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Original poster

British beach etiquette - lighthearted

132 replies

OrangeSunset · 22/08/2021 21:29

We are on holiday on the SW. It’s packed, beaches heaving.

I totally cannot understand how much stuff people take to the beach - and each year I swear it’s getting more. Windbreaks, tents, chairs, and now a new thing….trolleys to transport all the stuff. Plus those inflatable sofa things.

The bit I find really nuts is when people position a windbreak so they can’t even see the sea! What is the point in even going to the beach if you cannot enjoy the view. Some construct almost completely circular camps.

To me, it’s the equivalent of putting your phone up at a gig and recording the whole thing instead of actually watching it.

It’s an oddly British social practice. France - towel or beach mat, an umbrella to stick in the sand for shade if really hot. These are low level and don’t create barriers across the beach for everyone else and do for dogs, kids etc requiring shade.

If it were up to me…chairs only if you are medically unable to sit on the sand. When did teenagers need a chair!

I am really hoping there is someone out there who shares my incredulity at this madness!

OP posts:

mafted · 23/08/2021 13:26

@seasonalremarks

And surely a wetsuit is pretty much essential if you plan to swim all day.

That depends what you mean by swimming all day. Actually swimming for hours without a break then yes but in and out of the water swimming, paddling and splashing about over the course of a day then no IMO.

mafted · 23/08/2021 13:28

Although people swim the channel without a wetsuit so it's probably not essential at all.

Fruitloopcowabunga · 23/08/2021 13:31

LOVE our beach tent, get changed, hide lunch from gulls, protect DD who is very sun sensitive. HATE people taking radios/inflicting their choice of music on others.
Noticed fewer smokers this year

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Snailhaterz2 · 23/08/2021 13:59

It really isn't new. I have vivid memories of huddling behind a windbreak in Cornwall/Channel Islands/North Devon about 50 years ago.

Seahawk80 · 23/08/2021 14:48

We went to Cornwall this year - we go quite far back on the beach as we like to stay all day if sunny and the tide comes in far. By lunchtime we couldn't see the sea for windbreaks - I hate it! Just went to Spain and it was worth the pcr tests / forms to not have this!

mafted · 23/08/2021 16:16

@Seahawk80

Last time we were in Spain we were on a seemingly deserted beach and a family came and put up a huge gazebo directly in front of us. They so close they were standing on our towels to put it up. We moved along and inadvertently wandered into the nudist section, suddenly all these naked bodies rose up from the dunes and started parading around in front of us presumably to alert us to the fact it was a nude beach.

Original poster

OrangeSunset · 23/08/2021 18:32

Fair point about chucking in the climate crisis to a lighthearted thread.

I don’t have a problem with the stuff per se. It’s mainly the amount of stuff and the space it needs relative to the amount of people who will use it.

Of all it, it’s the viewing blocking that really grinds my gears.

I definitely don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to be able to see the sea when you are the beach. Otherwise, really, what is the point in going? Also, my DC are just about old enough to be in there own but I do still want to be able to see them every now and then.

Italian beaches I have been to have sun loungers but they are all very tasteful - fabric on the loungers matches the shop canopies and so on. The beaches themselves aren’t much to look at, but the general set up is classy.

French beaches - Brittany. Only the mat and umbrella I mentioned earlier. More smoking tho.

I’m it’s increasing. I want a trolley but I don’t need one, and if I hadn’t seen them in use it would never have occurred to me to get one.

So I think it’s contagious - one person shakes out a bigger area with their windbreak, so does the next person etc. Like trying to find a tent pitch at Glasto if you arrive after 10am on Thurs!

OP posts:

copernicium · 23/08/2021 18:51

@Mumdiva99

We were on a beautiful beach a few weeks ago. Hardly anyone else there. I was only with my daughter- she was digging I was in the sea. A few adults arrived and placed there stuff in between my daughter and the water. There was loads of free space but no....they wanted the exact spot we had. Then they proceeded to put up massive tents so I could no longer see my daughter or our stuff when we were in the water....and the view from the beach vanished. But the worst hit for me was that they never used the tents...

I have no issue with a small beach tent.....but these were 6 ft monstrosities they could have put elsewhere on the beach. Really ruined my time there.

Yes! We were on an almost empty beach. A family came and set up within 2m of us ... and then proceeded to tell me to move my dog away from them!!!

edgeware · 23/08/2021 18:52

When I used to go to the beach in the Netherlands when I was young we didn’t bring that much - but on those beaches you can hire sun loungers, parasol, and stroll to the fish truck for lunch when it rocks up. Or to the beach bar for a drink or an ice cream. The nice beaches near me here have absolutely zilch in the way of amenities! The toilets aren’t even always open!

SquirryTheSquirrel · 23/08/2021 18:57

We don't take anything but ourselves and a couple of books. Plonk our bums on the sand - job done. Easy to move if someone annoying sets up camp nearby - but personally I think the beach is the best place for people-watching. Those little encampments tell you so much about someone's life.

Last time I was watching a bored mum stuck minding all the stuff while the DC frolicked in the sea with dad ... coming back periodically for (delicious-looking) food then going off to play beach tennis etc. I felt like going over to them and telling them not to take their mum for granted like that!

