenager and can’t honestly remember why we stopped going. Either way, it might be your best bet for restaurant quality food.
The Corner Cafe has always been a favourite of my grandparents, but they very much keep to their own time, which doesn’t make it the most reliable.
What to do in Sutton-on-Sea
Sutton-on-Sea is a traditional seaside town where you can do traditional seaside ventures. Some of the options are:
- Walk to Mablethorpe along the promenade. This walk takes around one hour and takes you past an array of beach huts and sand dunes. The bright lights of Mablethorpe come as a shock afterwards.
- Take the kids to the paddling pool. Sutton’s paddling pool is located by the main entrance to the beach from the main road. This is a shallow pool, vaguely shaped as a maple leaf. Let your children run wild here in relative safety!
- Making sandcastles on the beach. Given the large tidal range at the beach, one of my favourite things to do is to make a large sandcastle on the foreshore and watch as the tide comes in and destroys it.
Of course you’ve also got the option to go on day trips to nearby Skegness, or even inland towards the Lincolnshire Wolds. There are lots of activities to pick from!
Conclusion
I could go on and on about my childhood memories about Sutton-on-Sea, a village on the Lincolnshire coast. But I won’t – I’m sure you’ve got better things to do!
I hope this guide helps you to plan your trip to Sutton-on-Sea, or at least has given you a better idea of what the village and beach are like.
Would this be your kind of holiday? Let me know in the comments.
