Not as popular as nearby Camber, but actually a better beach in some respects. I have mostly been to this beach to attend PKA events.
From London, come off M20 at junction 10. Get on the A2070 and head south. Follow signs for New Romney. Go through New Romney High Street and turn right to get to Greastone-on-Sea. Turn right again until you get to the sea. Continue until you get to a car park near some shops. This is the best car park, as it is next to the best bit of beach. You have to pay at some times of year.
Unusually, the beach faces east. This makes it an ideal alternative when all those westerly facing beaches have nasty offshore winds. The sand is patchy. Some good hard stuff near the car park. But watch out for the mud. You can sink in it!
Conduct: In the winter months, the RSPB like you to keep off the mud because it disturbs feeding birds.
The mud varies from quite hard, wet and ripply, to totally soft; go cautiously while you are exploring it. If the mud is good, the beach is large. It's worth heading south towards Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the beach extends a long way, but gets narrower.
I don't often go to this beach, but it's popular beach with the London and Kent crowd. You can normally find about 10 buggies on a Sunday with a good tide.
From London, come off M20 at junction 10. Get on the A2070 and head south. Follow signs for Lydd Airport until you see signs for Camber. You have to for the car park near the beach.
The beach faces south. It's best with a southerly wind, since the beach has bars of good sand running along its length. There's a steep bank behind the beach, which messes up offshore winds. If it's and east or north wind you'd do well to check out nearby Greatstone.
Conduct: You should walk a bit up the beach beyond the KitKat Cafe before setting up. This leaves the beach clear for Jo Public who doesn't go more and 200 yards from his car. If there are horses (there used to be), keep a distance.
It's worth heading to the east end of the beach. It's a good distance before you reach the fences surrounding Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. Watch out for rivers.
This is my nearest beach. If you go there on a Sunday with a good tide you will often find other buggies there. It's not big but it's OK.
6 miles south of Chichester. You have to pay about £3 to park (depending on time of year).
The beach faces west, but the site works well with most wind directions. The best bit is at the far (North) end, beyond the groins. The sand is generally hard, but can be wet and ripply.
Conduct: In the summer only you should only buggy in the large area in the North. It can get crowded in the summer; if it's too crowded to buggy safely don't buggy! Watch out for dogs. Don't buggy on the grass, road or car park. Speak to the warden on the quad bike if you are unsure.
The sand shifts a lot. If you are lucky big sandbars open appear on very low tides, but watch the tides if you venture out onto them! Currents are very strong as the whole of Chichester Harbour fills through the narrow channel. On a North wind, check out the steep, hard packed bank on the Northern end of the beach. You can often find 'interesting' big moguls bumps along the edges of the sandbars.
In 1992, 1993 and 1994 Spider organised the "Gwithian Sport Kite Calssic". These were the first buggy events in the UK. I went in 1994; great event. The beach was a bit soft, and was backed by large dunes.
I have not been to Weston for a couple of years. It is a popular beach because it is very accessible. You can park right on the beach.
You can either get onto the beach at Weston itself or at Upton (the south end of the beach).
The beach faces West. The sand is generally hard and smooth down to a line of posts. Beyond the line of posts it is the nastiest muddy mud that ever oozed upon the surface of the earth. If the mud gets on your stuff wash it off before it sets like concrete. Wear a face mask to stop the mud getting into your face; it can make you ill.
Conduct: I don't know the current rules of this beach. If you go there I suggest you check out the current access from the locak kite/buggy shop UFO 01934 644988.
I have been to Westward Ho! a couple of times because there have been events there. It's not as good as nearby Saunton, but it might work better on a Northerly and it is in a town full of pubs.
From M5 junction 27 take the A361 towards Barnstable. Just before Barnstable, take the A39 towards Bideford, then follow signs for Westward Ho!
The beach faces West. It is hard and smooth. There can be rocks sticking out of the sand. There is a big bank of large grey stones at the back of the beach, which looks like they were put there. Surprisingly they are natural. The Council seems to positively encourage parakarting!
I have been to Saunton a few times, mostly for informal get-togethers relating to the PKA. On a typical Sunday you will probably find a few local buggiers.
