A Weekend Guide to Harbour Towns by Train

Why harbour towns and trains go together

Most British harbour towns grew up around a quay, a market and a handful of steep streets, and the railway arrived later and stopped politely at the edge of them. That accident of history is a gift to anyone travelling without a car. In Whitby, St Ives, Looe, Tenby or Llandudno the station is usually a ten-minute walk from the water, sometimes less. You step off, follow the smell of chips and salt, and you are essentially there.

A weekend is the right length for this kind of trip. Long enough to walk the coast path in one direction and the town in the other, short enough that one small rucksack and a decent pair of shoes will do. The trick is to plan around the timetable rather than against it.

Pick the line before you pick the town

The golden rule is to choose a route that terminates on the water, so you never need a taxi at either end. A few branch lines earn their fare many times over:

• The Esk Valley line into Whitby, running through moorland and then dropping suddenly into the harbour. Sit on the left for the last twenty minutes.
• The St Erth to St Ives branch, one of the shortest and loveliest in the country, hugging the bay for the final stretch. St Ives is busy in summer, so travel early or out of season.
• The Looe Valley line from Liskeard, which threads through woodland beside the estuary and puts you a few steps from the quay.
• The West Wales line to Tenby, where the station sits above the town and the beaches are a short downhill stroll.
• The North Wales coast into Llandudno, with the Great Orme, a proper promenade and a pier all within walking distance.

Check the branch timetable before booking anything. Some of these lines run roughly hourly, with a gap in the middle of the day and almost nothing on a Sunday in winter. Two trains a day in each direction is workable if you know about it; it is miserable if you discover it on the platform.

What to put in the rucksack

You are packing for cobbles, sea spray and a bit of hill. Keep it genuinely small, because you will be carrying it up a flight of steps to a guesthouse at some point.

• A waterproof jacket that packs down, plus a thin fleece. Coastal weather changes its mind in the time it takes to eat an ice cream.
• Shoes with grip. Harbour walls and wet slipways are slippery, and coast path sections can be muddy well into spring.
• A refillable bottle and a small flask. Many quayside cafés will refill a bottle for you, and a flask earns its place on a breezy bench.
• Cash, including coins for the harbour car park honesty box or a small ferry. Card readers do fail in the wind.
• A paperback and a spare bag for wet swimmers or sandy socks.

Saturday on foot

Give Saturday to the coast path. Almost every harbour town has a stretch of the South West Coast Path, the Wales Coast Path or a local equivalent leaving directly from the quay, and the pleasure is in walking a linear section rather than a loop. Take the train or the little passenger ferry out to a neighbouring village in the morning and walk back along the cliffs, arriving in time for a late lunch.

Estuary ferries are the quiet hero of this kind of weekend. A crossing of ten or fifteen minutes turns a long road detour into a pleasant hop and gives you a completely different view of the town from the water. Check the tide table as well as the timetable, because many of these crossings only run around high water and stop entirely in rough weather.

Eating, drinking and the small print

Eat where the fishermen eat, which usually means somewhere a street or two back from the harbourside rather than on the quay itself. Book dinner on the Friday, since a good harbour town in season fills up by Thursday. Look for a menu that changes with the day boats, and be sceptical of anywhere with photographs of the food.

A few practical notes worth remembering: tide times matter if you plan to paddle or cross a causeway; the nearest cashpoint is often a mile inland; and Sunday trading hours in small towns can be tight, so buy provisions on Saturday. Keep your ticket or booking reference handy for the return leg, and set an alarm that gives you twenty minutes' walking time to the station rather than ten.

On Sunday, treat the morning slowly. A swim if you are brave, a proper breakfast, a last walk along the harbour wall to watch the boats settle on the mud. Then take the branch line home with damp boots and a bit of salt still in your hair. You will have spent nothing on parking and seen more of the place than most people manage in a week.