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

Im visiting an area with a beach. Not for the beach or the heat.
But driving past the beach, you cant even see the sand. Its like ants.

Can anyone remind me how to check I’m not inadvertently going to be swimming in sewage?

Me too. I live less than 5 mins' walk to the beach and only go on it in winter, when my dog can have a paddle in peace.

Where we live is lovely, but at this time of year it's impossible to get in or out of town without being stuck in traffic carnage.

We live 20 miles from the coast, and family members live tgere so we go often. We necer do a beach day though. Maybe because it is so close? We go after school, evening, early morning and never when its boiling!

Our best beach trip, we got there at 3pm as families started to leave. Had lunch straight away and left at 9pm

I agree OP, but each to their own. My sister is obsessed with beaches and will spend all day there happily sitting in traffic jams. It's my idea of hell. If I was to go to a beach I'd go 7pm in Summer when the crowds are moving off. My local beaches aren't serviced so I wouldn't stay long anyways. By that i mean no official parking or bins or toilets. But they are 20 mins away and a pleasant drive too. No public transport options.

We are going Monday. It’s about an hour 15 from us, and I plan to be out the house by 6.45, to avoid queues!

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

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 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.

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

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

I love the beach.

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

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!

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.

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!

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!

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

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!

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.

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

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.