Coastal destinations are frequently a long way from the airport that serves them, and the transfer is the part of the trip people research least and complain about most.
The distance is often larger than assumed
Airports need flat land, road connections and space. Coasts frequently have none of those, particularly the dramatic ones.
So the airport serving a coastal region can be a substantial drive away — an hour is common, three is not unusual, and on some islands the airport is on the opposite side from where the visitors go.
This is checkable in two minutes and it routinely surprises people, because booking sites present a flight to a named destination without indicating how far the destination is from the airport.
The practical consequence is that a flight arriving at nine in the evening means arriving at accommodation near midnight, and that a cheap flight at an awkward hour is not as cheap as it looks once a transfer is included.
The transfer options, ranked by how often they go wrong
Public transport is cheapest and least flexible. On coastal routes it is frequently infrequent, and the last service can be surprisingly early. It also often does not connect with flight times, which are not designed around it.
Shared shuttles are cheap and slow, because they drop everybody else first. A ninety minute drive becomes three hours.
Pre-booked private transfers are the most reliable and cost more. They also wait if the flight is delayed, which is worth a lot at midnight.
Taxis at the rank are available and are the option most likely to produce a dispute about price. Agreeing the fare before departing is essential in a lot of places.
Hire cars are the most flexible and introduce their own problems, discussed below.
The hire car question on a coast
Genuinely worth thinking about rather than defaulting to.
In favour: coastal regions are frequently spread out with poor public transport, and a car opens up everything beyond the immediate town.
Against: parking in coastal towns in season is difficult and expensive, many old coastal towns have streets that are genuinely hostile to cars, and a car sitting outside a hotel for five days of a seven day trip is an expensive object.
The middle option, which I now use most, is hiring for two or three days of a week rather than the whole stay. Local hire companies frequently allow this and it costs a fraction.
The luggage problem
Specific to beach trips and worth planning for.
Coastal accommodation frequently involves steps, cobbles, sand, or a walk from wherever a vehicle can stop. Wheeled cases are poor on all four.
Old towns in particular are often car-free, which means the last several hundred metres are on foot with everything you brought.
Checking how the accommodation is actually reached, before booking, is worth doing and is the sort of thing guest reviews mention when it is a problem.
Seasonal flight schedules
Something that catches people planning off-season trips.
Many coastal airports have dramatically reduced schedules outside the season. Routes that operate daily in August may operate twice a week in November, or not at all.
Which affects not only getting there but the flexibility to change plans, and it means a cancellation can leave you with a several day wait rather than a several hour one.
The same applies to ferries, which frequently reduce to a skeleton service and which are additionally weather dependent.
Building in slack
The single most useful habit for coastal trips.
Do not plan anything for the arrival evening. The transfer will take longer than expected, and the alternative is arriving stressed at a restaurant that has stopped serving.
Allow considerably more time than seems necessary for the return journey, particularly in season when coastal roads are congested and particularly if a ferry is involved. Ferries are cancelled for weather with no notice and no alternative.
And if a ferry is part of the return, do not take the last possible connection to a flight. That is the single most common way that coastal trips end badly, and the margin needs to be a day rather than an hour for anywhere genuinely remote.
Which airport, not just which flight
A final planning point. Coastal regions are frequently served by more than one airport, at very different distances.
A flight into the closer one at a higher fare is often cheaper overall once the transfer is included, and it is always shorter.
The comparison worth making is total door to door cost and time, rather than fare alone, which is the number booking sites present and the least useful one.
On two trips this changed my choice entirely, and on both the more expensive flight was the cheaper journey.
Arriving late, deliberately planned
If a late arrival is unavoidable, a few things make it survivable.
Book accommodation with staffed reception rather than a self check-in, or confirm in writing exactly how a late arrival works.
Arrange the transfer in advance rather than relying on finding one, because rank taxis thin out with the last flight.
And find out whether anywhere is open to eat, because in small coastal towns the answer after ten at night is frequently nowhere at all, and arriving hungry with no options is a poor start to a week.