Easy Beaching

Be beach ready. Keep a beach bag packed with the bare necessities in your car or by the door of your room. You might pack towels, sunscreen, hats, bottled waters, snack bars or nuts, etc.

Get a sunshirt. Summer shirts with UV protection, sunshirts are light weight long or short sleeved and quick drying. Not only are these more protective and healthier for you than sunscreen, it's easier to get them on and off. You only need sunscreen for other areas. Get one for everyone in your group. Brightly colored sunshirts make it easy to spot eachother on the beach.

Get Some Wheels. If you like to bring chairs and coolers, or are traveling with small children, consider some wheels. Bring a child's wagon from home or get beach caddie to wheel on and off the sand. It's your beach vacation, make it easy on yourself.

Easy Beaching With Kids
No Worries! This Virginia Beach vacation, relax and enjoy yourself and your kids!

BYOB (Bring Your Own Beach Gear). Do only for children what they absolutely cannot do for themselves. Kids love preparing for fun! From packing and unpacking beach bags and lunch to carrying beach gear, it's evey mate for himself! Everyone packs and carries his own gear. Same for clean up and unpacking.

Insider's tip: Give every child an inexpensive mesh bag, a light weight beach towel and a hat. They can rinse beach toys right in the bag and leave sand behind. Brightly colored hats beat the heat and are easy to spot on the beach!

Less is more. This Insider loves the beach and to watch children play. Hundreds of beach days with children, have shown this simple discovery: The less you plan or bring to do, the more children explore nature's playground! They discover their world, eachother and themselves.

Model relaxation. It's your beach vacation, let go and truly relax. Balance different ways of relaxing - playing with your kids and having time to yourself. On the beach, trade supervising children with other adults. Even when supervising, you can do nothing but enjoy the sights, the warmth, the breeze... the sound of the surf...

Prepave a great time together. Meet with children to create flexible beach vacation guidelines together. Brainstorm everyone's idea of fun vacation time. When possible, make an effort to give everyone a choice and a vote about some vacation time. Set up simple standards together so expectations are clear and met with ease. For little ones, bed time and what to do if you get lost may come up. For teens, curfews and spending money might be topics. Meet as needed throughout the trip to provide children more tools for the experience. Everyone rests easier in a sturdier chair.

Encourage freedom. Your beach vacation is a great place for children to experience the feeling of freedom. Being on the beach gives children the feeling of freedom that relaxes them to the core! It's a place you can say and mean, "Go play! Have fun! Do whatever you want!," knowing it will all be okay. Wide open natural space is magical and transforming to kids. The Virginia Beach boarwalk is just the place for teens to have a little more freedom. With lots of activities and shops right on the beach, they can come and go a easily. Set safe boundaries and encourage freedom!