We love playing and relaxing at the beach. Unfortunately, packing for a day or week at the beach can be… less than relaxing, but it does not need to be that way! In this post, we are providing insight into what our family brings to the beach and offering tips for your own visit to the surf and sand. What follows is what we bring to the beach with some explanation about why, plus suggestions for variations on our favorite items.
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“Big Weird Sock”
This first suggestion is a weird one… “the big weird sock.” We first read about this DIY sand removal tool on New York Times Wirecutter, and decided to give it a try. After one beach visit, we were convinced. We fill a large sock with cornstarch baby powder, and we use the sock to—almost magically—remove wet sand from our feet and legs.
We simply rub the sock over the patches of wet sand on our skin. The baby powder absorbs moisture and the sock helps brush off the sand. This works surprisingly well. Bringing a container of baby powder to the beach has been a long time beach hack, but the addition of the sock brings it to a whole new level. We like to use the “big weird sock” before climbing into a car or heading into our accommodations.
You can read more about this big weird sock at the Wirecutter column here. If you prefer to buy your sand remover, here is a ready to go version on Amazon.
We do recommend storing the sock in two sealed plastic bags between uses. It is no fun if the sock meant to keep sand off of your stuff spreads baby powder all over them instead.
Bring Two Swim Suits to the Beach
If you are going on a multi-day beach vacation, we suggest that you pack two swimsuits per person. If you and your fellow vacationers do not like to swim in the ocean, perhaps this tip is not for you. But, if you do like to spend your days in the waves, we suggest bringing two sets of swimsuits, swim trunks, rashguards, wetsuits or whatever you like to wear.
Putting on wet swimming gear can be uncomfortable, and this can be doubly true if wet sand is clinging to that wet gear. We like to have two swim suits so one can dry while we are wearing the other. That way we have a “fresh” one ready.
This suggestion is less important if you are not going to the beach for multiple days in a row or for extended periods of time. When we are on beach-focused vacation, we spend most of our times in swimsuits, so we always bring two.
Shoes & Other Clothing to Pack for Beach Vacations
When we are spending our days in swimsuits, we like to pack clothing that we can pull-on over our suits like quick dry shorts or simple beach cover-ups.
Sometimes like to wear flip-flops to the beach, as many people do. However, if we are visiting a stretch of coast with the great trails or rocky tide pools, we prefer sandals that are a little sturdier or even offer some toe protection. This is a situation where we like the fisherman-style Keen sandals. We buy Keens for our kids every summer, and they use them at the beach, at theme parks and at regular parks.
The one drawback to the fisherman-style sandals at the beach is that they can trap sand in with your foot. On balance, we still choose the Keens when we have a coastal visit with varied activities. For a kind of in-between shoe (more stability, but room for the sand to sift out). I personally have this pair of Reef sandals with a backstrap. I like them for the beach and for cute-but-casual outings during a beach vacation.
Packable Beach Towels
Towels are great to have on the beach for seating, drying and warmth: they can do a lot of jobs! If you are driving to your beach destination, you can simply throw your favorite towels in the car. However, conventional terry-cloth towels can take-up a lot of space! If you are flying or taking public transportation, you may prefer to bring something easily packable and compact.
We have these thin micro-fiber towels that have worked well for our travels. We know other people like this style of thin towel.
Some beach hotels or houses, may provide beach towels, but often this is not the case. If we are staying somewhere that provides only bath towels, we prefer to keep those towels for bathing (i.e. free of sand). We bring our micro fiber towels to the beach and keep the bath towels for bathing.
Beach & Sand Play Accessories
Our littlest surfer likes to play in the sand at parks and at the beach. A year ago, we purchased this collapsible bucket and sand toys. We take it to the park, the beach or just to have on hand for some surprise sand play. We recommend the same for beach-goers traveling by plane or public transportation and for anyone looking to save some space. You could also grab something like this set.
Here is fun a toy for playing in the shallow surf. We see this one at the beach a lot!
For a variation on fun at the beach, consider bringing a field guide for the area you will be visiting. You can bring a book to the tide pools and identify the stunning creatures there or look for sea birds from your beach towel. We are fans of the Kaufman field guides. Here is one for New England that includes sea life. We do not see a similar version for other seaside regions, but we like the look of this Audubon guide to coastal creatures and plan to order one ourselves.
SPF! Advice on Sunscreen
We also make sure to bring hats, sunscreen and sunglasses for our whole crew. If the trip is a longer one, we pack just a couple days worth of sunscreen and then purchase more at our destination.
No matter what, we pack sunscreen sticks in our luggage. This way, we always have something on hand, and we like to use these on big and little faces. Here is a higher-end sunscreen we like, here is a mineral sunscreen stick we use, and here is a lower cost sunscreen stick that spreads more easily than the mineral formula.
Sunglasses for Active Families at the Beach
Here are some kids sunglasses we have used and like, starting with these pink sparkly sunglasses. And, here is a set of sunglasses for toddler-sized heads and here is another pair of tough youth sunglasses our adventurous kids have used and liked.
As for us adults, we have quite a few pairs of Goodr sunglasses and like how they stay put even on the sweatiest days. Goodr sunglasses are popular among runners, and they come in a variety of styles. Here’s their “OG” sunglasses in black. Also in the category of sunglasses for active folks, we like Sifosi shades: here’s a tough pair of Sifosi sunglasses for grown-ups.
Thank you for reading this article on what to bring to the beach.
We hope you have found this post helpful. We have articles with other packing suggestions including: Travel Fun for Kids on the Road and in the Sky, Travel Essentials and Kids’ Travel Essentials: What to Pack For Your Family Trip. For a specialized suggestions on what to bring to a Disney vacation, see Disneyland Travel Essentials: What You Need to Pack. Finally, please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below. Thanks again for reading!
