Are You Beach Ready? Summer Beach Travel Tips

[00:00:00] Narrator: Do you dream about your next trip? You're in the right place on the time to talk travel podcast. We come to you weekly to share places to go and what to do when you get there. Let's dive into this week's adventure.

[00:00:16] Nasreen: Welcome back to another episode of Time to Talk Travel. Today we are talking all things beach. The beach.

vacation or lake vacation is such a popular thing during the summer, going back probably to our youth and our parents youth before us. But. Things have come a long way.

There's ways to make the vacation go smoother. We are here to share that today. Ciaran already snuck in a tip on our last podcast so I'm gonna let her go first because she is thinking Beach already

[00:00:47] Ciaran: Beach is like a lifestyle, Beach is like a lifestyle here in California. and actually 5 miles is like too far for me. I'm trying to move closer. I want to see the water every single day.

Baby powder. My tip is I always drive around with a little container of baby powder in the back of my car because as much as you guys were saying you'd love the feeling of sand between your toes and I like it when I'm standing on the beach, I don't like it when I've got an inch of sand , in the, footwell of every single seat in my car. So I use the baby powder to get the sand off my feet before I get in the car. And I used it when my kids were little and they, they were itchy. And so having baby powder in your car or in your bag to get that sand off, it's magical.

It has to be the actual talcum powder. If you're a baby powder user, you probably aren't using the original baby powder because there's risks associated with it. But if you're using it on your feet to get sand off, it's great.

[00:01:49] Nasreen: Definitely

[00:01:50] Ciaran: I have a whole list though of all of my beach things that I use and I look for and I'm always constantly scoping out other people at the beach. When I walk down to the beach, I'll be like, oh, what's that chair? That's an amazing beach chair And there's so many new ones. There's chairs that fold out and then you can hang a hammock on them I love the idea of having a hammock on the beach and I actually do bring a hammock to the beach frequently because one of The beaches we go to has great trees for Suspending a nylon hammock from, there's just nothing better than, swinging and listening to the waves and being,

[00:02:28] Maureen: I need to go to the beach more. I'm going to go to the beach

[00:02:31] Ciaran: honestly, I may not travel as much if I get one of the houses that I'm looking at to rent in this upcoming year. We want to own again after we sell our house, but the idea of just being able to see the water every day. And this 1 house that I'm looking at now I don't want to go anywhere.

If I live there, I'll be like, oh, I'm going to miss a sunset. I'm going to I'm going to miss something if I leave.

[00:02:55] Desiree: I've seen pictures of that house Ciaran shared them with me and I agree. She could host retreats from that house. I know I'm at the point in my life where I'm also ready. I can live anywhere depending on what happens job wise, but I was looking at condos down in my hometown of Vero beach, Florida. And I found some that have ocean views. They're tiny little two bedroom places. They're nothing glorified but I don't need that. I could live in a tiny home as long as I have that view of the water. I am a beach baby. I will tell you, I am paying for it though. I grew up on the coast where we went to the beach and we spent, you know all day, saturday and Sunday on the water. I have this was a skin cancer spot just burned off this week. I have a bandage here where I had 12 stitches across my chest from another one. Please be smarter than I was. Please use the tent, the umbrella, the shade. I'm the girl who would just sit and bake and I loved it. Don't do that to your kiddos. Definitely if you're going to the beach, think about shade, think about protection, sunscreen. There have been many a trips ruined by a very bad case of sunburn where, you know, one child or another couldn't even sit down, couldn't sleep that night. We've gone to urgent care for it. It's, just you're having fun and you're not thinking about it. Set an alarm on your phone for every hour to reapply that sunscreen. Make the kids wear the big old sun hat they hate you for it. It is what it is.

[00:04:24] Nasreen: I always forget about the sunscreen that you have to reapply, right? I don't burn very, I've had a couple burns in my life. I'm darker and my, a couple of my kids are the same way and some of them are super white and burn immediately, but reapplying and the hat, my mother, when we went to Florida once got a burn on her part. And I didn't know that was a thing, but like that, and she's it hurts so much. I had never even considered that.

