AIBU to think hot weather beach trips sound more hassle than fun?

We tend to go early-ish morning or mid to late afternoon, for a few hours. We only live nearby, so don't need to invest a whole day on it

I live by the sea and can't wait for a swim today. But we avoid the busy area with all the arcades/donkey rides/helter skelter and so on... take a picnic to a quieter pebble beach instead. It's amazing how much emptier it is just because the tourists want sand.

Went to the beach this evening as the tourists were all leaving ( nightmare in the lanes! ) absolutely glorious still warmth in the sun although the sea was still freezing had a great hour and a half now home to a lovely G and T. Felt like a very civilised way to spend a Sunday evening on a bank holiday weekend.

I find beaches meh. Can’t stand sand and sitting around and the view of water is boring imho. That’s not even taking into account beach wankers other people being at the beach too. Not for me. Fortunately I live in Derbyshire about as far away you can get from a beach in the UK.

Dh and I are getting up early tomorrow to head to the beach (40 minutes away) to have a swim, some breakfast and be on the way home by 8am

This is exactly what we’re doing tomorrow. We only live 5 mins from the beach but spending all day in the hot sticky sun packed in with hordes of others is my idea of hell.

I love the beach at sunrise and at dusk - it’s stunning and it’s quiet enough at those times to be beautiful, calm and therapeutic. Tomorrow we’ll get up early, take the dog and go swimming and then come home for breakfast. Bliss 🥰

We go to the beach loads in the summer, but never drive around a town - why would we when we’re going to the beach not the town? We drive the 10 / 15 mins to whichever beach that we want to go to (live in Cornwall so have about 10 beaches within that distance away from our house), park up and walk down onto the beach. It’s easy, and fun.

I’m on the beach every day. Never see any problems, except have to watch out for horses . I didn’t realise people still do beach days. It’s been years, even decades since I’ve seen people sitting on a beach as they did when I was a kid. The occasional family, toddlers in the water for half an hour, but not end to end families as it used to be. I go because it’s the quietest place I know

If you’re on holiday near a beach it’s very different. I live about two hour drive away from a beach. There is no way I would be going in this weather. I’d rather sit in my garden.

We go early. Get there for 9am with breakfast baps, leave at midday to come home for a shower and siesta! 👌

Depends on the beach and how touristy it is. I just walk to the end of my road, and it's a nice stretch of beach that's only really frequented by locals as it doesn't come up in searches. Tourists go a couple of miles up the road. But there's no facilities where I go.

I don't like sitting on the beach though. I walk with my dogs.

Us too and then we head back to our hotel and have the pool all to ourselves! We also stay close enough to the beach that we can walk. I prefer to be driven but have walked on occasion!

I bloody hate the beach. The feel of sand on me makes my skin crawl. So much hassle

We're going to the beach tomorrow. Its a long drive but its fairly remote and not somewhere thats usually crowded. We'll take food in the coldbox and come home when we've had enough. I'm really looking forward to it.

I totally agree! The last time we went to the coast for the day we spent half an hour just looking for a parking space. And this was at 9 in the morning!

I’m literally like bang in the middle of some great beaches, they’re all 5/10 minutes away from me and I’m always there on my days off, I went yesterday for 2 hours at midday, unfortunately it’s not hot enough for me to go in the sea and I didn’t stay long as it’s still cold in Devon!

We are off to West Wittering tomorrow, just DH and I as kids are adults and flown/fleeing the nest.

We will be more or less ready to go and put stuff in the car by 8am, it’s a longish drive but aiming to arrive by 09.30/09.45 am. We have pre-booked parking, will have a cool bag with food and drinks and will spend a few lovely hours before heading home about 3ish.

Yes, we may still have to queue in traffic and to park and yes it will be busy. But sand dunes, the sea, and hopefully a quick dip, will make up for that.

live near the beach instead and you avoid all this! Walk there at a convenient time, before it gets too busy. No need to find parking etc. Carry only the bare essentials. Have fun, swim, enjoy how much cooler the air is at the sea. Then walk home after an hour or two and have a nice clean shower, and meal. Then walk back later to watch the sunset with a vino if you fancy!

No need to cart half your belongings with you, or stay until you burn and the kids moan because you feel you need to 'get the most out of it' or eat soggy sandwiches or take out a new mortgage to buy ice creams and chips, or sit around for hours with sand up your bum!

I’m in the South East and we never go anywhere much nowadays on bank holidays

I love the beach.

I live at the seaside and hardly anyone I know in real life actually goes to the beach in the summer, during the day. Us locals tend to go early morning or scrabble out once the daytrippers go home and the beach cleaning team have done their thing

Agree … it’s hell. Luckily I live very near the beach 😬

So are we, high tide, full moon and a paddle is great and we're very much not young now

We tend to only go when on holiday near by so we can be there at 8am or 10pm when it’s near empty. Once got to a lovely empty beach with clear water at 7am as we arrived very much too early for check in 😅 but wanted to avoid traffic.

I'm about 30 minutes from one on a normal day, but wouldn't even try it on a hot bank holiday. Driving home from work yesterday was bad enough. We get so few nice, hot days. I don't want to waste one sitting in my car (especially now the kids are old enough not to want to play on a beach)

We live near several beaches - they're always deserted in summer. Perfect.