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

[Njuy]

People who decide to head to their nearest beach when hot weather.

They spend ages driving around the town as everyone else is driving
They spend ages finding somewhere to park
They spend ages queuing up for food, toilets etc

This doesn’t sound fun.
If you are being roped into doing this week, be warned

Thats why we are early morning beach goers. We go home when the crowds arrive!

The only place this didnt work was Antibes in the south of France. 8.30am and nowhere to sit on the beach!

(It then cleared a bit as all the locals left and the tourists hadn't yet arrived)

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.
We are not beach day people, an hour is fine!
Carting an enormous load of stuff to a spot on the beach to spend all day there doesn’t appeal, we much prefer the beach in the winter time tbh. Bracing walk, a play in the arcade, lunch, skim stones, bracing walk back. All without too many people. Perfect.

I think what is worse is being miserable the whole time and always looking for negatives in everything. It must be tiring

That’s mean @araiwa OP isn’t into this one thing, travelling to the beach on hot days.

I like a beach day of any kind occasionally, it’s something different to do, at any time of year, but find the long journey then (in summer) sitting in traffic for ages frustrating and feel cross because DH refuses to get up early which would be my preference.

We do this when doing a beach trip every summer. We go really early and leave the beach around 12 noon when the crowds start to arrive...

Ironically I live a five minute walk from a beach but never go on it.

Fair point OP. What never occurs to too many people is parking somewhere out of town and using the bus or train to make the journey to the seafront.

Made worse no doubt by the number of people in SUVs or indeed normal sized cars who cannot park properly or easily, even with the reversing cameras now to help them.

Or you could leave early, take your own lunch and be parked and paddling by eight.

Drive through the new forest while the sun is still lifting the mist.

Buy breakfast and coffee on the quay. 😊

And go home at 2 before everyone else.

One of the joys of living in an unfashionable part of the Highlands - miles of (very quiet) beautiful sandy beaches! No traffic jams in our nearest town ever, or on the roads - my children think a traffic jam is two cars behind a tractor 😂.

Sounds like Mudeford.

With kids in tow yes. Without kids no.

I'd love this.
My family hate beaches. They are also not early risers.
It makes me sad when I read about people having beach days. Sounds lovely. 🌞

I agree going early is the key. Im planning to.be up and out by 9 tomorrow which will be early enough where I am..twenty min drive, parked up for the day. My kids are teens so may or may not come but they know if they do and they want to go.home, its the bus or wait til I'm ready to go. Book, sea swimming, possibly headphones for when annoying people with speakers turn up later. Perfect.

That sounds wonderful @Heraldry

Sorry your family aren’t up for it @Moveyourbleedingarse I’ve occasionally gone early with the one DC who wanted to and / or local friends.

We're planning on going Monday we will be going very early so it's not too hot or crowded.

I like the idea of early visits to the beach. It’s the scenario I mentioned in my OP. I live 60 miles from the nearest beach

Just off to the beach now. Its in the countryside, £5 to park all day at the top of the cliff, we're taking food and there's never a queue for the toilet. Been excited about this day all week! Will come home around 6pm, possibly via the pub for a cider.

Just choose a better beach.

Not as hot but sounds bliss to me. 😁

OP I sadly think @araiwahas a good point, you sound very negative. Do you usually focus on worst case scenarios?

im not sure we’ll go to the beach this weekend but might next week at some point, usually takes about 1.5 hours to drive for us, i tend to put carpark address in my satnav when i set off and don’t bother driving round trying to find free/cheaper on street parking. I’ve never had an issue finding parking in a proper carpark at the coast. I usually take picnics on days out, we’ll buy fish and chips before returning home because apparently it’s the law to have a chippy tea at the seaside according to my dcs.

Do you usually find days out or driving /parking in unfamiliar places stressful?

I think you just need to pick a different beach and take lunch with you!

I Like the sound of the early morning beach trips.
Personally, now I have older children, I prefer to go late, around 5pm when everyone is starting to leave, and it’s starting to get cooler again.
Fish and chips on the beach bathed in the golden glow of sunset.
Paddling as the shadows get longer
Home by midnight.

Same here. Got 3 beaches within a few minutes of where we live and haven’t been on them for decades.

It can be lovely if you plan and carefully choose where to be. When ds was 6, we set off at 7 am for western super mare, took a picnic with loads of ice packs, frozen drinks etc and a mini uv tent/shelter. I took a bum bag type thing so I could paddle with my keys, purse etc. it was easy to park, we set up a little camp at the end of the massive beach (so it wasn’t super busy) and then walked to the other end later, had a mini swim, made sandcastles, saw the pier, did a few games in the fun fair, got sausage and chips for dinner and went home. Not too costly, no queues and such a lovely day.

What a weird post.

You started this thread at 6:30am, I’m going to presume that’s because you’d been up thinking about it and decided it was all too difficult. If you had been on the road within the hour, so 7:30am you’d be at the nearest beach between 9-9:30am ish unless it’s very bad traffic near you.

park in a proper carpark not stressing yourself out about where there’s on road parking, if you don’t have picnic stuff in the house, add 20 mins to swing by the nearest supermarket to buy a load of picnic-y picky bits. By 2pm you could easily be packing up if you’d had enough and home for 4pm/before traffic gets bad.

sometimes you just have to do stuff. Obviously not everyone enjoys the seaside, but if you do, the logistics really aren’t that complex.