The first time your kids see the sea can be a magical experience, so planning the perfect trip to the coast for you and your family should be simple. Unfortunately, as usual, there’s lots to think of and consider, so it can be all too easy to forget things. To help you make your family excursion to the sea a success, we’ve collected some of our favourite pointers from around the web.
Jam-Packed Activity Checklist
Time is precious so there’s no reason to waste it. When you’ve only got a day or two to do all the things you want to do, you need to really make the most of every minute, and a good way to do this is to create a short checklist of the activities you want to do with your kids.
Think about the obvious things like paddling in the sea, walking the dog along the beach and building a sand castle, and then drill down into the specifics, like visiting that famous fish and chip shop that everybody talks about, or eating those ice creams that you can buy from a vendor on the beach – it’s the little things that your kids will remember.
What to Pack
Once you’ve got your list of activities that you’re going to try to get done on your trip, the next challenge is to go through and pick out the equipment you’re going to need. Items like buckets and spades can be purchased at the seaside so you don’t need to take them with you in the car, conserving space.
The most essential things you’ll need to take with you are changes of clothes, towels and swimming clothes. Your young children will probably benefit from the added warmth provided by wetsuits like the ones that can be purchased from Konfidence, as the cold water of the English Channel and the driving winds of the coastline might cause them to catch a mild cold.
Keeping the Memories
To ensure you and your kids remember your coastal family outing, it might be a good idea to take mementos of the trip. If you have a good camera, packing it could allow you to take some beautiful pictures of your kids enjoying the coast, else you could use the camera on your phone.
You could also make a note to take home a token of the trip such as a shell, which you could drill a hole in and place on a string, creating a special piece of jewellery for your kids to wear.