Hi , am going to stay with boyfriend and his family at the weekend and thought it would be nice to have a day at the beach if the weather stays nice.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend any seaside places that are good to visit and not too far from Chester le Street area?

There are great beaches all along the coast - the nearest to Chester Le street would be the beaches around Sunderland and Seaham I think.  For the Sunderland Beaches (Whitburn/Seaburn/Roker) you can park in the cliffside carpark at Whitburn and walk down the ramp onto the beach.  IT is nice, but the seafront is a bit commericalised -  same with the beaches further north at South Shields.  The beach at Seaham had a lot of cleaning up work down a few years back and has won some awards, you access it down a long, long stairway down the side of the cliff.  If you are prepared to drive a bit further north there are some of the most spectacular beaches in the UK set in glorious Northumbrian countryside, overlooked by wonderful castles - the beaches at Craster, Embleton, Beadnell and Bamburgh and Seahouses are wonderful, miles of open sand backed by sand dunes, my favorouite is Embleton beach, you have to walk across the end of the golf course and through the sand dunes, then you arrive at the gorgeous bay, with the ruins of Dunstanburgh castle in the background on your left, it has acres of sand, rocks and rock pools, and is never, ever busy!  We went on one of last summers rare warm and sunny days, and whilst there were perhaps a couple of dozen families/groups of people on the beach this still left everyone enough space to be well out of each others way!  I have often been the only person there, or only 1 or 2 others in the distance.  You coudl perhaps fit a visit in to the Alnwick Gardens and Castle too?  Dogs aren't allowed in the gardens, but are allowed on leads in the walks around the parkland, all very Harry Potter :)  You expect a game of quidditch to fly over any moment!

I think Gwen has named the best beaches around here , I also take my dogs to Alnmouth beach but that is often busy but it is beautiful.
I would personally travel that bit further and make a day of it.
Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Thank you both for replying. We would be going by train , not driving so have looked up train times/ durations etc and Sunderland sounds good. The ramp down to the beach at Whitburn sounds ideal as boyfriends mum has suffered with her back recently so the long stairway down the cliff at Seaham is a no-no! ;)

Hopefully it'll be sunny , although hearing the weather forecast it may be brollies at the ready!! :)

If you park in the cliff top car park at Whitburn there is a little ice-cream/coffee kiosk on the edge of the car park with some seats and tables, so BF's Mum could have a rest.  If you want the tranditonal British seaside  experience walk along to Seaburn, there is a stairway up (short flight of steps) and you a choice of  Chip shops - sit on the wall, enjoy the seaside and eat Fish & Chips :)  Great Bank Holiday tradition.