This July, my family (2 adults, 2 kids ages 8 & 11) will be visiting London. Afterwards, we will be renting a car for 2 days and would like to travel south to the coast.
We will be staying at Hever Castle for one night, and then would like to drive (no more than 1-2 hours) to the coast and spend the night. We will be doing lots of sightseeing and museums in London, and would like to find somewhere with a good beach for the kids to run around and play on.
Since we're not familiar with any of the towns (we've been researching from Hastings to Bristol, basically), does anyone have recommendations for one that is particularly quaint or, perhaps more importantly, places not to visit? Anyone have any favorite hotels or B&B's to stay at? This might sway our choice, as we're just looking for a fun one night stay before we head back to London and take the train to Paris.