Anyone who has lugged beach gear down some cliff stairs or from a far-flung parking spot knows how obnoxiously bulky all that stuff can be. Now what if you are traveling from another state or country? How do you pack for a beach vacation when you are flying or need to pack light? What if you are simply trying to fit everything on public transportation? After some sandy mistakes, we have come up with our own formula for how to pack all of our family’s beach gear into one carry-on size suitcase. (Including a family-sized tent!)
If you are traveling solo, you may even be able to pack all of your vacation gear in one carry-on. Since we are in a time of life where we pack as a family, we put all our beach stuff in one small suitcase and pack things like clothes and toiletries in other bags. In any case, time to kick off your flip-flops and join us as we pack light for the beach.
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A Packable Sun Shade
Let’s start with the biggest item: our family tent for shading us from the sun.
We have traveled to the beach without bringing any kind of shade. We figured there was no reasonable way to pack a beach umbrella or a tent, so we baked in the sun. Then we found this shockingly compact but effective tent, and we are not going back. This beach tent fits in a carry-on with room to spare.
In the photo below, The Neso Grande is packed into its carrying-bag and tucked into our carry-on suitcase. But, once we set it up, it provides enough shade for our family (the manufacturer says it fits 3 to 6 people).
The bag is 19.5 inches long and 6.5 lbs fully packed. There is even some extra space in the bag, so you can add an extra set of poles or tuck a compact beach blanket in there (more on that in a bit). The Grande is the middle size for the Neso beach tents. You can also choose smaller and larger ones to fit your needs.
Once we got our technique down, this tent was surprisingly easy to put up and take down, and it has stayed put even during very windy days at the coast.
The Neso tent does not have sides to protect you from the sun when it is low in sky, but the back does come down a ways, so you can choose an orientation that provides optimal shade. We were willing to give up the sides for a tent that actually travels.
Neso Beach Tent Tips
When we first got this tent, we tried erecting it in our backyard. We started by weighting the anchor bags with bricks, and this was not at all effective. I was convinced that the compact little tent was too good to be true after all. Then we filled the anchor bags with sand from our sandbox and… we had shade! We are planning on getting some stakes, and maybe even an extra set of poles for using our tent at non-sandy locations.
We have also found that this Neso tent works best when you really get some tension in it. To set-up a Neso tent easily, lay it out flat on the ground, and then stretch the ropes out as far as you can. Next, fill those anchor bags with sand and stretch them out even more. Tuck the rounded ends of the poles into the front corners of the tent and pop it up!
Compact Beach Blanket… Err Sand Cover
We have a really thin blanket we put down under our sun shade. In fact, it is so thin that we hesitate to call it a “blanket.” Basically it is a very thin polyester sheet that we can stake down to create a kind of floor for our tent. It’s thin so that we can fold it down to pocket size for easy transport and so that it can dry quickly and not retain sand.
We have one similar to this. You can see it in the photo below along with the tent and the tent carrying bag plus our little red collapsible sand play set (more on that later).
Thin But Absorbent Beach Towels to Pack
Long before we got our tent, we bought these thin beach towels to make local water fun excursions easier. If you are taking public transportation or just one person is carrying a bunch of towels for kids, it is nice to be able to squish them all into one beach bag.
Now, we bring these towels with us when we are traveling because they take up relatively little space in a suitcase (compared to cushy terry cloth towels) and they dry quickly. If you are going somewhere that does not provide you with beach towels, consider taking these.
If you prefer towels that are still thin but (mostly) cotton, a lot of folks like this style of towel. Just keep in mind that they will be slower to dry.
A Collapsible Sand Toy Set
Another one of our all-time favorite beach trip finds is this collapsible sand play set. It is made up of a little fish mold, shovel and bucket that fold flat into a cute red fish carrying case. So it is really easy to pack into a suitcase, and the case keeps the bucket from dirtying other items in our luggage.
For something so compact, the pieces are nice and sturdy, as has been the case with everything we have purchased from Hape. We have not broken anything yet (though we have come close to losing things to the ocean).
When we are not on a trip, we toss this little sand toy set into the bottom of our stroller so we can be ready for surprise sand fun. Plus, it is adorable.
And Everything Else for a Beach Vacation
So those are the compact, packable and space efficient items we pack when we are flying or taking public transportation to a beach. Frankly, these things are so nice that we also use all of them locally too.
In addition to those items, we also pack swim attire, which also fits into our carry-on bag. We do not choose those for their packability, so we are not going into detail about them here. For further advice on what we bring to the beach, you can read: What to Bring to the Beach: Packing Advice for Visiting the Coast. In a similar vein, we have What To Bring (or Not) To the Disneyland Resort Hotel Pools.
On a final note, we do not usually pack sunscreen for air travel. Rather, we pick it up when we arrive at our destination. This reduces weight in our bags, and it also saves us from unfortunate and messy sunscreen explosions. But if you are considering very packable sunscreen, we really like this face stick and use it at home and on vacation. We prefer using lotion on bodies, but if you wanted a larger sunscreen stick for face and bodies, try this one.
Thank you for reading this post on how to pack all of your family’s beach gear into one carry-on suitcase.
We hope you have found this information helpful. For other packing advice, we have Kids’ Travel Essentials: What to Pack For Your Family Trip, 5 Unexpected Things We Pack for Vacation and What to Bring to the Beach: Packing Advice for Visiting the Coast.
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