Packing for a Beach Vacation

There’s noth­ing more relax­ing than a beach vaca­tion – but it can be stress­ful if you’re not sure what to bring. Use our handy list below to make sure you don’t for­get to pack any­thing that allows you to make the most of your trip and sit back, relax, and enjoy your sea­side excursion. Our list includes items for both day­time and night-time activ­i­ties and all the clas­sic essen­tials plus must-haves for con­ve­niences in the dig­i­tal age.

What Should I Pack for My Trip to the Beach?

1- Sunscreen

In both cold and hot weath­er, sun expo­sure can wreak hav­oc on your skin; and in all weath­er con­di­tions, some sun­screens wreak hav­oc on coral reefs. It’s impor­tant to choose sun­screens that are free of oxy­ben­zone, which, even in small amounts, can cause coral to break down. Most reef-safe sun­screen prod­ucts will say so on the label; you can also check the list of ingredients. While you’re check­ing out sun­screens, also look for a broad-spec­trum sun­screen, which pro­tects the two types of UV light: UVA and UVB. And when you’re pick­ing out the sun pro­tec­tion fac­tor (SPF), go for 30 or higher.

2- Beach Bag

While out in the water or play­ing vol­ley­ball in the sand, you won’t want to be wor­ried about keep­ing an eye on your valuables. For that peace of mind, you’ll prob­a­bly want to leave your wal­let or purse in the hotel room or the trunk or glove com­part­ment of your car; take what you’ll need with you to the beach. Bring along a light­weight bag that has lots of room and can fold up eas­i­ly in your suitcase. Also, a good beach bag is made of a mate­r­i­al that is easy to clean the sand out of and ide­al­ly water-resis­tant. Some even have cool­er com­part­ments for your oth­er bev­er­ages and snacks.

3- Cooler Bag

Instead of a tra­di­tion­al cool­er, you can choose a cool­er bag, which is the more trav­el-friend­ly option. These bags pro­vide insu­la­tion so you can reach in and crack open an ice-cold bev­er­age while out hav­ing fun in the sun. Most cool­er bags are made of fab­ric that resists the ele­ments and pro­vides cush­ion­ing from jostling. There is a range of options to best suit your indi­vid­ual needs, whether you want to bring along a few drinks or are plan­ning on an elab­o­rate picnic. An excel­lent way to pack is to put what­ev­er you’ll be eat­ing last on the bot­tom and what you’ll be eat­ing first on the top. You can add a few chilled bot­tles of water on the top for easy access.

4- Waterproof Phone Case

Whether it’s using your phone’s GPS to nav­i­gate or pulling up your playlists to lis­ten to while sun­bathing, your phone is going to be indis­pens­able to your beach vaca­tion, and you’ll want to make sure your phone stays safe and dry. To make sure your phone stays pro­tect­ed, be sure to keep it in a water­proof phone case. Even if you aren’t plan­ning on going in the water, there will be spots where the sand is wet, and these cas­es pro­tect from the sand, too. Keep your phone pro­tect­ed, so you’re not left high and dry with­out your phone!

5- Underwater Digital Camera

Whether you’re snorkelling, kayak­ing, or swim­ming, there are going to be many oppor­tu­ni­ties for under­wa­ter snap­shots that you won’t be able to get with your phone. There are even under­wa­ter dig­i­tal cam­eras with audio, so you can tap into your inner Jacques Cousteau and cre­ate fan­tas­tic footage of your vaca­tion by the sea. There are sophis­ti­cat­ed mod­els for pro­fes­sion­al biol­o­gists and pho­tog­ra­phers but sur­pris­ing­ly afford­able brands for the ama­teur who is just inter­est­ed in casu­al­ly pho­tograph­ing the mys­te­ri­ous and beau­ti­ful worlds of under­wa­ter landscapes.

6- Beach Blanket or Mat

You’ll want a beach blan­ket or mat to fit every­one, with enough room for snacks. The sim­plest solu­tion is to bring along a beach blan­ket, though they can some­times be heavy to take along and can also accu­mu­late sand. Why not go with a beach mat instead? Some are made out of para­chute mate­r­i­al are excep­tion­al­ly durable, wash­able, and quick-drying. They’re also a breeze to pack and many fea­ture pock­ets and weight­ed corners.

7- Several Swimsuits per Person

Though you might have found the per­fect swim­suit for your trip, it’s advis­able to bring along a few extra. This way, you can always be sure to have a dry swim­suit on hand, as well as some vari­ety – since you’ll be out in the sun most days. You might find your­self want­i­ng to have a few dif­fer­ent options for what to wear, switch­ing between a biki­ni and one-piece or board shorts and swim trunks. Keep­ing your options for swimwear open is easy enough, too, since swim­suits hard­ly weigh any­thing and are easy to pack.

