Clacton...Why?

Advantages: Small, fairly quiet.
Disadvantages: Not a lot to do, poor transport links

...Clacton is a fairly small coastal town situated in North Essex that I call home. I?d never even visited Clacton before I moved here and after living here for nearly three years, I can?t say I?m sure why anybody bothers coming here for a holiday. But plenty of people do and now I?m going to share my opinion of the town, facilities and anything else I can think of that would interest the potential tourist. Getting to Clacton Clacton is not the easiest of places to get to, one train an hour runs from London Liverpool Street and this is a journey that takes over an hour. The particular route is also prone to delays, with a least one train a month being delayed by 30 minutes or more. By road the journey is a little easier by taking the A133 off the A120. However this route becomes very busy during the summer months, there is also...

sandemp 31.07.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

Clacton-on-Sea

Advantages: Great fun for all the family, lots of events and attractions
Disadvantages: Sea defences

...I spent ten years of my life living in Clacton-on-Sea. During that time Clacton changed a lot and I spent the time to go out and do some of the things in and around the local area. I suppose Clacton has an image of being a retirement home with nothing there for younger people. To an extent this is still correct, it is indeed an area where many people go for their retirement, however, it is rapidly becoming much more tourism focused and the attractions and sights are becoming much more relevant to younger people. During the 1960?s and 1970?s Clacton-on-Sea attracted lots of tourists but with the advent of holidays abroad, the number of tourists visiting Clacton rapidly fell during the 1970?s and 1980?s. This made Clacton the perfect spot for a peaceful retirement. In recent years, Clacton has undergone something of a rejuvenation in...

TheHairyGodmother 12.05.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

Clacton on Sea.. tourist-worthy?

Advantages: When the weather is nice, Martello Beach is wonderful
Disadvantages: Rains a lot, miserable weather, plenty of chavs about

...Clacton on Sea is a very touristy place, and despite having lived there my whole life, I find it difficult seeing the novelty in coming here. Without fail, every weekend I have trouble getting about due to the absurd amount of traffic caused by tourists, particularly on the A12 (if I've been up and stayed with my boyfriend and decided to head back saturday during the day, it takes a good hour, when it should take 20 minutes!) Clacton occasionally has good weather, but in all honesty, it's not very common. The sun comes out for ten minutes, and then goes back in. So what is there to do in Clacton? Well there's plenty of holiday parks to stay in for one thing, Valley Farm Caravan Park, Highfields, there's a few big ones in towns within driving distance too, such as Jaywick and St. Osyth. These all have activities and swimming pools. I...

Stephoohla 19.08.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

Clacton

Advantages: good chip shops
Disadvantages: boring in the winter

...Clacton is situated approx. 70 miles from london and 14 miles Colchester. It has a regular bus and train services to these places. I have lived here for 18 years. We have a sea front with some very nice beaches. The nicest beaches are towards the Martello Bay area where you will find a watersports area, swimming area, a brewers fayre and numerous cafes and icecream type shops. A short walk to the pier will take you about 15 minutes, and here you will find rides, amusement arcades, shops in the town centre, restuarants, mini golf and many other toursist attraction places. Clacton is also home to many B & Bs, a days inn hotel, numerous caravan parks and camp sites so you will not be stuck on a place to stay. I would advise visiting clacton during the summer season as there is very little to do in the winter season with many...

emz382382 13.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

Premier Inn Clacton-on-Sea

Advantages: cheap, modern fresh decor, comfortable
Disadvantages: our room smelled of smoke

...We stayed at the Premier Inn Clacton-on-Sea on 18th October 08 as one of my friends was getting married (another one, we are at that age) in St Osyth, a village near Clacton-on-Sea, and we live over an hours drive away so wanted to stay somewhere close by. The Premier Inn was pretty much the only option available unless we wanted to stay in Clacton-on-Sea itself, and even then it would have been in some sort of B&B. I was surprised at how few hotels there were. The room cost us £53 and we paid an extra £10.50 for a continental breakfast each, so in total it came to £63.50. I booked it online via cashinco (cashback website) and received 1585 points for doing so (about £1.58). There is not much info about the hotels on premierinn.com but the booking process was easy, quick and straightforward. I actually booked two months in advance...

rd52169 08.12.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Premier Travel Inn, Clacton-on-Sea