PurpleVerbena · 23/08/2021 19:02

I live 5 minutes from the beach and honestly I cannot see the appeal of sitting on a gritty, sandy beach in the blazing sun all day, surrounded by seaweed and hundreds of screaming kids, kicking sand and being obnoxious. I never go to the beach except in the late autumn and winter when it is quiet.

Ionlydomassiveones · 23/08/2021 19:10

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn at the poster's request.

EnjoyingTheArmoire · 23/08/2021 19:31

It reminds me of the influx of glamping 10+ years ago, when people went from taking the bare essentials to having a bell tent with carpets, outside garden, full electrical hook-up and duvets etc.

I really miss the beach, this is the second year we've not been (with our rucksack of stuff as we're travelling by public transport).

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 23/08/2021 19:50

The people who set up next to you on the beach - these are the same people who will camp next to you in an otherwise empty field, they will sit very close to you in an otherwise empty cinema, they even park in the space next to you when you've parked at the far side of an empty supermarket car park. They are insecure sheep.

thenumberseven · 23/08/2021 20:15

Spanish are just as bad (I'm Spanish /Australian) I've decided I love the sea, I really do but I hate the beach going

starfishmummy · 23/08/2021 20:56

@Coogee

DH and I still giggle about the family near us on a British beach who were brewing up on a camp stove and had a silver coffee pot with them!! Its become a bit of a family joke now and we always ask each other "have we packed the coffee pot?".

That was probably us. We are about to go on holiday and the silver coffee pot and camping stove is packed.

Coogee bring some extra cup nest time please and we won't laugh at you

starfishmummy · 23/08/2021 20:57

Ffs, cups next time!!

lljkk · 23/08/2021 21:07

We did have same thread about 2 weeks ago.
Nobody said they had a beach wagon but many people described how they required enough stuff to fill at least 2 beach wagons, and couldn't enjoy their visit without all of it.

Which is fine. Other people's choices and behaviour on beach doesn't cause me problems.

VikingLady · 23/08/2021 22:00

Wow Op, you'd hate us! We take backpacks with spare clothes for everyone, swimming costumes, sun cream, buckets and spades including at least one spare in case of breakages and subsequent meltdown, food, drink, towels to sit on, spare towels for drying, books for me and DH, drawing stuff for DD, diggers for DS, MASSIVE metal detector for DH, occasional reference books if I remember them (we home educate), stuff for toasting marshmallows, and we're thinking of taking a sledge next time to move it all along the beach so we can move away from dogs and noisy folk.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect anyone. Except all the parents of kids who see us toasting marshmallows

Hopeandglory · 23/08/2021 22:34

I have a beach hut which is full of everything required for a full day at the beach without the requirement of getting any sand on my person

MrsSkylerWhite · 23/08/2021 22:35

SkinnyMirror

Don't wetsuits just detract from the beauty of the natural feel of the water on your skin? What's the point of going to the beach if you're not appreciating the natural environment around you?“

Guessing that perhaps you don’t live on the Irish Sea Coast?

willowstar · 24/08/2021 05:11

I have seen people really struggling with their wagons at the beaches we go to in Norfolk. There is either pretty deep sand, so they get stuck, dunes with very narrow paths or stairs. They often require 2 people to pick up and carry the wagons, which looks a bit back breaking. Factor in small children and they seem to be more hassle than they are worth for the beaches near us. Other beaches are may be more accessible of course.

blackteaplease · 24/08/2021 06:10

I've definitely seen Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian families in France and Spain with all this kit at the beach over the last 10 years of summer holidays. The windbreak encampment is particularly common to British though. It also happens at campsites around the pitch.

The French that I see with a book, towel and optional sun umbrella only are either older or younger people. Those with kids also have all the kit.

AngelsWithSilverWings · 24/08/2021 06:43

The worse beach I've seen for this is Woolocombe. We hired a beach hut two weeks and it was brilliant but we couldn't believe the massive group encampments that were set up on the beach. There were huge areas closed off by windbreaks and large gazebos like they were creating a temporary village for the day.

Then there were the minority of beach hut renters who would create a long line of wind breaks to create there own very long private front garden. Our beach hut was at the end of the row and we would have to do a big detour up and down a slope because of all the windbreaks blocking the way. By the end of the first week I was fed up having to negotiate them to get to the toilets and back so I would squeeze through one of the gaps and walk across "their space" instead.

I do like to take chairs and a parasol to the beach and we did take a trolley too on our last beach trip as it was a 15 min steep walk to the beach from our campsite and we wanted to take our lunch and drinks with us as there was no beach cafe.

CarrotTops · 24/08/2021 07:01

I think I've lost several hours of my life this year stuck behind someone carrying a beach trolley down the beach stairs or lugging it across sand (because surprisingly it doesn't wheel that well over sand). It's painful.

One beach tent or windbreak is fine if needed. But it's the massive encampments with multiple windbreaks, tents, chairs etc. They are definitely getting bigger and more common. I see it as the equivalent of man spreading, territory marking. If the beach is massive and you are back row then this is okay, but if it's a small cove style beach or you have to set up your encampment in front of someone else then it's a bit ridiculous. Why are you going to the beach if you need that much stuff to enjoy it?

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