8- Cover-Ups

Be sure to bring a few sum­mer dress­es, gauzy shirts, or sarongs to keep you shel­tered from the wind and sun when you’re not swim­ming, play­ing sports, or sunbathing. A sim­ple wrap like a sarong or even a light­weight scarf can do dou­ble or even triple duty to pro­tect you from the ele­ments, serve as some­thing to sit on or work as a fash­ion accessory.  As with swim­suits, they’re easy to pack, so bring along a few for vari­ety and convenience.

9- Appropriate Footwear

Be pre­pared to wear flip-flops near and on the beach. Sneak­ers are fine for a jog along the water, but they’ll be hot and uncom­fort­able if you’re sand bathing. Mesh water shoes are ide­al if you plan to walk around tide­pools or along the water­line, where there are jagged rocks and shells. These shoes are great for swim­ming and hik­ing, too, and in addi­tion to being very ver­sa­tile, they’re remark­ably affordable.  They also tend to tran­si­tion bet­ter than flip-flops to a restau­rant atmos­phere if you’re going direct­ly to din­ner after your day at the beach.

10- Wireless Headphone

What is a trip to the beach com­plete with­out some music? It’s as easy as bring­ing along your phone so that you can play your music over wire­less head­phones. Small wire­less mod­els can be sur­pris­ing­ly pow­er­ful despite their com­pact size. And when pack­ing for your beach vaca­tion, go for a water­proof model. This way, if you’re plan­ning on spend­ing any extend­ed amount of time at the pool or beach, you can be sure that you have music with you wher­ev­er you go!

11- Portable Charger

Today’s devices are sophis­ti­cat­ed and pow­er­ful and drain bat­ter­ies fast. It might be an after­thought to make sure all your elec­tron­ic acces­sories like your phone, water­proof head­phone, and dig­i­tal cam­era are ful­ly charged. So bring along a portable charg­er with you! Just con­nect your device with a stan­dard USB cable – there’s no need to waste time wait­ing around an elec­tric socket.

12- Filtered Water bottle

You’ll be vis­it­ing dif­fer­ent places and can’t always be sure that water will be avail­able or if the avail­able water will be free of con­t­a­m­i­nants. To be on the safe side, car­ry along a fil­tered water bottle. Anoth­er advan­tage is that stick­ing to just one bot­tle of your own. It is eas­i­er on the envi­ron­ment than going through a bunch of bot­tles of water through­out the day.

13- Waterproof Bag

In addi­tion to your beach bag, bring along a spe­cial­ly designed bag to keep items like your phone, mag­a­zines, or spare clothes dry. Though you’re sure to have a beach bag and cool­er, these might accu­mu­late sand or mois­ture when you take items in and out. A water­proof dry bag is a neces­si­ty for more del­i­cate items like elec­tron­ics and read­ing materials.

14- Rash Guard

If you’re plan­ning on engag­ing in board sports, this is an absolute must. They’re com­fort­able and sleek and can be worn on their own or under a wet­suit. These shirts pro­tect wear­ers from rash­es that can result from repeat­ed con­tact with surf­boards or boo­gie boards as well as UV rays.

15- Sunglasses and Hats

These tend to get lost, so – as with swim­suits and cov­er-ups – bring a few to be on the safe side. And of course, sun­glass­es and hats give you a lot of dif­fer­ent pos­si­bil­i­ties for your beach­side selfies! Con­sid­er get­ting a sun­glass­es cord if you’ll be par­tic­i­pat­ing in extreme sports or hav­ing expen­sive or pre­scrip­tion sun­glass­es that would be incred­i­bly incon­ve­nient to lose. Hats should have broad brims to pro­vide full cov­er­age and ide­al­ly have a strap that you can adjust around the base of your head for a secure fit. Also, check out the sun pro­tec­tion for your hats and sunglasses.

16- Light Reading Material

If you’ve want­ed to read War and Peace, this isn’t the time – stick to lighter mate­ri­als like mag­a­zines and fun, light-heart­ed nov­els or short stories. To save on size and weight, load your read­ing onto a Kin­dle or anoth­er portable e‑reader, so you’re not lug­ging around a bunch of books or magazines. With most mod­els, you can keep it safe in a Zip-Lock bag when you go to the beach and acti­vate the screen through the plas­tic material.

Final thought!

So, there you have it, the ulti­mate check­list of what to pack for your next beach vaca­tion. Don’t wor­ry too much about what to pack; beach­es are about fun, relax­ation, and exploring!