We are very lucky living up here in Durham to have the coast just a short drive away from our house. It takes us about 40 minutes to get to South Shields and it is one of our favourite days out when it’s a sunny day. Zara is obsessed with the seaside and will say to us over and over again “seaside seaside”.

There are a few things we love about the coast at South Shields:

1) Parking, if you get there in the morning there are always plenty of parking spaces available and at about £3 for a days parking right next to the beach I think it’s very reasonable :)

2) The Beach. There is a beautiful beach at South Shields, the sand is lovely, it is right next to the car park, the sea is clean and it provides hours of entertainment for Zara who is obsessed with sand and water :)

Zara's first time seeing the sea

It got me!

Sand and water = hours of entertainment

3) South Marine Park. Just across the road from the Ocean Beach funfair is South Marine Park. This is a beautiful place to enjoy a picnic lunch or as in our case a chip butty from the Fish and Chips stall across the road (we are veggie remember!). The park has a lovely play area which can get busy but we usually manage to get a swing and play on the digging machines in the sand pit.

Swinging in South Marine Park

There is plenty of grass and open spaces to run around in and burn off some energy. A boating lake with pedalos on it! (Admittedly we haven’t tried these out yet as with 2 small children and a pushchair it is pretty impossible, especially with Zara’s obsession with wanting to be in the water :) ). There is even a minature steam train which runs around the park and costs £1 a go. Zara absolutely loves going on this (she travels free with an adult) and so we usually end up going on it about 4 times each visit lol.

4) Ocean Beach Funfair, this is a lovely little funfair just across the road from the park and a fab place to take Zara on some rides. It costs about £1.50 a ride (Parents travel free with children) and we are discovering more and more rides that Zara is happy to go on with each visit. Some require one of us to go with her (yeah yeah I know any excuse ;) ) and others she will happily go on alone.

I'm a big girl and can do this one by myself

But I need you to come on this one with me Daddy!

I'm very brave and will do this one alone :)

but Mummy insists on riding on the horsies with me

Daddy can’t wait until she is big enough to go on the ghost train with him as I refuse to lol. As with all funfairs there are the usual array of fast food stalls, arcades, candy floss and even a mini roller coaster so I imagine we will be frequent visitors here as the children get older.

As far as cheap days out go, this is one of our favourites for sure! Plenty to do, not too expensive and a lovely relaxed seaside atmosphere. South Shields Seaside gets 10/10 from us :)