[00:04:48] Ciaran: Redheaded kids are the worst for burns. I remember buying the gallon size pump style sunscreen for my family and just setting it out on the counter of wherever we were and making everybody reapply. My kids are very good because I think, they've been burned particularly at camp when they're applying their own sunscreen and they don't want to be burned. But we have, do you have a favorite sunscreen? Cause I'm always searching for sunscreens and new ones. And I actually did find there's some baby oil type sunscreens, which I remember too. Like I didn't do it often, but there's something about baby oil and summer laying in the sun. And it's just so decadent and luxurious, but there's a brand, I think it's a vacation brand. That is making an oil it's very reminiscent of that, but it's SPF 30.

[00:05:38] Desiree: Yeah a Neutrogena spray on my face. My dermatologist told me to use that on my face, the Neutrogena.

[00:05:47] Maureen: That one's actually really cool. Cause you can use it over your makeup too. you can just, Spritz and it's very light. It doesn't have that like super oily or just get one that's in your moisturizer as well So you put it on every day anyway all summer because your face like you said Face in your chest at our age. You're now like, oh boy. What did we do? And I hate sunscreen and as a redhead, that's not a good thing. So I will have a collection of hats. I'll bring a baseball hat. I'll bring a, Big beach hat, but hats are important. Sunglasses as well. You do have to, especially if your kids or you have blue eyes, you need to put those sunglasses on.

[00:06:24] Desiree: Yeah

[00:06:24] Ciaran: I'm allergic to a lot of the ingredients of the sunscreen. I go for the reef safe ones . I use a moisturizer with zinc and I will use powder. I love, there's a lot of powder based sunscreen formulas that I'll just keep reapplying through the day. And it doesn't feel like I'm putting on sunscreen, like on my face. It just, it feels good and cool and light.

[00:06:46] Maureen: Blue lizard a lot for the reef safe ones. And because my kids sail and they're fair, they go through a lot of sunscreen and they've tried a lot. So watch out for those reactions too.

[00:06:57] Ciaran: When I went to whale camp that time at whale camp to drop that,

[00:07:01] Maureen: of course she

[00:07:01] Ciaran: but I, had a terrible reaction to a sunscreen And my lips swelled. I looked like I had just gotten like really bad lip injections. Like they're giant.

[00:07:12] Desiree: You might be onto something there I was going to say people who pay for the lip injections now they know just put that one kind of sunscreen on their lips I have another really good tip where beach vacations were ruined at least for 24 hours spare sets of eyeglasses. My ex husband lost his eyeglasses in the ocean and my son lost his eyeglasses in the ocean on two very different trips years apart but If you don't have a spare set of eyeglasses and that kid doesn't wear contacts your trip is done period done I've learned now to travel with a photo at least of our eyeglass prescription so that if it happens we can run to the local eyeglass place typically walmart It even can do them in a day as long as you have the prescription with you if you don't and it's a saturday especially a holiday you are up the creek because they're not going to get a hold of your place and they won't create the glasses without a prescription So definitely

[00:08:14] Maureen: That's a good idea.

[00:08:14] Desiree: I've been burned on that again three times actually twice at the beach once in the lake throw me my glasses routine when he's out on a tube and they went right onto the bottom of the

[00:08:25] Nasreen: Yeah on that same note not that I take my keys into the ocean a lot, but I do have a little beach keychain thing that I put on them because if we're walking along and they drop, the tides in Maine, are pretty intense and those are going real fast out. So I want them to be floating when they go out so I can chase them better. And then for me, like my hair is curly and takes in humidity. And sometimes I have different colors or vibrant colors on it. And the timing of that with a beach vacation isn't always great because it'll strip it right out. So I do a leave in conditioner, like Brazilian conditioner stuff. And I will coat my hair when we're at the beach so that it doesn't damage it more because it just ends up looking a little wet and I'm already at the beach, so I don't care. It stops it from getting like gigantic and everywhere.

