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.

Parking + ice cream for DD + possibly a bag of chips + couple of quid in the 2p slots = £10/20 ish?
What on earth did you waste spend £150 on??

We go a lot to the beach and I make a picnic and take a thermos for coffee. We sometimes have an ice cream which would be £8 for us. However if we did not live close to the sea and added in fish and chips and parking I could see it being £50 for 4 of us.

If you are travelling a long way its more of an occasion than if its a regular thing. We live near a zoo and have season tickets... we can spend nothing there on a day out. The infrequent visitors are the ones in the cafe, the gift shop, camp site, experience restaurant etc. But if we go to the beach... then yes we have a cheap pub meal as we won't be home for dinner after maximising the time there.

We live waking distance to a beach. When the kids were younger we would make sandwiches and pack crisps , cakes , drinks and other snacks in a cool bag and then spend maybe £10 on ice creams. Take own chairs and a folding parasol so no need to hire a deck chair. Can't imagine how anyone can spend £150 unless going for a sit down lunch or it includes expensive travel arrangements/parking costs.

I cannot inagine what you soent £150 pounds on? We live 5 mins from the beach but any cheap / free day out here involves a flask of coffee and a packed lunch. In the summer hols my food shop includes lunch bits - rolls, fillings, crisps biscuit bar, fruit, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes. If the weather is colder or wet flasks of soup or hot chocolate for after a cold dip in the sea. Even if the kids wabted ice creams and a couple of quid for the arcades it's never more than a tenner. Expensive days out to me are attractions like zoos, theme parks, cinema, bowling, high ropes, climbing centre, trampoline parks etc. We something like one of those expensive ones in a week in the summer. One beach day, one bike ride, one national trust day, one chill at home day etc.

When we go I make sure we don't do arcades and ice creams and fish and chips every time. Otherwise I get kids with high expectations. Sometimes it's just the £6 parking. Depends how long we stay.

Parking , cheesy chips and probably an ice cream … save any small change for the slot machines if the weathers not great - probably under £30 … the only thing there that’s unavoidable is the parking

I am not complaining at the amount we spent yesterday my dd has been extremely distressed and we decided to throw money at it. We didn’t say not to a single request and had an amazing day, it was £150 plus dinner in a Hungry Horse on the way home which was £65 as it was buy one get one free on main meals. I haven’t included the cost of fuel as unfortunately that’s just part of owning a car but we are in The Midlands so closest beaches are around 100 miles away, think we used just over 1/4 tank at current prices for my car is £25 I guess as £100 is a full tank.

ice creams x5 @ £4.50 each
£10 per child in the arcade £30
£30 on amusement rides
£25 for a round of mini golf
£20 on a cuddly octopus that turns inside to change colour
£20 on rocks and dummy sweets
£10 Costa
£5 full day parking

I know that it was a special day out not the average beach trip, I just wondered if it’s realistic just keeping it to parking, ice cream for kids, Costa for adults? And obviously petrol.

Are you including petrol in the £150 total?

I live near multiple nice beaches that don't charge for parking. We don't need to buy ice cream or fish and chips because we're close to home. Petrol is the only expense for us.

A tip is to put ice cream in a thermos. The vacuum insulation will keep the ice cream frozen for hours.

If you can afford it and want to treat your children to sweets and the arcades it's not a problem.
Next time you can stick to just the parking, ice cream and petrol. Take a flask of coffee if you want to save an extra tenner.
Fucking hell £4.50 for an ice cream. Madness

That sounds like a PIA to get out. Does it just tip out?

Well to be fair most of that cost isn't a 'beach trip'. It's toys, golf, rides etc.

For some playing mini golf or going to the fun fair are separate trips so you'd get three days out for the same cost.

Where was this please?

So you spent £240, not including your picnic and you are asking if it’s realistic to do it on less? Is it like a stealth gloat thread about how much money you spent cheering up your kid? You must have done days out before, you no it’s possible and perfectly acceptable. Your day out was a big day out, not a beach trip, next time take buckets and spades and just play on the beach and im
sure theyl enjoy it just as much!

Ah I see now. You packed the whole seaside experience into one day whereas because we live at the seaside anyway a day on the beach is just that. We would do the amusement park on a different day ( out DC actually have annual passes as it works out so much cheaper) and a meal out would be a separate day too. I can see now how you would have spent as much as you did ( and could probably easily have spent much more actually!)

And that’s the thing, you live 100 miles away, that’s a proper day out then
we have a beach about 10/20 mins drive (depends on traffic)
so for us going to the beach is a half day activity… either come home for lunch or go after
so it’s just an icream for kids, and either a coffee or icecream for me… parking is free… so just petrol… and if I’m feeling generous £5-£10 on the arcade, maybe some chips to share on the way back… it can be £5 for the day or £20

Same here. I got a sun tent for the dog to have some shade but found it doubles as a sun trap on windier days so extends the beach season for us and the most we spend is occasionally getting ice cream and/or chips so £10-£20 at the most

Nothing, or a few quid for a couple of ice creams for the kids. Not counting petrol, but thankfully we’re only 15-20 mins from a beach.

But that's not a day out at the beach, OP! I'm like a PP who lives near the beach and we wouldn't spend anything. Picnic, take your own drinks/toys and it's free. That's the point of 'going to the beach'.

You had a day out at amusement arcades, fairground rides, crazy golf etc plus a pub meal and buying icecreams/sweets/toys.

Sitting on the sand, digging sandcastles, paddling in the sea/rock pools costs nothing. Plus, the weather was gorgeous yesterday. You could have had a happy day spending nothing.

It works just fine. I use a food thermos like this.

I just wondered if it’s realistic just keeping it to parking, ice cream for kids, Costa for adults? And obviously petrol.

Yes. Quite possible, perfectly realistic. Set expectations before, manage whilst there. Rinse and repeat.

I am intrigued by how you spent £4.50 per ice cream - did you sit in somewhere for a fancy sundae each? A 99 from a van isn’t that much and you can go cheaper again. I think I’d faint at the idea of over £20 on ice cream!

Agree with pp , that is not a day at the beach - it’s a day out where the beach is involved . When mine were small if we were going to a day at the beach I always picked a beach that didn’t have amusements / golf / arcades otherwise that’s what they want to do rather than actually playing on the beach and in the water .

We spend nothing except fuel.
I do buy some extra food that we probably normally wouldn't have staying in.
We try to do as many free and cheap days as possible and spend money on weekends away or holidays.