Love our beautiful beaches!

• Written by: Lorraine
• Written on: June 3, 2016
• Filed Under: Activities, Children, Local Area

Great news about our local beaches for 2016 (all of which are beautifully sandy remember). Seven of them have been awarded Blue Flag status. The Blue Flag is an international benchmark of quality celebrating the best beaches in the world. For our little corner of Kent to be awarded so many (more than any other area) speaks volumes about why Thanet is the perfect holiday destination for you and your family this year.

Beaches awarded with a Blue Flag this year are as follows:

Minnis Bay – at Birchington
West Bay – a short stroll from Margate station
St Mildred’s Bay – at Westgate – between Margate and Birchington
Botany Bay – between Broadstairs and Margate
Joss Bay – out just past North Foreland, between Broadstairs town and Botany Bay
Stone Bay – the “locals beach” just west of Viking Bay in the heart of Broadstairs – it’s huge and has lovely beach huts – and you can walk to the end then cut up between the cliffs to carry on walking all the way to Margate via North Foreland Lighthouse, Joss Bay and Botany Bay..
Ramsgate Main Sands – in the heart of our sister town, Ramsgate.

In addition three more of our local beautiful beaches have been awarded with a Seaside Award this year:
Westbrook Bay – between Margate and Westgate
Margate Main Sands – from the Turner to Dreamland and TS Elliot’s shelter
Viking Bay – Broadstairs’ main beach.

We encourage all our guests to enjoy the local beaches and suggest that after a day out they take their litter back to put in the bin in their holiday home rather than leave anything to clutter up our lovely environment. The council litterpickers work hard all summer, this year they will be starting at 5am and going through till 8pm to keep things looking spic and span for everyone, but of course we all need to do our bit not to strew litter around after us- or for the seagulls to play with.

A surprising new trend has been sweeping the towns of late, when groups of volunteers have been carrying out regular volunteer litterpicks to show their love for our sandy sweeps. Broadstairs Town Team are a particularly active and enthusiastic bunch!

Now visitors can join in the fun whenever they fancy a bit of beach activity. Well you might get a bit bored sitting on your towel watching the kids all day – or maybe it’s the youngsters who need an activity with a difference before they decide to bury Grandad and the baby under a pile of sand!  How about doing a quick 2 minute beach clean when you feel the urge to get up and move around a bit! It’s a satisfying way to help the marine environment and you’ll find you get lots of approving smiles from your fellow beach users if you take the time to pick up any stray items of litter you might happen to spot – you might even find you make a few new holiday friends as a result!

If you take part in a 2 minute beach clean while you’re here – or if you’ve ever taken part in an organised volunteer beach clean, tell us about it on our Facebook page – we’d love to hear about it!