A Family Day Out In Amble Northumberland

Living in the North East we are spoilt for choice with lovely coastal towns to explore, especially in Northumberland. So when the children had a extra day off school for the jubilee we decided to head to Amble in Northumberland for a family day out. Amble is located on the North East coast near Warkworth and Alnmouth and is a lovely harbour village filled with independent shops, places to eat and beautiful coastal views.

 It is about 30 miles north of Newcastle (about a 40 minute drive up the A1) or you can catch the bus from haymarket bus station in Newcastle city centre - the X18 or the X20 which takes about an hour and half (please check  the Arriva website for details). 

My grandparents used to have a carvan at Amble for a few years so I visited most weekends as a child and have lovely memories. Amble is not a big place, there is a main street with shops and then there is a harbour fishing village selling a range of gifts and local produce such as local drinks, geordie banger sausages, pet supplies and trinkets. 

There is the beach to explore, beach huts that you can hire out and a pier you can walk along. You can book onto a puffin cruise boat trip or walk the coastal path towards Warkworth which is very scenic. There is probably a lot more things to do as well as I have heard there is a soft-play, pottery painting place and different water-sports available too. 

We got fish and chips for lunch from the harbour chippy, which were delicious - top tip don't eat them near the beach or you will get swamped by greedy gulls! We wandered along the pier and I couldn't believe how clear the sea was! The tide was in and it was a bit chilly when we visited so sadly we didn't get to spend time on the beach. There was amazing views of nearby Coquet island and Warkworth castle and there was so many people taking photos as the views really are spectacular. 

We had a wander around the beautiful harbour village which is made up of wooden huts that are home to lots of local businesses. We  bought some Lindisfarne mead, some little  wooden trinkets for the children's bedroom, buffalo stick dog treats for the dogs and of course sweets for the children and some black bullet sweets for us grown ups.  Before having a walk into the town and looking in the shops, there was sweet shops, toy shops and lots of lovely independent shops along the high street. 

Of course no trip the coast would be complete without an ice cream so we visited Spurelli Ice cream parlour where we sat inside and enjoyed some delicious ice-creams. We tried the double strawberry, pistachio and salted caramel (which everyone loved), there was a great range of different ice-creams from classic favourites to ones we had never seen before. They also have a range of hot drinks and cakes to enjoy. 

We spent a few hours in Amble just having a wander around and looking in the shops and it was nice. There was plenty of public toilets to use - always useful when out with children. It was a canny little day out, we even stopped off at Morpeth on the way home so the children could play in the park and enjoy a Chinese from the bargain Chinese van. If you haven't been then you should go, here is a super old post from 2014 about our visit to the park and Chinese van A family day out at Morpeth park if you fancy a read. 

If your looking for somewhere for a day out in the summer that won't cost a lot of money then I would recommend a trip to Amble. There are lots of picturesque places to have a walk, a beach to play on and some lovely shops to have a look in. We didn't take our dogs with us on this occasion but there was lots of people walking dogs along the pier and in the harbour village so we would definitely take them again the next time we visit.