Bournemouth beach and Sandbanks beach are amongst the top-rated accessible beaches in the UK, new research has revealed.
Keep Moving Care analysed 30 top-rated UK beaches against 10 criteria points – whether the beaches had received a Blue Flag award; existence of ramps, slopes, or slipways; step-free access to beach; step-free access to water; disabled toilet facilities; number of disabled toilets; disabled parking; beach accessible wheelchair hire; availability of beach accessible wheelchairs for hire; and Mobi-mat hire – to determine the best accessible beaches in the UK.
Based on their accessibility credentials, the 10 top-rated accessible beaches were revealed as:
| RANK* | BEACH | LOCATION | COUNTY | COUNTRY | SCORE (OUT OF 10) |
| 1 | Bournemouth Beach | Bournemouth | Dorset | England | 9 |
| 2 | Sandbanks Beach | Poole | Dorset | England | 9 |
| 3 | Brighton Beach | Brighton | Brighton and Hove | England | 7 |
| 4 | Portobello Beach | Portobello | Edinburgh | Scotland | 7 |
| 5 | West Wittering Beach | Chichester | West Sussex | England | 7 |
| 6 | Whitby Beach | Whitby | North Yorkshire | England | 6 |
| 7 | Weymouth Beach | Weymouth | Dorset | England | 6 |
| 8 | Studland Beach | Studland | Dorset | England | 6 |
| 9 | Porthminster Beach | St Ives | Cornwall | England | 6 |
| 10 | Perranporth Beach | Perranporth | Cornwall | England | 5 |
* Each of the beaches were scored for each individual criteria point (1 point awarded for inclusion, and 0 points given for not included or not mentioned), with a possible total falling between 0-10. Other criteria points (TripAdvisor suggestion position for “beach” search; TripAdvisor average rating; the number of TripAdvisor reviews; and terrain type) were also analysed – these were not considered unless needed as a tie-break (e.g. if multiple beaches scored the same out of 10 and so were awarded the same ranking position)
Bournemouth beach and Sandbanks beach, both located in Dorset, each scored 9 out of a possible 10 points. As a tie-break, each beach’s TripAdvisor suggestion position for the search terms “beach” were taken into account – overall Bournemouth took the win, holding the top suggestion position (#1) on TripAdvisor for the search term “beach”, compared to position #24 for Sandbanks.
Both beaches displayed excellent accessibility credentials – one point was docked for Bournemouth due to not mentioning how many beach accessible wheelchairs are available to hire, whereas for Sandbanks the remaining point was docked due to not mentioning how many disabled toilets were available on-site. Brighton beach, Portobello beach, and West Wittering beach all scored 7 points out of 10, making up the rest of the top five, but a high suggestion position on TripAdvisor propelled Brighton (#4) beach to claim the bronze position overall.
Looking at location splits, just one beach (Portobello beach in Scotland) outside of England made it into the top 10. Dorset beaches featured four times, and Cornwall beaches also featured multiple times.
Liam Cook, Director of Keep Moving Care, commented:
“Even with some travel restrictions coming to an end on May 17th, UK staycations are still expected to experience a boom in summer 2021. We’re passionate about supporting people with disabilities to ensure they maintain their freedom, so with this in mind we decided to analyse the accessibility credentials of 30 top-rated beaches, as according to TripAdvisor data, to determine the top-rated disability-friendly accessible beaches in the UK.
“During our research we found that, in many cases, it was very difficult to find clear and concise information from reputable sources into disability access and facilities for beaches in the UK. This can be frustrating, so we hope our research provides disabled holiday-goers with some staycation travel inspiration this summer”.
For more information about the research, visit: https://keepmovingcare.com/top-rated-accessible-beaches-uk/
