I'm a teacher and I love my beach vacation because it is as close to relaxed as I can get. There's something about the sound of the waves that helps me relax. I'm an introvert so teaching little kids and having my own kids is exhausting. I don't make a lot of money and I'm a single parent but we go to the beach every year for 4-5 days, even if I have to put it on a credit card sometimes.

Why do you expect your coworkers to plan your vacation? Do you insult their beach trip as boring before you ask? Gee, I can't imagine why they don't come to you with a list of ideas.

Breaking news... different families like different kinds of vacations.

I am not someone that typically plans a "classic beach vacation" to an east coast beach. I find it very stressful as my kids are not strong swimmers, they are little, and my spouse cannot swim. My spouse doesn't love the beach. We have really enjoyed Acadia national park with their different beaches and activities. We also have been to a few other east coast beaches but I have the intense heat in the summer too....

We recently went to Portugal (apparently with half the people on this forum! lol) and we visited a number of beaches as part of a sightseeing trip. Those beaches were not stressful because there were no waves where we went/basically no undertow, plus beautiful scenery, delicious food and drinks for takeaway that were all cheap.

We like a good mix. I can't do constant go-go-go like it sounds like you can but we have some light-sightseeing days mixed in with beach days. It works well for us but to each their own.

I’m with you op. I hate beach vacations. Why would I want to cook and clean in a new place? And my kids are too little to be at the beach unattended so I have to chase them nonstop. Yuck.

I prefer cities or national park road-trips. Some people just don’t like history or museums.

Love the beach, but we also do more adventure travel. I don’t understand people who get bored at the beach, though.

I prefer Hawaii to Atlantic beaches. But I can be happy at any beach. We spend entire days in and out of the water (surfing, snorkeling, sup, kayak, scuba, sailing).

Anonymous wrote:What if I blew your mind and told you we do a beach week AND a multi-state road trip every summer? We like to relax and chill at the beach, and we also like to go to interesting museums, national parks and points of interest.

This is how we do it. But we also have parents who love at the beach so we usually do a few short trips each summer. I don’t think I could handle an entire week at the beach but short chunks is fine. But, we are lucky to have places to stay when we want—most beach rentals are weekly.

We go to the beach every year, I've never been to the beach in the mid atlantic. The costs are eye watering for what you get, but I don't have kids.

So +1 to the person who mentioned FL and USVI. We usually got to the Caribbean for our beach fix and then work in a 'touring' trip to Europe or the like. Do not like road trips, hate the car, don't even own one.

Do you OP, but don't yuck someone's yum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I go to the beach but not around here. I fly to USVi or Sanibel Island, Fl. I can't for the life of me understand people who go to Ocean City, MD.

Well, for us, we have 3 kids under 5 so flying anywhere to go to the beach is an unnecessary hassle. A 3 hour drive we can manage and Ocean City is, actually, fine.

NP disagree. We have two under 5 and flying to an all-inclusive in the Caribbean is SO MUCH EASIER than driving 5-8 hours to a rental in Delaware or NC

.

Yes... Notice I said 3 hours.

I agree, if you're driving 8 hours, might as well fly.

We have a house at the beach. But it's not like we sit on the beach all day - we kayak, bike, sail, stroll through town, go to concerts and movies, get ice cream, eat lobsters, play tennis, play lawn games, and of course go to the beach. We vacationed here before we owned a house and did all of those things then too. There is something nice about having a place to return to year after year, and it is definitely relaxing because you don't feel like you have to be on the go all day long.

As others have said a beach trip doesn't mean you can't go other places too. We take ski trips west, travel internationally, and travel to other places in the US.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. It is interesting that some pp mention that it could be cultural things, and I happen to be Asian. I think I like to tour and cram things within a trip as sightseeing new things, going to hot tourist places & taking pictures. My kids like pool, and they are not beach fan for a week. I am not sure if it is due to their ages or just personal prederences, they are likely to get bored.