From M5 junction 27 take the A361 to Barnstable. Once in Barnstable, follow signs for Braunton. In the middle of Braunton turn left at the traffic lights. This takes you through Saunton (a very small village). The beach car park is down a steep track to the left, just before the Hotel. The car park costs about £2.
The beach faces West. There is a big headland to the North, which messes up a Northerly wind. The surface is mostly hard packed fine sand; a good rolling surface, and beautifully clean. There are occasional soft sections. The soft bits don't look any different to the hard bits (in 1999 I broke and dislocated by shoulder by 'tripping' on a soft but at about 40mph).
Conduct: As you arrive on the beach, you should walk about 200m away from the car park before setting up. This gets you out of the crowd, and also over the initial soft patch. If you organise any event that has media coverage, you must agree it Christies Estate, owners of the car park and Saunton Sands Hotel. If you fail to do so, they might not give you access to the beach.
It's worth sailing down to the far end of the beach; it gets a bit soft, but it's a good expedition.
I have been here once, for the 'Gold Coast' event in 1999. The beach faces West and is backed by tall dunes. The sand is a little soft. Nice location good pub.
This is the sire of the annual BBC (British Buggy Club) event. I have not been to it for the past couple of years. At other times of year buggying is not allowed. The event is generally well attended, has a beer tent, and seems to include a certain amount of dressing up as women. Buggying is not very organised, though there are usually events such as speed trials, jumping off ramps (don't enter this) and some small beginners races. It now has a kite surf focus.
To get there, come off the M5 at junction 22. Go through Burnham-on-Sea, and head North the Berrow. You should see the beach car park entrance on you left as you enter Berrow. It costs about £2 to park on the beach all day.
The beach faces West. It is generally hard and smooth, where you enter. Towards the sea there is mud. Like Weston the mud smells and sets like concrete.
Conduct: The amount of beach that you can use seems to change every year. If you go to the event, you will be told when you register.
I have only been here once, and that was to do Sand Yachting. Buggying is currently not allowed! As the crow flies, it's just a couple of miles south of Weston-Super-Mare. The little roads don't go as the crow flies. The beach is hard and flat, looks very good.
I went there once in 1994. It was too busy to buggy. It was a bit soft. 2 miles long, South facing, and would need a south wind. A river crosses the beach.
I went there once in 1994. The sand was coarse, broken shells. Beach was wet. Areas of ripple. Areas of smooth. There is a (crossable) stream. Lots of surfers walking to and from the sea. 3 miles long. West facing. Narrow path through dunes to car park.
I went there once in 1994. Petty beach. Nice fine grained sand. Good hard surface. Rock pools and mussel beds near the sea at low tide. A few rocks sticking out of the sand. 2 or 3 miles long, and quite wide. Faces West, Northwest.
I usually go to about 3 PKA events per year at Pembrey. It is very possibly the best beach in the UK.
Get on the M4 and get to junction 48. Follow brown signs for Pembrey Country Park. It costs £1 to enter the park. Once in the park, head for the visitors centre and park in one of the car parks nearby.
The beach generally faces Southwest, but it curves gradually. Near the visitors centre it faces south, but at the Kidwelly end (5 miles to the Northwest) end it turns West, and finally North on the estuary where the beach ends. Offshore winds (Easterly) are very turbulent, consider going to Pendine. On a low tide the beach is about half a mile wide and 8 miles long!
Conduct: There are some restrictions on where you can buggy, but there still lots of space on this vast beach. As you enter the beach from the visitor's centre, you may only buggy to the right. To the left (the Burry Port end) is a bird reserve, where bugging is prohibited. You should not buggy within about 1km of the visitors. Strictly speaking, you should walk up the beach until you get to the red and white pole in the dunes before setting up. In practice, if the beach is not too crowded, it is OK to set up near the visitors centre and then immediately sail off, but do not play or park your bags in this area. On weekdays they jet fighters bomb the North end of the beach, if you pass the red flags a man with a gun will tell you to go back. Don't pick up strange objects that look like bombs.
