Instow is a very nice beach, be aware that access is quite limited to the beach (and can even be non existent) depending on the height of the tide. There is free parking for 1 hour along the sea front and then further along you can park for 2 hours for free. For longer stays there is a large car park which is accessed by a track behind the sand dune area. I'm not sure whether this is chargeable in the summer months, but really it ought to be free since the root is is hard on cars suspension with some risk of grounding unless you have a 4x4. The dunes are pleasant to walk through and often families choose to setup 'camp' there rather than on the main beach itself. When the tide is fully out the beach becomes huge and during WWII was used by troops for Normandy landing training since it is not discimilar in style to those beaches. There is a small military prescence in the town, but this rarely affects access to any part of the beach. The beach is popular with dog walkers, although there are sections during summer where dogs are not supposed to be, however this seems to be largely ignored and unenforced, and really isn't an issue as long as dogs properly are cleared up after. Overall a very nice beach it'll probably never get a top water quality rating since being on a estuary means that there will always be unwanted 'stuff' flowing past the beach out to sea. It would be nice to see the access track to the long stay car park greatly improved so that cars can get in and out more easily.

Mark, 13 January 2012