Guests ask us most weeks what there is to do within ten minutes of the front door that doesn't involve sand in the sandwiches. The answer, nine times out of ten, is the nature reserve. Hornsea sits beside a broad, shallow mere that pulls birds in from right along the coast, and the trails around it are flat, well-surfaced and mercifully free of the lung-busting climbs you find further inland. It is a genuine half-day out, and you can be back at the table before the coffee goes cold.
Timing is everything. Birds are busiest in the first two hours after sunrise, when the light is soft, the water is still and the car park is almost empty. In midsummer that means setting off around six; in November, a civilised eight o'clock will do nicely. Either way, an early alarm pays you back handsomely in what you actually see.
The reserve lies just west of town, an easy ten-minute drive or a brisk twenty-minute cycle along quiet lanes. There is a small car park, and if it's full at weekends there is usually more space a few hundred yards back along the road. Once you're through the gate, don't rush — take five minutes at the information board to get your bearings, because the paths branch more often than you'd expect.
Most of the circuit is level gravel and boardwalk, fine for sturdy pushchairs and anyone who prefers a steady pace to a scramble. After heavy rain the western edge turns genuinely muddy, so boots beat trainers from October through to March.
This is a reserve that rewards patience rather than chasing. Find a hide, sit still for twenty minutes, and the water comes to you.
Year-round residents include herons, mute swans, little grebes and a healthy population of water voles in the quieter dykes. Bring binoculars; a telescope is lovely if you have one, but it isn't essential.
Start by walking the woodland edge, where the trees shelter you from the wind and a feeding station brings in tits, finches and the occasional greater spotted woodpecker. Carry on to the first hide and give it half an hour — this is where most of our guests see their best birds of the trip. Continue along the water's edge, take the bench halfway round for a flask stop, then loop back through the reeds and return the way you came.
Two hours at an unhurried pace covers it comfortably, and there is a shorter option of forty minutes if the weather turns. Keep dogs on a short lead, leave the drone at home, and stay on the marked paths — the reedbeds are fragile and nesting birds desert easily. Midges can be tiresome on still evenings in July and August, so a dab of repellent is worth packing.
The real beauty of the reserve is how little it costs you in time. Arrive at first light, wander for a couple of hours, and you are back with mud on your boots and a proper appetite long before the day has got going. We're always happy to hold breakfast back for early risers — just mention it the night before — and there's a boot room by the door for wet coats and wellies.
After that, the rest of the East Yorkshire coast is yours: the promenade, the beach, a potter round the town. But if you do only one thing while you're here, make it this one. A quiet hour by the water at sunrise does more for a person than a whole day of sightseeing.
Hornsea Bed & Breakfast shares practical, down-to-earth guidance on seaside bed and breakfast in hornsea, east yorkshire for readers across the UK.
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