The price of seaside foodie favourites

With the summer sunshine getting us excited for a trip to the seaside, we’ve been dreaming about the best treats to eat at the beach, from cold and creamy ‘99s to hot sugary doughnuts and salty fish and chips.

We were curious to compare prices for the UK’s favourite coastal treats, to see which seaside towns are best (and worst) for nostalgic foodies to visit on a budget.

Our diligent team contacted over 500 local independent eateries in 100 different seaside towns in the UK to discover who was providing our favourite beach bites at the lowest cost – be #InnTheKnow of this handy info when you’re planning a beach break in the UK!

The research showed that on average, a large cod and chips in the UK will set you back £9.60; you’ll need roughly £2.35 for an ice cream cone with a flake, and a bag of hot doughnuts averages out at £2.50.

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Fish & chips

Welsh seaside towns were found to be the cheapest for fish and chips, costing £2 less on average than the UK at just £7.50 for a large portion (with one chippy in Aberystwyth even offering the seaside dinner for under £6.50). But there are a few other beach towns outside of Wales where you can pick up a large cod and chips for under £7.50, including Filey in North Yorkshire, Skegness, and New Brighton in Merseyside.

At the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive prices for a fish and chip supper were found in Cornwall, whose eateries charge nearly £2 more that the UK average at £11.50, followed by North Eastern coastal towns who typically charge £11.10 for the meal. Padstow in Cornwall, Salcombe in Devon and Bamburgh in Northumberland were the most expensive individual towns, with a large fish and chips tending to cost more than £13 per portion.

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The UK’s cheapest seaside towns for fish & chips

UK town /city	Region	Average price for large fish & chips (£)
Aberystwyth	Ceredigion	6.30
New Brighton	Merseyside	6.85
Portree	Isle of Skye	7.00
Swansea	Swansea	7.06
Skegness	Lincolnshire	7.09
Filey	North Yorkshire	7.25
Llandudno	Conwy County Borough	7.46
Barton on Sea	Hampshire	7.50
Porthcawl	Bridgend	7.50
Bridlington	East Yorkshire	7.52

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The UK’s most expensive seaside towns for fish & chips

UK town /city	Region	Average price for large fish & chips (£)
Bamburgh	Northumberland	14.88
St. Mawes	Cornwall	14.77
Salcombe	Devon	13.60
Padstow	Cornwall	13.07
Fowey	Cornwall	12.85
Whitstable	Kent	12.73
Looe	Cornwall	12.60
North Berwick	East Lothian	12.53
Dartmouth	Devon	12.45
Camber Sands	East Sussex	11.48

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Fish & chips

'99 ice cream

Doughnuts

'99 ice cream

Weston-super-Mare, Bridlington and Swansea are among the individual seaside towns selling the lowest priced ice cream cones in the UK, with each town charging less than £1.70 on average for the sweet treat. Yorkshire and the Humber is the cheapest region in general for an ice-cream cone (with a chocolate flake of course!) with an average price of £1.85.

Of all the kiosks we contacted, the most expensive for an ice-cream cone were found in the Cornish towns of Falmouth and Newquay, St. David’s in Wales and Christchurch in Dorset, whose ice-cream shops charged on average £3 or more for a cone.

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The UK’s cheapest seaside towns for a ‘99 ice cream cone

UK town /city	Region	Average price for '99 ice cream (£)
Southwold	Suffolk	1.40
Weston-Super-Mare	Somerset	1.40
Bridlington	East Yorkshire	1.50
Swansea	Swansea	1.65
Conwy	Conwy County Borough	1.80
Skegness	Lincolnshire	1.90
Poole	Dorset	1.90
Bournemouth	Dorset	1.95
Lytham St Annes	Lancashire	2.00
Porthcawl	Bridgend	2.10

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The UK’s most expensive seaside towns for '99 ice cream

UK town /city	Region	Average price for '99 ice cream (£)
Christchurch	Dorset	3.25
Falmouth	Cornwall	3.00
St. Davids	Pembrokeshire	3.00
Newquay	Cornwall	3.00
Ventnor	Isle of Wight	3.00
Penzance	Cornwall	2.90
Deal	Kent	2.75
Fowey	Cornwall	2.60
Portsmouth	Hampshire	2.60
Saundersfoot	Pembrokeshire	2.60

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Hot doughnuts

Our researchers found the cheapest doughnuts in Wales and Yorkshire, with the seaside towns of Conwy, Llandudno and Bridlington selling a bag for just under £1 to £1.50 on average. The South East coastal towns, particularly those in Hampshire are home to the priciest doughnuts, with customers needing about £4 to guarantee themselves a fresh hot bag.

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The UK’s cheapest seaside towns for fresh doughnuts

UK town /city	Region	Average price for a bag of fresh doughnuts (£)
Llandudno	Conwy County Borough	0.90
Conwy	Conwy County Borough	0.90
Bridlington	East Yorkshire	1.50
Bournemouth	Dorset	2.35
Christchurch	Dorset	2.35

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The UK’s most expensive seaside towns for fresh doughnuts

UK town /city	Region	Average price for a bag of fresh doughnuts (£)
Southsea	Hampshire	4.60
Portsmouth	Hampshire	3.75
Swansea	Swansea	3.50
Porthcawl	Bridgend	3.00
Skegness	Lincolnshire	2.50

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Methodology

Over 500 independent restaurants, takeaways, kiosks and stalls in 101 of the UK’s seaside towns were contacted to find their prices of the following:

Portion of large fish and chips (where possible cod fish or haddock)
’99 ice cream cone with a chocolate flake
Bag of hot sugared doughnuts (prices cover bags with 3-5 individual doughnuts)

The sample of prices from eateries taken from a location was dependent on the town’s size, for example larger locations like Brighton or Newquay had a larger sample of eateries and prices compared to smaller, more remote seaside resorts.

The average price of each food portion per area was calculated by looking at the mean average price of all of the prices for that item recorded in that area.