The sand is at it's best when there was a good onshore with good surf as the tide went out. With an offshore wind the sand can be ripply. There are a few shipwrecks dotted about the beach. If you go to the far end of the beach, take several kites, a towrope and a friend; it's a long walk if the wind changes or you break stuff. At some times of year you get razor shells; best to steer round them if you don't want your bum cut. There are some dangerous offshore sandbars which can be cut off by the tide and have quicksand; don't go there.
As you get into the ranges there's a mile or two of big metal posts. They are WW2 defecnes against landing craft. The whole beach used to be covered in these things, but most have been removed.
I have only visited this beach one. An excellent beach, but with Pembrey (buggy heaven) just down the road, it is not as popular as it would otherwise be. Faces south, thus a good alternative to Pembrey if there's an Easterly wind. I think jet fighters use the beach on weekdays.
Went there once in 1994. Buggies for a few minutes until a man in a van said it was not allowed. West pacing, hard, smooth sand.
Went there once in 1994. Buggies for a few minutes until a man in a van (from the lighthouse) said it was not allowed. To get there we had to walk across Llanddwyn Bay, which was too soft to buggy across.
I have attended a number of PKA events at Hoylake. The actual beach us called East Hoyle Bank. I think there are a few locals who use the site regularly. It is an excellent beach if you get the right weather and tide conditions. The beach is huge; if you sand in the middle of it you can see sand to the horizon for more than 180 degrees. It's maybe 6 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.
Take junction 2 off the M53, and follow signs for Hoylake. As you enter Hoylake, you go over a railway bridge, and there's a pub called the Railway on the right. A little while later there's a petrol station on your left and a road called Hoyle Rd on your right. The end of Hoyle Rd is a good place to get onto the beach. (The PKA meets at the Landyacht club in the community centre.)
The beach faces Northwest, but it's so big that it does not matter which way the wind is coming from. The beach is only good when it's dry; this has a lot more to do with whether it's a neap tide than if it's a low tide. On a neap tide, there's tons of space even at high tide. You might find info on beach conditions at Graham's site. A unique feature of the beach is the mud. Walk across the mud and you should find hard beach. The condition of the sand depends on the preceding weather. The outgoing tide can leave it rippled or leave it flat depending on waves. The sun can bake a hard crust. The crust may be softer if the rain washed out the salt. If the wind picks up the sane it can flatten the beach and cover the mud.
Conduct: As you look towards the sea, there's a rocky outcrop to your left. You are not allowed to buggy beyond this. To your right, you can go all the way to the estuary.
Until recently there was a deep channel running along the shore, allowing boats to sail right up to Hoylake. In fact the blue building down the road is a yacht club. Nowadays, all the remains of the channel is the muddy area. The coast is rising, somebody told me, at a rate of 3mm per year.
I have been to Lytham St Annes a number of times for PKA meetings. It's a great beach.
From the end of the M55 follow signs to South Shore. When you get to the T junction at the coast, turn left (south). The PKA meet that the Sand Yacht club which is to your right at the next Traffic lights you get to. There is a car park just beyond.
The beach faces West. It is large enough so that wind direction does not matter much. The area of beach we can use is about 2 miles long and about a mile wide at low tide. It's best to visit the beach on a neap tide. On a neap, you can still buggy at high tide, and the beach bakes hard in the sun. On a spring, the tide comes right in and wets the beach, leaving it soft. I have never seen this beach really hard; it has always worked better with lower tyre pressure.
Conduct: You should not buggy south of the pier. There is an airport just north of the Sand Yacht Club, stay south of the airport. Definitely don't use long lines in their flight-path. Next to the shore there's an area used by the local kite club. Avoid this area; definitely don't buggy through their kite lines.
Check out the area off the end of the pier when the tide is low. You can get perhaps 2 miles out, to where there are interesting channels, moguls and stuff. Watch the tide.
I've tried buggying on lots of playing fields. A space of a football bitch or two is a good place to learn. Hazards normally include trees (gusty wind and kite trap), and football goals (obstacle and kite trap). Don't use sites with overhead electric cables.
Conduct: Ask owners, (normally a school) at least talk to the groundsman if you happen to see him. Don't buggy on grass if it's soft; you will leave tracks and will kicked off. Never buggy across the hallowed cricket square. Don't interfere with other users of the space.
