Beach vacation outside of the French Riviera for young adults?
 

Hi all, My girls (early 20s) have to be in London in late August and would love to spend a couple weeks on the beach. Yes, it would be much less expensive for them to stay home and head to Malibu -- HAHA ;) The eldest one speaks French and spent six weeks in Nice last summer so they are looking for something outside of the French Riviera. They will fly from LA to Paris and take the train (hopefully). I would love any suggestions this group might have for them.

Is the French Basque country too cold? I see temps in the mid-70s from this past August.

They have to be in London ? (not Paris?). And they have an additional two weeks to spend at a beach somewhere in Europe? They have to be in London in late August - so is this additional two weeks before or after that or doesn't it matter?

If it's London they have to be in then they could fly EasyJet or RyanAir or whatever (for probably less than the cost of the a train within France) to any beach area they want.Wouldn't have to be in France. People do swim in Biarritz, etc (French Basque) in August but the weather there (and along that coast into Spain) is much more uncertain than other places. Could be gorgeous, but I was there in July a few years ago and for four solid days I had temps in the low 50s/60, wind and rain. The beaches were deserted. So if beach time is the main reason I would suggest places like the southern coast of Spain or a Greek island (or some places in Italy). Those places are almost guaranteed to have sunny, warm weather in August. But August is high season at all beaches in Europe. If they could do their beach time after their time in London it would probably still be nice and warm but a lot less crowded and less expensive.

Thanks isabel . This is for the first half of August with a visit to London about the 15th. From there, one flies to school in Florence and the other goes back to work in Washington D.C. Spain might be their best bet. They have been to Barcelona and Sitges; can you suggest another town on the coast? Maybe Valencia? I know Palma is on their list to research.

Narbonne, Argèles-sur-Mer, Collioure, Port-Vendre.....and thereabouts.

Or alternatively, Ile de Ré, Ile d'Oléron, Biscarosse....

I agree that the beaches near Narbonne France are much nicer that the riviera part of the Med. On the Atlantic side as St Cirq mentions Ile de Re or even further south towards the Bordeaux area.

We also love both Roses, Spain as well as Castelldefels, Spain. Castelldefels is only a half hour train ride from Barcelona whereas Roses is about a 3 hour ride but it may be too similar to Sitges for them. And there might be more for them to do in Roses and the nearby area-for instance the Dali Museum in Figueres.

I must say as opposed to other here-we didn't love Valencia or the beach areas there that much. Be aware in early August almost every beach place is going to be overrun with tourists, but probably no way to avoid that. However, places like the Atlantic side of France or even Spain near San Sebastian all the way to Santander may be better than the Mediterranean coast in August.