Holiday Cottages In Merseyside

Merseyside has around 150 self-catering cottages and apartments on selfcatering.co.uk, most in and around Liverpool, with the rest along the Wirral and the Sefton coast. This is a compact, mostly urban county built around its great river and port, with Blue Flag sands on its edges, and close to 50 take dogs while a handful have a hot tub.

Best areas and towns in Merseyside

Merseyside is a small, densely built county around the mouth of the River Mersey. The great majority of places to stay are in Liverpool itself, a waterfront city of museums, music and Georgian streets, with the rest spread along the coast to the north and across the river on the Wirral.

• Southport: a classic Victorian seaside resort on the Sefton coast, with a long pier and wide sands
• Crosby and Formby: coastal towns north of the city, known for their dune-backed beaches and pinewoods
• West Kirby and Hoylake: breezy resort towns on the north-west tip of the Wirral, looking across to Wales
• Heswall: a Wirral town above the Dee estuary marshes
• Wallasey and Moreton: towns on the north Wirral facing the sea at New Brighton
• Birkenhead and Bromborough: the old port town across the water from Liverpool and a town to its south
• Greasby and Frankby: villages in the green centre of the Wirral peninsula
• St Helens, Billinge and Haydock: inland towns and villages east of the city, the last known for its racecourse

Liverpool suits a city break with the coast a short train ride away, while the Wirral and Sefton towns put the beaches and estuaries on the doorstep.

The Merseyside coast and its beaches

Merseyside has more coast than its city reputation suggests, wrapping around two sides of the Mersey mouth. Two beaches held a Blue Flag in 2025: Ainsdale, on the dune-backed Sefton coast near Southport, and New Brighton at Wallasey on the north Wirral. Between them runs the Sefton Coast, a long line of sand dunes and pinewoods stretching north from Crosby through Formby, where the National Trust protects red squirrels and a famous swathe of dunes. On Crosby beach stand the cast-iron figures of Antony Gormley's Another Place, gazing out to sea. The Wirral shore looks west across the Dee estuary towards the hills of North Wales, with wide tidal flats off West Kirby and Hoylake.

Things to do in Merseyside

Liverpool's waterfront is the heart of any visit: the Royal Albert Dock brings together Tate Liverpool, the Maritime Museum and The Beatles Story in one set of restored warehouses, while the city centre holds the Walker Art Gallery, the World Museum and the vast Liverpool Cathedral. Out of town, the National Trust's Speke Hall is a moated Tudor manor on the city's southern edge, and Knowsley Safari lets you drive through a park of lions and rhinos near Prescot. The Sefton coast at Formby is the place for dunes, pinewoods and red squirrels, with Calderstones and the other city parks good for a greener day.

When to visit Merseyside

Liverpool is a year-round city break, busiest around football fixtures, concerts and the summer festivals on the waterfront. May to September is the best stretch for the coast, when the Sefton and Wirral beaches are at their warmest and the dunes at Formby are alive with wildlife. Spring and autumn give quieter sands and lower prices, and the estuary skies off West Kirby are spectacular for winter birdwatching. The city's museums and galleries make wet days easy whatever the season.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Merseyside

More than 40 of the cottages in Merseyside take dogs, and more than 10 have a hot tub. Browse the places that take dogs to narrow your search.

Getting to Merseyside

Merseyside sits in the north-west of England, around four hours from London by road. The M62 runs in from Manchester and the east, the M57 and M58 ring the city, and the M53 carries the Wirral, linked under the river by the Mersey tunnels. Trains reach Liverpool Lime Street from London Euston in around two hours, and a dense Merseyrail network serves Southport, the Wirral and the coast. Liverpool John Lennon Airport lies on the southern edge of the city, with Manchester Airport about an hour away.

Useful links

• Visit Liverpool
• Liverpool City Council
• Visit Wirral
• Sefton Council

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in the North West of England, named after the River Mersey, which empties into the Irish Sea through its centre. It is bordered by Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south and east, and the Dee estuary and Wales to the west, making it one of the smallest but most densely populated counties in the country.

The county is built around the great tidal mouth of the Mersey and the port that grew along it. On the north bank stands Liverpool, the largest city, a world port whose waterfront warehouses, docks and Georgian quarter reflect centuries of maritime trade. South and west of the river lies the Wirral peninsula, a tongue of land between the Mersey and the Dee with its own resorts and green centre, while to the north the Sefton coast runs in a long belt of sand dunes and pinewoods up towards Southport. Inland to the east are the former industrial and mining towns of St Helens and Knowsley.

Five boroughs make up the county: Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Wirral. Beyond the city itself the coast is a surprise, with Blue Flag beaches, the National Trust dunes at Formby and wide estuary skies looking towards the Welsh hills. Merseyside is known the world over for its music, football and seafaring heritage, and tourism today centres on Liverpool's waterfront museums and galleries alongside the beaches and parks of its edges.