Short answer: For our family, packing less has made beach trips with young kids much more enjoyable. On our lightest beach day, everything fit into a small backpack and two reusable shopping bags. We brought water, sunscreen, a towel, snacks, floaties, and a few shell-collecting bags. Less stuff meant less carrying, less stress, and more time enjoying the beach.
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Quick Questions
What do you really need to bring to the beach with young kids? For a short beach trip with young kids, you may only need sunscreen, water, snacks, a towel, hat/sunglasses, floaties, diapers if needed, and something small for collecting shells.
Do you need a beach wagon with kids? Not always. Many families love them, but we found that packing lighter worked better for our family than hauling more gear through the sand.
How do you pack light for the beach with toddlers? Wear swimsuits to the beach, bring only what you'll actually use, and remember that most young kids are perfectly happy exploring with very little. Unless you have a brave young explorer, some kids may not even want to go into the water so floaties may not even be needed.
The first beach trip we ever took with our first child, who was about nine months old, we had our Toyota Camry filled to the brim with stuff—half of which we didn't need.
Since then, we've added three more kids and have been trying to downsize our packing as much as possible. When you have several little kids close together in age, it's miserable carrying all their stuff (and sometimes carrying them, too), especially across scorching hot sand. If you've ever been to some of the longer beaches along the New Jersey coastline, you know what I'm talking about.
I think our last trip was the first time we really figured out what worked for our family. At that point, we had three children, our youngest was 19 months old and weaned from nursing, and our kids were more interested in exploring than swimming.
They're in that phase where they want to stick their toes in the water, collect as many seashells as possible, say hi to strangers, and pet every dog they see.
This year will probably look a little different with a baby under one who is still nursing frequently, but our overall approach will probably stay the same: pack light.
What We Packed for a Longer Beach Day
For one beach day, we arrived around 1:00 PM and stayed until about 4:00 PM.
We brought:
- 3 towels for 5 people
- 1 beach blanket
- 1 umbrella
- Granola bars
- A few plastic water bottles (I love my Owala and the limited plastic life but stainless steel is HEAVY so it’s one of those instances when I say plastic is worth it for 2-3 days.)
- Sunscreen
- Life jackets/floaties
- Wallets/some cash
- 3 buckets
- A few sand trowels
- A delicate laundry bag for carrying sand toys
- A small backpack with swim diapers, regular diapers, wipes, diaper spray, and our Tushbaby carrier
- Sunglasses/Hats
At the time, our kids ranged from 20 months to 4 years old.
Looking back, we used most of it and didn't really regret bringing any of it. Although, honestly we could have done without the umbrella. The kids were on the move. We sat down for maybe 15 minutes to eat our granola bars and then we were up and out exploring again.
Our Simplest Beach Trip Yet
On another beach day, we packed even less.
Everything fit into a small backpack and two reusable shopping bags, one of which was very small pulse floaties/life jackets.
We brought:
- 2 plastic water bottles
- 1 towel
- Sunscreen
- A few granola bars
- A couple plastic baggies for collecting shells
- Floaties for each child
- Sunglasses/hats
The floaties clipped around the handles of our bags, which made carrying everything much easier. That was probably my favorite beach trip with kids.
We wore our swimsuits to the beach and skipped the chairs, umbrella, and most of the extras. We had finally realized that our kids had very little interest in sitting in one spot building elaborate sandcastles.
They wanted to walk. They wanted to chase crabs. They wanted to hunt for shells. They wanted to splash at the edge of the water.
Once we found a spot on the beach, we dropped our reusable bags, towel, and floaties there and started walking. We figured that if someone decided to take our inexpensive towel and reusable shopping bag, they were probably in worse shape than we were.
I should mention that this was our last beach trip of the season, so we were a little more relaxed about things than we might have been during peak summer vacation.
We also tend to visit the beach in late summer, usually around mid-September when the sun isn't quite as intense. On this trip, we arrived around 10:00 AM.
We spent about two hours exploring before heading back to the car for lunch and then home. Our kids would have stayed at the beach all day if we would have let them but mom and dad we’re done!
Why We Skip the Beach Wagon in the Past
This is just my personal opinion.
We don't own one of those expensive beach wagons.
They look wonderful if you get the right one and your family spends all day on the beach. But for us, it felt like another thing to drag through the sand.
We have tried bringing our Chicco jogger stroller onto the beach. It is one of my favorite strollers for everyday life—I genuinely love it—but it wasn't fun to push through sand. If you do try to bring your stroller in the sand (at least with a 3-wheeled jogger) we found it easier to drag it behind you and tilt it so the front wheel is up in the air
Since we haven't invested in a beach wagon, we've simply chosen to bring less stuff instead. I am however, keeping my eye on sales, yard sales, and consignment shops for a wagon like the MacSport All Terrain Wagon or the Timber Ridge Collapsible Wagon.
Our Biggest Lesson
Every family is different, and every child has different interests. But for our family, with kids ranging from 20 months to 4 years old, packing lighter made beach trips so much more enjoyable and my husband felt less like a pack mull.
So if you're heading to the beach with little kids, consider packing a little lighter than you think you need. The car usually isn't that far away, and in our experience, somebody is ready to head home long before you've run out of supplies.
Also, if you are in the Southern New Jersey area and looking for a place to stay, I highly recommend a house on AirBnB listed as “Home in Lower Township”. This is not a sponsor suggestion :) We just really enjoyed our stay. It was more affordable because we had to drive to the beach but near everything. The beds were comfortable and it was laid out nicely. The only negative was that there were two sets of steps so that we could not block off very well. That was a bit of a challenge with toddlers. But overall- great hosts and nice community!