What’s the perfect length for a beach holiday?

[leydud]

DP and I like the beach, but more so we just like being somewhere warm and near the sea. We don’t usually do more than half a day total so like 5 hours at the beach any day on a beach hol.

We love tropical beaches and winter sun. Recently did 7 nights on Virgin Gorda but by the time you fly to Antigua, fly to Tortola, then ferry to Virgin Gorda, you’ve lost almost 2 days to travel.

10 nights is about perfect. Enough time to unwind and not too much to get bored.

Ten days. But I would never go so far just for a beach holiday. As you said, you are wasting a lot of time getting there and back. I’d stick to Europe.

We go on beach holidays to Croatia and Kefalonia a week each June and September. Were pretty boring I know but we know we like thise places and its a fair bit of money to spend if you arent sure But we often say we wished we were staying 10 days. 14 is too long gets a bit boring and weird .

You need to find other things to do unless you like days on end of doing very little.

We always spend the afternoons at the beach, but it is broken up by lunch and swimming, snorkelling, snoozing and reading and it's likely after we've been for a walk or visit to some sort of attraction like a museum, botanical garden or historical monument. So a good mix of 'doing' as well as rest and relaxation so not boring.

But I'm happy with a week (or even 5/6 days) and like the Med, and Canaries in winter so don't have to travel more than a few hours to get there and we make the most of the travel days so fly out in the morning and have late lunch and beach on the first day and if we fly back in the afternoon, we'll generally go for a last swim or visit somewhere on the way back to the airport.

A beach in Europe in December?😨

We go on beach holidays regularly, depending where we go we usually go for 10/14 days, we never get bored because we’re always in the water and we tend to pick hotels that have good corals for snorkelling, so anywhere in Egypt is our favourite

Canaries are great in December. Sea reasonably warm, good chance of good weather if you stay on the south sides of the islands and generally enough non beachy stuff to do so you're not bored if it's less hot.

I'm just about to spend 21 days in Lanzarote - flying out tomorrow and back on Jan 31st, so will let you know if that has been entirely too long!

I'm really looking forward to not having to squeeze lots of trips in in a regimented way, but kind of 'living' there and bobbing about when we want to. Will go over to Fuerteventura on the ferry a couple of times too and will explore the island as we'll have a hire car. I don't think I'll get bored, but it's the longest holiday I've had by far, so I could be wrong...!

Over 5 hour flight or long haul 2/3 weeks min. We go away loads and do 2 x 3 weeks couple of times a year, but somewhere interesting and not AI.
Less than that 5 hours go for 7/10 nights and tend to do AI just to chill.

I like 10 nights.

7 nights I feel is too short and I start feeling pressure to 'do it all', only 5 days left etc - and i've barely unpacked. You're just one flight delay away from feeling more like you're on a short break rather than a proper holiday.

14 feels a bit long. However, this is with 3 dc between 17 and 8 - the older ones start getting a bit bored towards the end. For a childfree holiday in future, I personally feel I could go for a month and be just fine 😂

10 is perfect. It lets me relax for the first few days and enjoy with zero pressure - because you still have over a week left so it doesn't matter if you 'waste' the first three simply lying by a pool. Then we get out and about from day 4ish.

7 to 9 nights, what I really love is a twin center holiday doing the busy part first and then the beach plus excursions afterwards.

@leydud You need to go for longer! Sail around a bit! Somewhere different every day and stay over in Antigua. So many great islands in BVIs.

If you go in winter you have to go long haul, Caribbean or the southern hemisphere.

We loved Thailand in January for example.

But I would go at least 10 days, ideally 14 with plenty of sightseeing or island hopping.

I find one week for a long haul beach holiday a decent length as you still get there in a day and usually the journey is added on the end rather than taking up one of the days. I don’t really find flying to for example St Lucia much more tiring than somewhere like Turkey or Cyprus, in fact the flight times are often better.

10 days but I think it depends on the flight duration and location. If going to the Caribbean or SE Asia I’d probably say 10-14.

No more than a weekend really. There's only so much time you can spend on a beach.

You didn’t say you’d be going in winter!

2 weeks if it’s long haul, 10-12 days if it’s a Med beach holiday, 5 days if it’s a European city break. That said, we have just booked a 3 week holiday, but that is only because we are going to three countries and there a several connecting flights.

Edited to say. We always try and have one excursion day to 2/3 pool days. I’m not sure I could lie by a pool for a solid 2 weeks.

2 weeks

4 nights max at the beach so 3 whole days. Other than that I’m out and about seeing and doing. I can’t see the point of lying on a beach under an umbrella, but I appreciate not everyone feels the same.

We like a holiday of two halves. The first half is a city break or something active, followed by 5-6 days at the beach. That means we're not at the beach for long enough to get bored of it, but we don't feel like you've spent a long time travelling for only a few days. Also we enjoy the beach more after a few days doing something else.

About 4 months! 😂Actually if JUST a beach / pool break I would say 10 days. 7 days isn't long enough to get over the travel/ packing/unpacking and get into the chill zone. 14 days could be too much if youre the restless sort.

Though I like to mix beach days with days out so don't really do AI / resort type holidays.

I get stir crazy after 5 days.

Our next beach holiday is to Barbados in March for 16 nights this time. We do a lot of sightseeing as well as going to the beach. It’s all very enjoyable and we’re certainly never bored.