[00:09:15] Maureen: Here's a weird one for you, but it's reality for a lot of beaches are jellyfish. And we keep a thing of vinegar in our boat and in our beach bag for lovely little jellyfish. Cause along the Gulf, they sure come out and that can definitely ruin your day. They're not huge and not deadly, but they are annoying and they hurt and especially for kids. So what do you guys bring? I've also heard pickle juice, but that's pretty much vinegar too. So

[00:09:42] Desiree: Meat tenderizer If you put it on there and back in the day it was urinate on it

[00:09:48] Maureen: pee. Yeah,

[00:09:49] Nasreen: that doesn't work.

[00:09:51] Maureen: I have not tried it, but I have heard it doesn't work either. So what is the meat tenderizer?

[00:09:57] Desiree: I have no idea I just know that's I've only had 1 case and it was in when I lived in Norfolk It was Chesapeake Bay We had a jet ski and the jet ski flipped and my ex was in the water and he got eaten alive and he came in and he soaked in a tub which apparently is the worst thing to do He had to go to a clinic because he was covered in bites at the time they said meat tenderizer would help.

[00:10:18] Nasreen: It used to be a thing for bee stings that they used to say, the meat tenderizer. I've heard that one before. My husband actually is a medic firefighter. He wrote an article on beach first aid kits. And he has, the vinegar, saline solution in general for like eyewash, because you get stuff like when the kids get sand or something in their eyes, having some type of eyewash is always good. I know we always have tweezers on us, splinters from boardwalks and pieces of shell, tweezers are a big one. And then, anything anti itch, aloe vera, sunblock, all the standards and eardrops. If your kiddo has a tendency to get water in their ears and have it stay and you can also use vinegar for this too. I got a bug stuck in my ear at a pool when we were little and I could feel it flat, like it was still like flying in my ear, right?

[00:11:05] Maureen: no, ma'am.

[00:11:06] Nasreen: so the motel sent us across the street to the restaurant and they gave us vinegar and you put it in and it floated, like it comes right up, but it would dry out the ear too, I don't know, but definitely eardrops and drying out the ear, putting in ear plugs if they need to, so that you don't end up with an ear infection or something funky on the trip. Especially if there's any issues with like lakes can have the thing that you can get the ear infection from like the fecal matter of the geese.

[00:11:33] Maureen: Ways to ruin your beach vacation. There we go. No, I got one for you. Not as gross by any means. But no, we've talked about bugs and pee is make sure that your beach is still there. So certain times of year you may think the beach is there and it may be a small portion of it, but different tides, different places, different weather patterns on the oceans for sure. And a lot of places have dried up. The lakes are not as full as they used to be. Or, the river is not as high. In Texas, you go float the river and you've got to make sure that there's enough Otherwise you're just hitting your butt on rocks all the way down. Make sure the water is where you plan to be.

[00:12:11] Nasreen: And definitely checking up on any rule changes. Even if you've gone to it every single year I find the rules change a lot around beach towns. Like we would go down the Cape to Pocasset and rules change from year to year based on where residents versus non residents could park or if there were days or times that were residents only or glass, is glass allowed on the beach? Is it not allowed on the beach? What if they said you can't bring in or out this year? It's always a good idea to just take a quick look and make sure nothing has changed so you're not surprised.

[00:12:44] Maureen: Yeah, a lot of beaches here you can drive on, but they've changed which portions of the beach you can, and you see you have to get a sticker to, be allowed to drive on the beach.

[00:12:54] Desiree: Garbage bags- I get so annoyed by people who leave their trash on the beach who are you Why why are you so entitled to think you shouldn't leave it beautiful for everybody else bring a simple little garbage bag and make sure everything that you haul in gets hauled right back

[00:13:09] Nasreen: Yeah, we pack extra ziplocs to put trash in and I know that for me, we're usually hauling a bunch of kids stuff, but we usually go with my parents too. So there's a bunch of us. My mom has one of the wagon things that hauls everything that has like the big fat tires. This is a great time to go shopping for them because they're hard to find once you get into prime summer, but they're all out and stocked up everywhere in May, early June before everyone started to think of them. We have that, maybe a Home Depot bucket, one of the big buckets we'll bring with some stuff in it and you put trash in there too. And then mesh bags so I can shake as much sand off as possible. And I try and put a Rubbermaid tote in my trunk and put everything back into it. That way I don't have as much sand in my car to clean up because I'm not a big fan of the cleanup after the beach at all.

