Fabulous Beach Front Holiday Location, Lydd-on-Sea

This seafront bungalow at Lydd-on-Sea sits on a quiet, wide-open stretch of the Kent coast between Dungeness and the Romney Marsh, and its biggest draw for dog owners is what lies just beyond the back gate. Guests travelling with dogs describe walking straight out onto shingle and marsh without needing to drive anywhere or even clip on a lead, which is a rare thing on a British beach holiday.

The whole house is yours, so there are no shared corridors, no reception desk and no other guests to work around. Families with dogs come back to the same two features: a large enclosed back garden that can be used without supervision, and a sun-trap yard that is genuinely useful for drying a wet dog off after the beach. The bungalow is bigger inside than the listing photos suggest, with bedrooms split across two wings, and the miniature railway running past the end of the garden is a small novelty in its own right.

Two things are worth a couple of minutes on arrival if you are bringing a dog. Guests have flagged weeds and self-seeded brambles in the garden, including deadly nightshade, and one stay turned up an open drain cover in the same space. Neither is hard to check, but neither is something you want a dog to find first. Reviews also mention that the bungalow gets very warm in summer and that not all the windows and doors open fully, and that the property trades under more than one name, so it pays to take the arrival instructions with you rather than relying on the postcode.

At 4.3/5 for pets, this suits people who want a self-contained base for long, wild coastal walks rather than a serviced hotel stay, and dogs that will make full use of an enclosed garden. Anyone who wants a manicured garden they do not have to inspect first may prefer somewhere more polished.