There aren’t many vacations that can top the fun and sun of a trip to the beach. With hours spent in the sand and enjoying the water, planning your travels around trips to the beach is a great way to spend your time away from home. However, if you want to ensure you have a great experience that consists of more than just relaxing on the shore, you may want to do a little preparation before you leave on your trip. To help with this, here are three ways you can prepare for a water-filled vacation to the beach.
Pack The Right Gear
Nothing is worse than getting to the beach only to realize that you’ve forgotten something vital to your enjoyment there. Not only could this ruin your day by the water, but it could also leave you vulnerable for all the other days you planned to spend on the beach. To keep this from happening to you, Real Simple reminds us that you should always pack things like sunglasses, sun hats, sunscreen, lip balm, aloe vera, and a first aid kit when you’re planning to spend time at the beach. Even if you’ve previously never burned or don’t generally use lip balm, spending a big chunk of the day in the sun can really drain your skin, so it’s best to be prepared.
Practice Your Snorkel Skills
If you’re planning to go to a clear beach, snorkeling is likely one of the activities you’re planning to participate in. As long as you know how to swim, snorkeling can be a great adventure that opens your eyes to life under the sea in a relatively safe way. But keep in mind, if you’ve never snorkeled before, it may be a good idea to practice before you leave on your travels. TropicalSnorkeling.com recommends practicing with your gear first so you can spend all your time at the beach enjoying yourself without fearing that you won’t know what to do or will have faulty gear. It can take a while to get the hang of snorkeling comfortably, so try to get in a few swims in a pool first to get your bearings.
Get Scuba Certified
Another fun water sport to try while on a beach vacation is scuba diving. A little more intense than snorkeling, scuba diving gives you the chance to get deeper under the water and see sea life that you can’t catch a glimpse of from above the surface. But just like with snorkeling, you may want to plan ahead if you want to spend your vacation time enjoying the adventure rather than learning. While you can get scuba certified at many vacation spots around the world, Jonathan McLelland, a contributor to USA Today, suggests getting scuba certified before you leave on vacation so you don’t have to spend the time or money becoming certified on your trip.
To get the most out of your water and beach vacation, use the tips mentioned above to prepare before you even leave home.