Hunstanton South Beach — Attraction in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

After visiting Cromer beach, I decided to take a drive to Hunstanton beach as I have never been there before. On Google maps it looked like it had a lot more to offer in the way of things to do.

When I arrived in Hunstanton my first stop was at the Tesco supermarket! Yes, it's nothing to do with the beach, but very handy for visitors who want to stock up on picnic supplies for the beach, use the toilets, and top-up petrol ready for the journey home.

Next, I headed for the beach, and parked on the large Seagate (West) grassed area carpark. Opposite the carpark is Rainbow Park fairground, offering a good range of classic fairground rides, including the Dodgems, Waltzer and Helter Skelter. All of the rides looked well maintained. The site also had an amusement arcade and a rather nice Rock & Sweet shop named Rocky Thompson's that sold a large range of classic sweets.

The beach opposite the Rainbow Island park looked ok, but it had quite a lot of rocks and stones, so not the best beach for kids to play on. The beach at Old Hunstanton is said to be better, but I did not explore that beach myself.

From Rainbow Park, I walked along the coastline till I reached the Pier Family Entertainment building. I past a SeaLife centre, a crazy golf course, a play centre with swimming pool, a gift shop, a cafe, a bar, a fish & chip shop, an ice cream shop, and amusement arcades. So, there are quite a few facilities families can use. There are plenty of public toilets around Hunstanton too, which is useful.

Like Cromer, Hunstanton is another good area to visit for a family day trip or short break. However, I would say that there are only enough facilities at Hunstanton to keep a family entertained for 3 days. Great Yarmouth or Skegness offer much more for a longer family holiday. For older visitors who like to walk and explore, Hunstanton offers enough, especially if you explore Old Hunstanton too that has a lighthouse, nice looking cottages, and the wreck of the steam...

I didn't find Hunstanton beach a pleasant experience, it wasn't clean, most of the foreshore esplanade is under construction, including Sealife aquarium and there was an unpleasant smell, likely from the build up of seaweed.

The amusement area with rides was errie, open, with no one around.

We happened to be in the area for other reasons and thought a stop at the beach would be nice. I think we will be exploring somewhere else next time.

If you park at the Seagate space, either download the app to pay for parking or have change to put in the machines. Some machines were out of order, which meant trekking a bit to find one...

Hunstanton is not the prettiest of sea side resorts and the promenande along the beach is mostly a concrete lump. Little has been spent to make the beach strip more visually appealling. What on earth is the carbuncle of a bowling alley doing towering over the promenade area?! The food and drink options are particularly average with nothing too exciting to be found here. I do enjoy a wander along the promenade and there were plenty of people wandering around on a Sunday afternoon. Hunstanton is a very average...