Another beautiful day and for us a day trip to Sanremo. We took a short walk up into the main village of Vallecrosia and then it was just a 10 minute train journey into the heart of Sanremo – ideal plan. From the station it was another short walk down onto the sea front where we turned left (eastwards) along the promenade, passing the marina to the furthest beach – a rather stony and scruffy small beach (not dog friendly) – Spiaggia San Martino….

At this point we turned back on ourselves and found the far more attractive Spiaggia Chiosco Morgans tucked into a bay between the 2 main marina’s, still and calm waters protected by the outer sea walls – this is a private beach (as indeed were nearly all the beaches in Sanremo) with paid access via the various bars…

On the western side of the marina followed Spiaggia Lungomare Italo Calvino and the tiny little ‘public’ beach – Baia Greco….

Another beauty of a private beach – largely empty as some of the bars are not open and look at the prices….

Nearly £28 to spend the day on the beach – that is incredible – I’d want a 3 course lunch and cocktails included for that! Some were cheaper and you could just go on the beach without the accessories for around a tenner but even so. Also the further we got from the town centre, many of the bars were not open for the season yet, but still you could not access the beach as the gates from the promenade were locked – look at these lovely beaches – empty but more annoyingly inaccessible! Spiaggia Blue Bay, Baia Paradiso and Spiaggia Boca….

After a coffee and a break we meandered back through the town (mainly to get some shade and cool down a bit) admiring the colourful architecture and lively narrow streets…

With an hour to kill before our train home we made our way back to the sea front and found a shady spot outside a bar from which to enjoy a cold drink and a spot of people watching until it was time to head back.

Thoughts of the day:

• It was nice to see some proper sand today but a real eye opener as to the sectioning off of the beaches and charging for entry.

Today’s stats:

• Miles walked – 9
• Beaches – 8
• Train – £6.07
• O/N – £25