My local park. I used to buggy here, but a man in a van said it wasn't allowed; a pity, it is a nice big open space that works OK with a variety of wind directions. It's still a good place to fly a kite.
I have only been there on the Kite Festival on PKA meets. The site seems good; probably the biggest open space in London. As any inland site, the wind will probably be gusty. This site is big, it seems to have about 20 football pitches, with space to space. It's a good flat, smooth grass surface.
This site seems popular amongst Londoners. I have only been there on one occasion. The grass area is criss-crossed with a few busy roads. The surface is a but bumpy, and being surrounded by buildings makes it gusty.
There is a kite festival each year where you can get access to this site. You can buggy on the Tarmac/concrete runways. They don't like you to buggy on the 'grass' (usually planted with crops). The air museum is well worth visiting after you have used up your elbows.
Cunning Stunts run a buggy school here. It's a playing field on a slight slope.
A big grass space (biggest mowed grass area in Europe?). Unfortunately I don't think you can get access to it any more. It is a military airfield. A paragliding club operates from it. There was never any good wind when I went there.
There is a land yacht club based at this military airfield. I have been to Bassingbourne for PKA events. There is security on the gate, which needs to be arranged in advance. Bassingbourne is just north of Ryoston. The site itself is a grass area with Tarmac/concrete perimeter road and runway.
A disused WW2 runway, which I tried once some years ago. From M25, about 200m south on A3, there a very small road signed Elm Corner. The runway is about a mile long and runs along a ridge. I don't know if access is possible any more. It looks like a roadwork depot now.
When I was working in Oostende for a couple of weeks I visited the beach. It's a good hard beach. I met a local buggier, who had a shop and had a go on his buggy.
The beach faces North Northwest. The sand is hard and smooth. You shouldn't buggy right in front of the town centre, but it is permitted if you go about 4 groins West. The groins are rounded 8-foot high stone constructions which divide the beach into 150m sections; it is possible to buggy across them.
There are loads of nice cafes along the promenade. Great beer! This is part of a beach system that stretches from Zeebrugge to Calais. I'm told beach is only interrupted by ports/rivers at Oostende, Niewpoort and Dunkerque. It would make a great expedition. These beaches are surprisingly close to London; it's quicker for me than getting to South Wales.
I when to De Panne for the 1998 European finals.
The beach here is arranged into hard smooth sandbars running along the beach. The bars are about 50m wide and the beach is usually about 2 bars wide. There is often a couple of feet of water between the bars. There are occasional streams crossing the beach which wash deep ruts (because of these, buggies with suspension did well in races).
See also Oostende - part of the same beach system.
I when to Borkum for the 1999 European finals. Probably the most popular German site. It is an island. On your atlas, look for the border between Germany and the Netherlands and follow it out into the sea.
The beach is very variable; hard smooth areas of fine sand, small soft dunes with grass, soft coarse sand, very smooth sandbars, water features and occasional surface slime. In excellent beach if you want a beach that challenges you.
Conduct: Don't sail onto the sandbar with the seal reserve on it. You will be arrested.
It is a nice town with plenty of good places to eat.
I when to Fano for the 1997 European finals. It is an island off the West coast of Denmark, near Esbjerg.
The beach faces West. The Northern part of the beach we raced on did not suite the UK pilots with our light buggies and small wheels. It small and was a mixture of soft bits and 6-inch puddles. For recreational buggying, we could use the windsurf section of the beach further south. This was fast and flat.
Conduct: Normally you can only buggy in the windsurf area. The beach is a legally road; there are bus stops on it.
I went to Brittany for the 1996 European Finals. Races were held on 3 different beaches near Douarnenez. The first beach was Pentrez, a hard flat beach next to a town with a rock outcrop at one end that had caves in it. The sand was hard, flat sand, wet. The next beach was St Anne Le Plaud, also hard flat beach, also wet with a rock ourcrop at one end and a rocky island. The third beach was 30km away. It was 11km long and we raced the whole length.
Went for a week's holiday in 1998. I don't think they'd seen buggies before. West facing, nice hard sand. The wind was offshore every day, possibly an effect of the mountains. The offshore wind was surprisingly clean and constant.