[00:13:57] Maureen: It just needs to have it ready to go, too. half the reason we don't go to the beach is because it takes us an hour to gather all our stuff to go. It's like the first time of the season takes us a bit. Then you've got everything nicely packed up, so you've got whatever you need.

[00:14:11] Ciaran: Another thing that I saw is like this tent that attaches to your hatchback. And it turns like the back of your car into a whole changing room. So you can change your clothes before you get in the car, which is really nice. Especially if you've been surfing or your kids are super sandy. I have a crate in the back of my car that's all my beach supplies. I have my spare pair of flip flops. And that's another tip. Always bring a spare pair of flip flops because flip flops have a tendency to break and if you're on like a rocky beach, we were at the Dead Sea actually and my daughter's flip flop just came apart and he had to carry her. It was like half a mile because she couldn't walk. It was like these really sharp rocks. So a spare pair of flip flops is always a good idea in your beach bag. You never know when you'll need it.

[00:14:58] Maureen: We keep that beach bag packed all summer long.

[00:15:01] Nasreen: And bug spray. Bug spray. The beach has bugs. Oh my goodness. I know we have black fly season up here and it's horrendous. So definitely bug spray is one of mine. I just got my mom this wine purse thing. Cause sometimes we have one on

[00:15:14] Maureen: Oh yeah.

[00:15:15] Nasreen: and it's like the cork insulated one. It comes with its own opener. So we're ready there this year for that.

[00:15:21] Maureen: want the one that has the spout out the side of the

[00:15:24] Nasreen: yeah, and I have those things that your phone go in, like the lanyards with the waterproof pouch. The kids like it when we take pictures in the waves of them sometimes. We have them. So I put the phones in there anyways, because who knows what's going to happen. And so at least they're at the beach, they're in something waterproof.

[00:15:43] Maureen: I give everybody a heart attack because I take my iPhone in the ocean, in the water all the time. Yeah, the thing you'd be concerned about is dropping it and losing it. But people freak out that getting your phone wet. It's totally fine.

[00:15:57] Ciaran: You

[00:16:09] Maureen: that? your speaker goes funny. So you just down a speaker cleaning app and you put it face down and it plays a sound and it blows everything out of the speakers so that it's fine. Now you will have to let it dry out because when you go to plug it in, it will say like liquid detected,

[00:16:27] Nasreen: mine does that when it rains.

[00:16:28] Maureen: can wirelessly charge it anyway. So it's not a big concern, but you get amazing photos and videos. Like I've done snorkeling so many times now with my iPhone. And other than, yeah, have some way of hanging on to it. Other than me, usually I just stick it in my bikini and it's really probably not the best solution Yeah.

[00:16:52] Desiree: discussed this on another podcast but in case we didn't I suggest bringing Ziploc bags and putting your phone in a Ziploc bag your keys your credit cards cash in a Ziploc bag you bury it in the sand by your towel And then you put your shoes over where you buried it If you're worried about somebody walking by cause I go for a long walks on the beach and I'll leave my bag there And I'm like how trusting am I Anyone could walk by I would have no clue And and I don't want to walk with my bag Wallet. That is a tip I learned last year and it is priceless to me because it's buried No one can see it to steal it. But you won't have to go looking for it

[00:17:32] Ciaran: That is a great tip. I have a little plastic case that, has a little combination on it. You can put your stuff in it. So what, like somebody's just going to grab the case, but if I bury it, that's very smart.

[00:17:45] Nasreen: I'll leave stuff I don't need in the car, not bring it at all that's always paranoia things for me, but there's almost always someone at the towel, and if there's not, I have A long skinny ish bag, and I just wrap a towel around it, so it looks like rolled up towels. And I put it in the middle of the towel, cause we each have our own assigned towels, so no one will touch mine.

