How much do you spend on a day trip to the beach?

[HighSea]

Thinking a head to the summer holidays and always see the beach recommended as a cheap day out. So realistically when it’s not during a holiday or a special day out how much do you budget for a day trip to the beach? This is assuming you take a picnic, drinks and sand toys from home.

Wow! I'm shocked by the replies (and realise how lucky I am). I only tend to go to the beach when I'm staying with my mum. It's a 5 minute walk from her house, so we rarely spend all day there, but if we do, I pack some sandwiches, crisps and apples and fill some water bottles. There's no shops by the 3 miles of beach, so I don't get pestered to spend money.

Just petrol, a Fanta and a water. Unless you're at Blackpool or somewhere like that, it should basically be free!

Nothing. We walk there and take everything we need.

We live in London and go to Whitstable quite a lot. On days we bring a picnic, we spend £30-50 on ice cream, coffees, cakes and chips for dinner plus petrol and parking.

What was the £150 spent on as it sounds a lot . I rarely take picnics anywhere but even then I wouldn’t clear £150 in a day at the beach.

An ice cream each, maybe some chips as we pack up.

I take balls, shrimp nets, water bottles, buckets & spades etc with us.

Nothing really as we live 5-10 mins from about 15 beaches with free parking. We take food and drinks etc.

150🤭 that’s crazy !

we are lucky we live beside the beach so we spend nothing . We would only stay for 2 hours and bring a small picnic . We generally go a few times a week over the summer.
we do another beach only 15 mins drive about once a week over summer so do spend but stay for the day

parking - 6 euro
ice creams - 10 euro
chips / burgers -25 euro

I'm intriged as to what you spent £150 on?

Realistically

Parking
Ice cream or candy floss, portion of chips.
1 or 2 coffees
£20 on arcades.

Kids will use pocket money for souvenirs.

We live near the beach. Car park is free (National Trust Members). We have all the gear (beach tent, buckets, spades, nets, snorkels etc.). Always take a picnic from home - just usual sandwiches / crisps / fruit - but sometimes buy an ice cream (£10-£12 for all four of us) at the shop.

We practically live on the beach during the holidays as it's on our doorstep, it's a bit of a two part question:

1. the big outlays if you are planning on having very regular trips to the beach, have a beachy lifestyle, things such as:

Swim suits
Wet suits
Swim shoes
Beach blankets
Towel / dry robes
Swim tow floats
Decent cool box
Beach tent / shelter
P20 sunscreen (£25 a bottle but great stuff)
Sturdy beach toys
Paddle board (we love them!)
Body board
Large reusable water bottles

Total: £500-£1000, will probably need replacing / upgrading every few years (some stuff never if you take care of it), bar the swim wear which is probably a yearly thing with kids. Sounds like a lot but if it lasts years and you're using it several times a week in summer, and you love it as much as we do it's worth it)

2. Things for the day: Picnic items Ice creams Parking

Total: £10-£20 depending on how much of a fancy picnic you want!

I live fairly near a beach. The parking is free and there is only one small cafe in the vicinity so it costs me pretty much nothing for a visit unless I buy a coffee or ice cream.

as little as possible
just icecream/chips

(Just to add this is rural South Devon so the beach is literally a beach with a small car park, loo/shower block and a small takeaway café. There are no arcades / chippies / fairground rides / souvenir shops to spend money at).

Parking, ice cream.

Petrol, parking, money for the food to make a picnic, ice creams, coffee when the flasks are empty, then fish n chips on the way home. £150 sounds about average op.

Would have to be some fancy fish and extortionate parking lol

£150 is madness!

We live near the beach but even if we didn’t the parking is free at the closest one.
We reuse buckets and spades, beach towels and folding chairs. So only cost is picnic and we tend to get ice creams.

How did you spend £150?

We’re 2+ hours from a beach, so fuel is the main spend. If we take a picnic, then we’d only pay for parking, cold drinks, ice cream and maybe fish & chips at the end of the day. So what, £40-50 excluding fuel? And that’s only high because of the length of the day. If we lived closer we’d spend practically nothing as don’t need extra meals or to stay as long because you can go back more often.

Wouldn’t usually do arcades, rides or any of that unless it was a planned thing like a specific trip to a pleasure beach.

😂

Depends a lot on what type of beach you are going to - those with extra arcades/attractions and those without. There is going to be vast difference in cost between them.

We go to the beach several times a week and wouldn’t choose to go to one with attractions as for us that’s not the beach but understand that others would.

We spend parking (but dont always need to pay) and maybe an ice cream or drink, rarely spend over £10 and quite often £0. Take stuff with us from home. For us it’s a similar activity to going to the park.

£80 !?
Where is this , Sandbanks ?
It does though depend on how many of you its including though

Usually nothing. Maybe ice cream.

I think the people spending £80 or £100 are spending on a meal out. That's not a beach trip. That's a meal out.

I was recently at a beach which had a "beach library". You could borrow buckets, spades etc then return them at the end of your visit. Brilliant.

The beaches we normally go to have no amenities so zero cost apart from petrol.