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Joss Bay

 

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside! If you’re looking for a traditional seaside experience with a modern edge - trampolines and SUP (Stand Up Paddleboarding) - then look no further than Joss Bay. The perfect Kent beach for families and daytrippers, Joss Bay has all of the facilities and amenities you could wish for. 

One of Kent’s best beaches and located between Margate and Broadstairs, the 200 metre sandy bay is also the ideal pit-stop to enjoy an ice cream and a brief respite if you’re cycling or hiking the popular Viking Coastal Trail. Further afield than Broadstairs’ bustling Viking Bay, Joss Bay is located around a ten minute drive, or a 20 to 30 minute cycle from Broadstairs train station. 

As well as Joss Bay Café, a locally run business serving drinks, hot food and sandwiches seasonally, a separate kiosk opens at busier times (bank holidays and school holidays) for ice cream. Buckets and spades, beach toys and beach accessories are also available.

Metered parking is also available in the large car park at the top of the slope which leads down to the beach See here for further parking information. The slope is accessible for wheelchairs and buggies but is reasonably steep. Toilets are also available and are found near to the top of the slope.
Louisa Bay Broadstairs
For little adventurers, there is a wide coastline to explore, with starfish to find and crabs to be caught (although please do return them to their home). 

The beach is also perfect for swimming and is life-guarded in the summer months when the team is usually found both at the tower and patrolling the beach. 

For thrill-seekers, Joss Bay is one of Kent’s best-known surfing beaches and home to Thanet’s long-established Joss Bay Surf School (booking available online), who have been delivering lessons for nearly 25 years. The approachable and friendly team offer both group and one-to-one sessions for surf and SUP. 

When you’re exhausted from surfing, swimming and discovering the shoreline, deck chairs and windbreakers are available to hire for extra comfort. By the entrance of the beach next to the café is Joss Bay Leisure – the perfect zone for toddlers and children up to 12 years. Complete with several large trampolines and three bouncy castles, passes can be used for the duration of the day. Wristbands are provided so you can come and go as you please.
There’s also no better place to play pirates, given that the bay itself is named after an 18th century smuggler by the name of Joss Snelling, whose stealthy antics managed to keep him from the gallows before his death at the age of 96. 

Joss was famously involved in a series of bloody battles, with Britain’s Prime Minister of the time, William Pitt, ordering officials to stop his “wicked trade”, which only doubled as he recruited men from the pubs he visited and bribed officials. Locally he became infamous, and was introduced to the future Queen Victoria while she holidayed at Pierremont Hall as ‘the famous Broadstairs smuggler’ before he died in 1837 – the year she became Queen.

If you’re interested in history, the North Foreland lighthouse, which looms over the bay has a history dating back over 500 years, and was visited by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1998 to mark the end of lighthouse keeping (now automated) on the British coastline.