East Beach Guesthouse: Family Friendly Accommodation that left us wanting more...
Family Coastal Stay
Our weekend getaway to East Beach Guesthouse and meal at East Beach Cafe was complimentary for the purpose of this review. However, all views, and opinions are newfound love of this destination and businesses are entirely my own.
Family-Friendly Accommodation and Beach Stay, West Sussex
Family-friendly accommodation and beach stay at East Beach Guesthouse and dinner with East Beach Cafe, overlooking the low tide at Sunset on Littlehampton’s famous East Beach. A fun-filled 24 hours, and the ultimate way to spend the last weekend of the summer holiday in the glorious English summertime sun.
Our weekend consisted of a stay at the East Beach Guesthouse, a privately owned guesthouse by Rich and Mark, who opened their doors during the pandemic re-openings. The guesthouse has nine individually designed rooms and is finished to a high-spec. The owners are hoteliers and have always dreamed of having their own place one day – and wow, they’ve really done it! You can immediately tell on entering the property that it has been created and is serviced with a full heart.
We were lucky to dine at the notable East Beach Café, designed by world-renowned architect Thomas Heatherwick. Their ethos is that they are the only place you can enjoy fine dining as well as be served a Mr Whippy. Seaside charm at its best!
We explored the Littlehampton family-friendly attractions too, but more on that further down….
East Beach Guesthouse, Home Suite
East Beach Guesthouse sits on the east side of Littlehampton, with views of the beach, and a short walk to Littlehampton harbour and the Arun River. We stayed in the Home Suite. It is located on the lower ground floor and boasts a private courtyard to the front of the property. It was a treat to open those doors and hear the sounds of the seaside from our room. The room is comfortable, with a family of four, comprising a double bed, sofa bed, bathroom with shower sink, toilet and amenities plus a full-service kitchen. These facilities in the Home Suite make for a super family-friendly stay, the girls were beyond excited! I loved all the little touches, like the cute lights above the bed, perfect for reading at night when the kids were asleep. The smart TV in the room is Netflix enabled, so we treated the girls to a movie night after dinner which we all enjoyed from our respective beds!
Check-in is at 2pm and check-out 10am.
Bed & Breakfast of dreams…
On arrival at the property, Rich gave me the full low down on the room and asked me what time we would like breakfast served (the personable service really goes a long way!) He suggested we dine in the Courtyard, as it’s the perfect spot and the weather was forecast to be 30 degrees that day. I jumped at the chance! I opted for 8.30am – not too early, not too late! Promptly at 8.30am a light knock on the door, we quickly scurried over to open it and there we had two bountiful trays of continental breakfast.
Breakfast consisted of freshly baked pastries with jams, cereal boxes (every child’s favourite and still quite exciting for the grown-ups), fruit compote with yoghurt and muesli, freshly cut selection of berries, orange juice and coffee.
We enjoyed that moment immensely, eating outside altogether watching the world go by, these moments are what make a travel experience and stay so special.
Family Friendly
Accommodation
As a seasoned hotelier and a well-travelled Mum, I always make sure to check the facilities, amenities, and services provided by the place before booking. The Home Suite is practical and suitable for families with young children. Even though I am now out of the baby phase, I can imagine how useful the kitchen area would have been for weaning with access to a large fridge, microwave, oven, and hob. Having a kitchen sink close by is always a great thing, no matter how old you are! The Home Suite has everything and more that you might need for a comfortable stay. It is also worth mentioning that it caters to long-stay guests and is pet-friendly.