Clacton-On-Sea

Advantages: Is situated in one of the hottest,driest parts of the country
Disadvantages: Suffers from an undeserved poor reputation

...I am about to start a series of opinions and reviews about areas of interest in and around Essex. I am proud to live in Essex and happily state that I am an “Essex girl” and, no I do not own, nor ever have owned a pair of white stilettos. I might have danced around my handbag once, when I was much younger and at a school disco probably, but that was then! Now I live in NE Essex so obviously my ops will be centred around this part of the county. I wanted to start of with Colchester, the oldest recorded town in Great Britain, and my nearest town, but I couldn’t find a heading for that (I will suggest this to Ciao so watch this space…) and whilst I was browsing the opinion titles I came across Clacton-On-Sea so I thought I would start with that one. There is already one opinion on Clacton so I went to...

kazziebears 12.05.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

Sunny little Clacton!!

Advantages: cheap, cheerfull, oldfashioned
Disadvantages: Oldfashioned, bad reputation

...If you have a family and want something to do in the summer holidays, Clacton is your place! No matter if you 1 year old or 100 yrs old! Clacton isn’t like how most people perceive it as fall of old people on the front eating bags of chips! It’s a good old-fashioned family holiday, in the middle of the summer it’s so hot here it compares with places like Spain. We have a regular bus service that we take you to your place of interest as well as regular train links to Colchester and London. We have a lovely long beach that has services all along, including clean toilets. Cafes serving hot food and ice creams. Oh and don’t forget you can hire deckchairs and loungers! We have our own pier what is packed with rides and entertainment. The beach is great and is a cheap day out for the family, also every August...

jess_Sharp 31.03.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

A Traditional Seaside Town

Advantages: Good Basic Local Amenities, Centralised Attractions
Disadvantages: Small, A Little Boring, Roadworks, Few Places of Interest

...During my youth I was a Walton-on-the-Naze girl myself which is some 10 or 20 miles along the coast from Clacton but thanks to the fabulous ?Sun Cheapskate Holidays?, Clacton was the destination of my and my son?s first holiday together last week. LOCATION Getting there was amazingly easy considering I once got lost for two hours in Cambridge (seriously). Clacton is situated on the Essex coast and is easily accessible from Essex, Herts or London by a series of A roads complete with clear and concise signposts directing you easily to your destination. On arrival into the town itself I was also greeted by signposts to my chosen caravan park which was helpful! They?ve signposted everything from caravan parks and nearby towns to the Town Centre, Seafront and Car Parks which really made things easy for a map-shy muppet like myself...

Lizamabug 21.05.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Clacton on Sea (England)

A Big Waste of Space!

Advantages: A few good shops, some good discounts
Disadvantages: Most shops empty, looks a bit old and tatty, a failure

...Although I now live in Berkshire, I was born and grew up in Clacton-on-Sea, which is a small seaside town in the county of Essex. It's very popular with holiday makers in the summers because of lots of caravan parks and its Amusements arcades and the pier, but its also a nice, quiet town to have grown up in. The town has recently been trying to give itself a makeover, and this really started back in 1998 with the building of its first "shopping village", which was originally called Clacton Common. It's since undergone quite a few name changes and is now settled on Clacton Factory Outlet. The outlet is located out of town, just past Great Clacton and adjacent to an industrial estate. It is well posted from Colchester which is the next big town, and also signposted through Clacton too so it should be easy to find. It is an outside set...

mummy2harry 03.04.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Clacton Factory Outlet, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex

Currys - what went wrong with retail?

Advantages: local
Disadvantages: customer care poor

...Currys - 3 words describe their customer service. Terrible, terrible, terrible. The 'reserve and collect' online system, in the words of the Clacton on Sea branch manager, "just does not work ". The staff - well I have met several species of shell fish with better social skills than their 'customer advisors'. Chaotic, rude, and really their only advice is that they can't wait for you to go away and stop getting in the way by trying to buy something. The complaints system - they promise to acknowledge receipt within 5 days - oh - that was 10 days ago. I think your best bet is to have a look at what you want in their showroom and then go and buy it online from a reputable supplier; and there are lots of them - the great thing about the internet is the way it pushes up value for customers. Places like Currys will be...

PROBwert123 17.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Currys.co.uk