[00:18:05] Desiree: Same we would

[00:18:06] Nasreen: Maureen's laughing, but I don't want to use someone else's wet towel,

[00:18:09] Maureen: have whatever the hell towels are in the cupboard and let's

[00:18:12] Nasreen: no! We do Everyone to grab their own towel, that's your towel. I have a couple extra ones in the car, but I don't want you to dry yourself on three different towels, and then I don't get a dry towel. You pick your own towel, it's yours.

[00:18:23] Maureen: that's fine. I thought you meant you have yeah, the towel

[00:18:25] Nasreen: it's your towel for the day. That is your towel for the day.

[00:18:29] Maureen: With you on that.

[00:18:30] Desiree: We would go on beach trips with the cousins And one of my Christmas presents one year is I embroidered each of their names on a big nice fluffy towel And I will tell you that gift 10 years later I still am seeing those towels pop up and I some of them I put nicknames like

[00:18:46] Maureen: I have a cupboard full of other children's names on the towels because between beach and pool parties, towels get left everywhere. So whoever Colette is and Emily, I have your towels.

[00:18:57] Desiree: That's funny because ours walk away It's people come to the pool borrow them I'm like Daly when you tell your friends to come they can come use the pool You have to tell them to bring a towel I'm tired of my towels walking away I

[00:19:09] Maureen: went to my friend's pool and I'm like, oh, there's my towels

[00:19:12] Ciaran: It was gonna be my towel. Like kids do not use my towel, but some. My son grabbed it, went to the pool with his girlfriend and like his girlfriend lives across the street. Every so often keep seeing my old Trina turf, favorite towel, like all faded, spread out on their front lawn.

[00:19:30] Desiree: I get it though When you have a towel you love Yeah that happened to me with my ex in laws I had a Ralph Lauren like really fluffy I got it at TJ Maxx it was a deal but it's still it got adopted And I saw that through the years too And I will tell you there was a little resentment every time I saw it And I said that's mine Nope that's not it's ours Yeah Yeah It's not the reason for the divorce

[00:19:55] Nasreen: yeah, beach towels at the end of every summer. Like Sam's Club, Rite Aid, Walgreens, they all put them on sale and as soon as they go on clearance enough, I grab a couple more and they're ready for the next summer because you can never have too many towels. And we've got dogs too.

[00:20:09] Maureen: I do try, yeah, I do try and get a set each summer so we don't look too ragtag

[00:20:13] Nasreen: rag tag all the way.

[00:20:15] Maureen: We have cause it's like we have the pool and beach all year round. So it's a little bit different than just for summer. Just summer is like constant pool parties, constant beach days.My kids live at the beach. I want them to take the ratty ones. If I'm going to a pool party, I want to show up with pretty towels. I'll buy six of something, the same pattern. So at least I know like those are all Ours, or I can say the red and white striped towels are our pool towels,

[00:20:40] Ciaran: I buy the cheapest, thinnest, Beach towels that I can find for two reasons. One, because I just know they're going to trash them. They're going to be gross by the end of the season. But two, the thin ones dry the most quickly. And my kids don't care, like they're hanging them over a clothing line every day in the sun at camp. And they want the one that's going to be dry when they come back in two hours.

[00:21:02] Desiree: Yeah when we went to Hawaii there were six of us and I bought the striped towels on Amazon that there were the quick dry They're not the real fluffy They're like a thin I don't know what Material it is but and they came in their own net bag but they were six striped towels of different colors So every kid was assigned a color You are red you are yellow green whatever I'm blue and that way everybody knew you had to carry your own towel you had your net bag if it's all wet and gross that's on you You didn't dry it. You just hit a point where you're like it's at and having the color system was super helpful and the quick dry and assigning you're carrying your own towel Cause

[00:21:39] Maureen: Who knew towels could be a whole episode? We're

[00:21:43] Nasreen: very tied to it.

[00:21:44] Maureen: very passionate about our towels.

[00:21:46] Nasreen: on the other end of towels, and after you've dried all off and everything, we bring a hairbrush, because the girls their hair will completely knot up, and it'll be a pain in the butt to deal with later on. When they were little, that was always something we had with us,

[00:22:00] Desiree: comb never a hairbrush here It was always a comb Same thing with all the hair and all the tangles

[00:22:05] Maureen: Mine just got blonde surfer Beach hair going and that I don't

[00:22:10] Nasreen: dude.

