West Bay (Westgate-on-Sea)

This beach is further round the bay from Margate Main Sands and is equally sandy but without the summer crowds. Very safe with a promenade running along its length making access easy and no cars.

The best bay in Thanet for my money.
It never gets too busy. The sandy beach is perfect for kids, rock pools when the tide goes right out. The beach slopes gradually so kids are quite safe.
The sea comes in fairly quickly and at high tide comes right up to the sea wall. So no sand high tide. But the sea cleans the beach.
Sea weed can be a problem some years it is around others not.
The facilities are good, Park in the road. Toilets, Cafe and a shop plus a pub.
I was taken there as a child. We took our kids and now take our grandson.
Let the mass’s drive past to Margate. West bay does for us.

Having only discovered Westgate on Sea last year we’ve been many many times since. West Bay have a lovely cafe, tea hut, and a more upmarket restaurant (an extension to the West Bat Cafe). The only problem is the seaweed. We went in September and the seaweed was rotting on the beach. The smell was so pungent my husband had to nip to the Gents for a bit of fresher air! Maybe because of COVID it hasn’t been cleaned by the council. They were too busy putting in place an unnecessary one-way road system and huge planters as part of the traffic barriers! A total waste of time and money. They would have been better clearing the beaches!
St Mildred’s Bay was better in terms of seaweed - almost clear. We stopped there at Millie’s Cafe instead for our refershments and ice creams.