Two kilometres of sand · Nothing behind it

Small Inns and Campsites on the Ocean Sand Flats

Where the tide goes out for half a kilometre and comes back across flat sand, we run four small inns and three campsites tucked behind the first dune ridge. Rooms are simple and salt-proof, pitches are sheltered by marram and fence, and every property has a boardwalk to the beach, a hot outdoor shower for sandy feet, a drying room for wetsuits and somewhere warm to sit when the wind gets up. Surf schools, kite instructors, horse riding and a fish restaurant are all within walking distance.

Rooms & Pitches Availability

Long ocean beach below cliffs with breaking surf

Weathered wooden beach huts with blue doors above the sand

About us

Built Low, Built Simple, Built to Survive Salt

Everything here was designed by people who had already watched one badly built beach hotel corrode. Frames are galvanised or timber rather than mild steel, fixings are stainless, glazing is marine-grade, rooms are finished in materials that can be hosed down, and nothing is placed where the prevailing wind will drive sand into it. The buildings sit behind the first dune ridge rather than on top of it, which keeps them out of the worst weather and keeps the dune itself intact.

Simplicity is deliberate. Rooms have a bed, a good shower, storage for boards and a window facing the sea; there is no minibar, no carpet and no attempt to pretend the beach is not just outside. Campsites have marked pitches sheltered by planted marram, power where it is wanted, and shower blocks kept genuinely clean rather than cleaned once at nine in the morning. What guests get instead of luxury is proximity: two minutes to the water at every property.

The dunes are a working part of the business. We maintain the fences and boardwalks that keep foot traffic off the vegetation, replant marram every winter with the municipality, keep the campsites off the mobile dune entirely and run a beach clean before each season and after every big storm. Two of the sites are closed for six weeks in spring while terns nest at the far end of the flat, which costs us money and is not negotiable.

Advantages

What Beach Accommodation Should Do

Six things that decide whether a week on an exposed coast is a holiday or an ordeal.

Marram grass on a dune ridge against a pale sky

Two Minutes to the Water

Every property is close enough to the beach that you can check the surf in bare feet before deciding whether to get dressed. That sounds trivial and changes everything: sessions happen at dawn because getting there costs nothing, children move between sandcastle and shower a dozen times a day, and a wet afternoon can be spent indoors without anybody feeling they wasted a drive. Boardwalks are maintained so the route stays sandy rather than muddy, and each has a rinse point at the top.

Shelter From the Wind

An ocean coast is windy far more often than the photographs suggest, and the difference between a good campsite and a bad one is entirely about shelter. Our pitches are laid out behind planted ridges and fence lines with the openings facing away from the prevailing direction, and each has a windbreak point and space to pitch in the lee. The inns have enclosed courtyards and glazed sun rooms that stay usable on days when the beach itself is not. Nobody has to sit in a car to escape the wind.

Sand Managed, Not Fought

Sand comes indoors on an ocean coast; the question is whether the building can cope. Ours have hot outdoor showers at every entrance, foot baths, sand-trap matting, hard floors throughout, boot and board racks outside and no carpet anywhere. Rooms are cleaned with a hose and a squeegee rather than a vacuum. Wetsuits, towels and swimwear go into a heated drying room rather than over a chair. It sounds mundane and it is the single most appreciated feature we have.

Everything Within Walking Distance

Each cluster of properties has a surf school, a kite or windsurf instructor, board hire, a fish restaurant, a bakery and a small shop within a few hundred metres, all independent local businesses we work with rather than own. Guests can leave the car parked for a week. Bicycles are provided at every property, the bus to the nearest town stops at the road end, and we run a shuttle to the market twice a week for anyone who would rather not carry shopping through sand.

Open Out of Season

Two inns and one campsite stay open all year, which is when the coast is at its most impressive: big swell, empty sand, storms crossing in from the west and light that photographers travel for. Winter rooms are heated properly and cost roughly half the summer rate, camping pitches include electricity and access to a heated common room, and the drying facilities matter more than ever. Surfers, walkers and people who simply want an empty beach make up almost all of the winter guests.

Dunes Treated as Infrastructure

The dune ridge is what stops the sea reaching the buildings, so it is maintained as carefully as the roofs. We fund and install sand fencing, replant marram every winter with volunteers and the municipality, keep all foot traffic on boardwalks, and close the two sites nearest the tern colony for six weeks each spring. Guests are told why in one paragraph at check-in, and compliance is close to total because the reasoning is obvious once it is explained.

Rock stacks standing offshore in the surf under a bright sky

Services

Ways to Stay

Rooms, pitches, cabins, surf packages, family weeks and whole-site bookings.

Inn Rooms

Fifty-two rooms across four small inns, from singles to family rooms with bunks, all with private bathrooms, sea or dune views, storage for boards and heating that copes with a wet January. Rates include breakfast, use of the drying room, bicycles and board storage. Two rooms at each property are fully accessible with level entry from the car park and a wet room. Dogs are welcome in three of the inns, with towels and a rinse point provided.

Camping Pitches

Marked, sheltered pitches for tents, vans and small caravans on three sites, with water, drainage and optional electricity, plus a separate quiet field and a walkers' meadow bookable on the day. Prices include hot showers, the drying room, a communal kitchen, a covered dining shelter, drinking water and freezer space for cool packs. Pitches on the seaward row cost slightly more; the ones behind the ridge are far more comfortable in wind, and we say so honestly.

Cabins and Fixed Tents

Timber cabins sleeping two to five with a shower room, a small kitchen and a covered veranda, plus canvas lodges on platforms for the summer months. All are supplied with bedding, towels, a stocked welcome basket and outdoor furniture, and all sit within the sheltered part of each site. Cabins are heated and available year-round; the canvas lodges run from May to September. Both can be booked from two nights outside the peak weeks.

Surf and Watersports Packages

Week packages combining accommodation with lessons from the independent schools next door: surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing or paddleboarding, at beginner or improver level, with equipment, wetsuits and transport to whichever beach is working that day. Packages include board storage, unlimited use of the drying room and a discount at the fish restaurant. We take no commission from the schools; the price is simply the sum of the two parts.

Family Weeks and Children's Programme

Summer weeks built around families, with a supervised children's programme in the mornings covering rockpooling, sandcastle engineering, bodyboarding, kite flying and dune ecology, run by qualified staff at a ratio of one to six. Cots, high chairs, buggies with sand tyres, baby baths and beach toys are provided free. Family rooms and adjoining pitches are grouped away from the quiet areas, and the shallow lagoon at low tide is genuinely safe for small children.

Groups, Retreats and Whole-Site Hire

Any inn can be taken in full by a group of up to thirty for a surf trip, a family gathering, a yoga retreat or a company week, with catering, transfers and instruction arranged around the programme. Campsites can host club meetings and school trips with a covered kitchen, a fire circle and tents pitched in advance. Out of season the whole cluster can be booked for photographic and film production, with local permissions handled by us.

Contacts

Bookings and Beach Conditions

Tell us the dates, the number of guests and whether you want a room or a pitch, and we will say what is free, which property is best sheltered that week and what the swell and wind are likely to be doing.

Surf packages, family weeks, group bookings and production enquiries go to the same office.

OfficeCalle de Atocha 87, 28012 Madrid, Spain

Phone+34 91 468 25 73

Emaillongshoreinns@icloud.com

SeasonTwo inns and one campsite open all year; the rest April–October