[00:22:11] Desiree: I have

[00:22:12] Maureen: no hope go home and shower start fresh There's no way of making that look good.

[00:22:16] Desiree: Yeah I have to comb mine the second I get out of the water It has to or else it will be all knotted up and gross

[00:22:21] Ciaran: I will put hair oil in. I will put conditioner in. But after I get out of the ocean, I have dreadlocks. I have to get in the shower, rinse, put conditioner on, and then I can brush it in the

[00:22:34] Nasreen: Oh, mine isn't either. No. That's why I put leave in conditioner in my hair to begin with. Cause I don't brush, I don't use a brush or comb on a regular basis anyways. I can't, it only makes my hair bigger. It rebels. I have to use only my fingers to begin with. But there is one brush that I have found that is usually used for applying like cream and leave in conditioners and stuff. You'll see it in viral TikTok videos. . It comes small and flat and then it goes out like a rake and it has pieces that you put in to hold it open and it's wide but you can take them out and it'll flex. It will not make my hair bigger and I can actually get it through my hair especially if I have leave in conditioner in it but leave in conditioner spray and a brush for the girls like otherwise the knots later on some of them are really hard to deal with. It doesn't. It only gets worse.

[00:23:24] Maureen: No kidding

[00:23:25] Nasreen: Beach drama. So the one thing we didn't hit on, we'll hit on quickly is the food because the beach and the food, right? We're sandwiches and fruit and we assume everyone's going to be way hungrier. So when we're going for the day, we pack a whole bunch of sandwiches, a whole bunch of fruit.It goes in a cooler bag. We bring it. And that's our MO, but I know some people grill at the beach.

[00:23:45] Desiree: I love that you said cooler bag because those old rolly ones are useless in the sand. If it doesn't go over my shoulder yeti now has the ones that'll stay cool for days you know thing but Definitely a cooler bag and fruit snacks we might make sandwiches in advance but probably not it's we just suck it up all day and chips pickles drinks are the big thing that go in the cooler bag lots of waters

[00:24:11] Ciaran: Frozen grapes are great for going to the beach. And, lots of water, but we always hit the drive thru and we timed getting to the beach because inevitably we would get there and everyone would be starving, so we just started going, we don't go to the drive thru very often. I should say we like almost never, ever go to drive thrus, but we started going to like Taco Bell or Del Taco or whatever place my kids was like a big treat. And just getting a big ol bag of tacos or whatever, so that when we show up at the beach we have hot food, and eat it right away, and everybody's not starving, and then we can chill.

[00:24:47] Nasreen: Beach tacos sound Great. That's smart.

[00:24:50] Ciaran: People don't think about drive thru for the beach, but it actually works out really well because you're not, packing sandwiches is great, but then you've got like a big bag and it's like they get soggy and anyway, it's a treat for us.

[00:25:05] Maureen: And a bottle of wine and go out sit on the beach and

[00:25:08] Ciaran: Okay.

[00:25:16] Desiree: Do that on my boat We do It's like a plastic like they do the plastic fishing thing or jewelry organizers do. Oh yeah We do lots of the meat cheese rollups things that's a definite go to

[00:25:28] Nasreen: the snackle box thing, the charcuterie, it's good if you're going with adults, very ill advised if there are children involved, because everything is next to each other, so it's gonna get mixed together, and if one thing gets sandy, it's all sandy. So if you're sharing snacks with kids, I strongly recommend packing everything in like portion sizes. And that way no one else has to deal with anyone else's crunchy snacks with the sand. Those wet sandy hands a bag of chips like

[00:25:59] Desiree: Forbid it. You cannot put your wet hand in my Dorito bag. Ever. Ew. No.

[00:26:05] Maureen: child

[00:26:06] Nasreen: The beach is territorial for me, right? My towel, my snacks. I don't want, if you want your experience to be soggy, wet and sandy, that's cool. It's all you. I'm mine is not, don't touch my towel. Don't touch my snack.

Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of time to talk travel. We will be back again next week with a different topic until then happy travels.

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