The Great British Seaside was the place to be in the 50’s and 60’s! Who remembers Coppertone sun lotion, the knotted handkerchief hat, bandstands, striped deckchairs, cockles and whelks in paper cones or Ken Dodd on the pier? The seaside became a place of fun, a place to escape daily life - and that certainly hasn’t changed. Here’s some fun facts from our destinations to get you in the seaside spirit.

~ Cromer is home to ‘Britain’s Great Barrier Reef’! A chalk bed from the days of the dinosaurs covers an underwater length of 20 miles with towering arches and deep chasms from the Ice Age! No wonder Cromer has the tastiest crab and lobster when they have this ‘deeply’ delicious habitat to feed on!

~ Lifeboat duty was not quite as you would expect at Wells-next-the-Sea in the 1800s. Lifeboat Horses were trained to gallop into action at the sound of rocket fire when they would be put to use towing a 33ft lifeboat a colossal two and a half miles to its launch site at Holkham Gap.

~ Climb Beeston Bump at Sheringham for great coastal views and a sense of achievement as you reach the 207ft summit! This commanding geological feature was formed at the end of the most recent Ice Age and was the site of a secret WWII Y-station. This essential listening post reported messages intercepted from enemy boats and aircraft back to Station-X at Bletchley Park.

~ In 1936 Billy Butlin chose Skegness as the prime location for the very first Butlins camp, and what a wise choice it was, within a year it had doubled in size! Two years later Clacton-on-Sea was chosen as the second location but the prosperity was short lived. When war broke out, Skegness Butlins became HMS Royal Arthur and Clacton Butlins became an army camp.

~ Inspiration for the gothic tale of Count Dracula comes from the windswept headland, towering abbey ruins and an eerie church circled by swooping bats that Bram Stocker spotted whilst holidaying in Whitby in 1890. Earlier this year, 125 years on from the spooky publication, Whitby Abbey broke the world record for the largest gathering of vampires with 1369 fanged fanatics

~ Southwold Pier stands at an impressive 623m but this wasn’t always the case. During WWII a section was removed to stave off the fear of invasion, in 1941 a sea mine destroyed another section and in 1955 a strong storm washed away the end. Reconstruction of the pier finished in 2002 and you’ll now be pleasantly surprised to find a rather cheeky water clock performing every half hour to the delight of giggling crowds!

~ We all know the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, but Hunstanton is one of the few locations on Britain’s east coast where the sun sets over the sea! On a clear day in this unique west facing resort you can even see Boston Stump from across the Wash.

~ Scarborough has its very own Canary Island Date Palm. An impressive specimen that’s native to the Canaries but found here in the UK at Scarborough’s St. Nicholas Public Gardens. It's also home to one of Britain's oldest funicular cliff lifts, linking the South Cliff Esplanade to Scarborough Spa. The original hydraulic system (now electric) opened in 1875 and during its peak in 1945 it carried 1.2 million passengers!

Click the pinks links to find out more about these great value summer destinations.