Dinner, East Beach Cafe
Dining at the East Beach Café was a real treat, my other half, James who is a total foody, was excited too as I’ve been talking it up for months. I had wanted to go there for leisure ever since I had been asked to give a talk, about the power of social media to independent accommodation providers at the Littlehampton tourism event in the Spring. So it was just wonderful to go back, with my family, on an informal basis. Because of our busy summer socialising, my husband and I had decided to do ‘Sober September’, this was going to be my first test, made even worse because East Beach Café stocks the most incredible Sussex and English wines which is 100% my go-to on any wine list! To my absolute joy, (but not surprise as East Beach Café know exactly what they are doing when it comes to food and drink providence and selection) they stocked the most delicious non-alcoholic English Sparkling wine, Seachange, its got eco-friendly credentials too. This has started well! We dined three courses, I went for the pear and walnut salad to start, the Sea bass Special and the Oreo Marquis (also a special), James went for the Salmon starter, crab linguine and sticky toffee pudding. The girls had fish and chips and brownies and, the legendary Mr Whippy to finish. My eldest daughter provided the sound testimonial, “this is the best Mr Whippy I’ve ever tasted”, this is massive coming from a fairly fussy 7 year old eater! The whole meal and service are recorded on socials, click to view the reel here
What I observed about East Beach Cafe, was how popular their takeaway counter is (located outside of the main restaurant) Many groups of families and friends were sitting in their beach dining area, with fish and chip dinners being washed down with glasses of white or craft beer. The restaurant clearly has a local following. They also have a cocktail bar cleverly designed from a horse trailer parked on the beach. The ambience inside was relaxed, informal and service personable and quick. Compliments to the Chef, Joe, and his team, we will be back! The low-tide beach views and a sunset walk back to our accommodation is one for the memory bank!
East Beach, Littlehampton
East Beach Littlehampton, as the name would suggest, is the easterly part of Littlehampton, this adjoins Littlehampton Harbour, Harbour Park and the mouth of the River Arun. The heritage of Littlehampton is in its early settlement in the 1600’s, recorded in the Domesday book as ‘Hantone’. Later in that time period, it changed its name to ‘Little’ to differentiate itself from Southampton. It has welcomed tourists since the 1800’s, when sea bathing first became popular. Famous faces associated with Littlehampton are Anita Roddick, who founded The Body Shop here, and Ian Fleming, author of Bond novels based in Littlehampton during World War Two. These days, the beach is a natural pull for Sussex and Surrey folk; it boasts both sand and shingle and is expansive. The shallow waters make it an excellent beach for families, and the crabbing in the harbour and lake is the best. Further investment into the area, the East Beach car park, children’s play area and landscaping is due to start this winter, so I can only predict big and better things for the area in years to come.
Family Friendly things to do in Littlehampton
We packed a lot into our 24 hours.
Prior to arriving I purchased wristbands for us at Harbour Park, It is quite a pull and perfect for primary-aged children with the type of rides it provides, and on rainy days soft play park. On Sunday we went full tourist mode and headed straight to the beach, we purchased a few bits from the beach shop including windmills, buckets and spaces and a beach mat (I should have come more prepared but we were caught out with the brilliant weather!) There's a small selection of shops, café and ice cream vendor here, as well as toilet’s. If we had longer, this is where else we would have checked out:
Littlehampton Miniature Railway
Crabbing in the Littlehampton Harbour & Lake
The Beach Littlehampton for water sports for all members of the family (West Beach)
Family-friendly Accommodation and Beach Stay, final thoughts
We loved our stay in Littlehampton, possibly more than we thought we would. The stay at the guesthouse was second to none, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a coastal getaway. The little touches made it feel more like a boutique hotel than a guesthouse, and we felt right at home from the offset. Having the East Beach Café literally in a crabbing line distance from the accommodation is the cherry on the cake; the two businesses complement each other well and showcase the innovation taking place in this seaside resort to watch on the South Coast of England. We left the weekend relaxed and content, having had the perfect family-friendly seaside getaway. As Brighton residents and regular beachgoers, it was a real treat to visit another Sussex seaside town and get a feel for what is simply down the road from us. With the attractions being located so close to one another, it made things all the more manageable with the children, so we left with the feeling Littlehampton has it all for family-friendly stays.
Don’t miss your chance to stay…
Read below for your chance to win an overnight stay and more…
I am really excited to offer you the chance to win a stay like ours. Allowing another family, the chance to experience what we did!
The competition has now closed and the lucky winner stayed in December 2023.