Just like this summer vacation, day 1 explores city & take water taxi, day 2 goes to a kid museum, day 3 goes to amusement park in another state, day 4 goes to a farm & explore around town , day 5 goes a kid museum and head back home. We stay at 3 different hotels that have pool if they want to play in water. It add up and not cheap with all those hotels/tickets/admission/meals, but kids have fun. I am exhausted because I did all planning and make sure everything is alright. Unless I have other family to join me, or else I don't think beach for a week is for me unless it is all inclusive resorts with planned activities or cruises.

OP, there is nothing wrong with your approach to vacation, especially if you or your other family members have limited vacation time. Not everyone can afford 3-4 trips each summer. You did mention your travel being a bit exhausting though, so you might want to consider choosing a "base" where you stay in one location (rent a house or book rooms in a hotel/resort) and do short excursions from there. For example:

1. stay mid-cape in Cape Cod (e.g. Hyannis) on or within walking distance to the beach and visit places like the potato chip factory (free samples), the Sandwich glass museum, take the ferry to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket for a day, do a whale watch boat trip, outlet shopping, try some water sports if you want (stand up paddle boarding, etc), mini-golf, etc. My favorite thing about staying for week somewhere is unpacking once and making myself at home.

2. stay on Hilton Head Island (maybe for spring break) and enjoy the beach for a day but also do things like a dolphin cruise, a nature walk, horse riding (or pony riding for the kids), a local museum, play golf, visit the city of Savannah (45 minutes away).

3. if you haven't done it yet, Orlando offers a lot of different activities in one area: four Disney theme parks plus water parks, two Universal theme plays, Sea World, outlet shopping, the Space center not far away.

Any of these would offer the kind of variety and pace you prefer without the time consuming checking in and checking out process.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. It is interesting that some pp mention that it could be cultural things, and I happen to be Asian. I think I like to tour and cram things within a trip as sightseeing new things, going to hot tourist places & taking pictures. My kids like pool, and they are not beach fan for a week. I am not sure if it is due to their ages or just personal prederences, they are likely to get bored.

Just like this summer vacation, day 1 explores city & take water taxi, day 2 goes to a kid museum, day 3 goes to amusement park in another state, day 4 goes to a farm & explore around town , day 5 goes a kid museum and head back home. We stay at 3 different hotels that have pool if they want to play in water. It add up and not cheap with all those hotels/tickets/admission/meals, but kids have fun. I am exhausted because I did all planning and make sure everything is alright. Unless I have other family to join me, or else I don't think beach for a week is for me unless it is all inclusive resorts with planned activities or cruises.

Yikes, you’re modeling to your children—especially your daughters—that mom doesn’t relax on vacation, she’s in charge of everything, she plans everything and makes magic for others. Why isn’t your husband involved in the planning and logistics? Let me guess: you also do all the packing for everyone? What a horrible dynamic to model for your children. In my family, we all work together to plan, prepare for and execute trips where lots of logistics and packing are involved.

Plus, you really only take one summer vacation? We take three. Maybe take more than one summer vacation, and you can mix it up. We also take several long weekends/holiday trips. Why only take one vacation?

Anonymous wrote:What if I blew your mind and told you we do a beach week AND a multi-state road trip every summer? We like to relax and chill at the beach, and we also like to go to interesting museums, national parks and points of interest.

Ditto. We usually take 3 big vacations a year—one to see family, one to do something fun and adventurous of our choosing, and one relaxing beach week. We mix it up.

Anonymous wrote:I go to the beach but not around here. I fly to USVi or Sanibel Island, Fl. I can't for the life of me understand people who go to Ocean City, MD.

Sanibel is hardly amazing.

I'm a mountain person, but do the beach trip b/c DW is a beach person (and mountain person). We invite her parents, but it's our trip to plan and pay for, so we make all the arrangements (we invite them so they can spend time with grandchild). The beach affords them all the opportunity to spend time together and stare into the existential void for hours on end. Then I cook good meals for them while they drink too much, and recover from spending so much quality time with their grandchild. They won't be around for very long, so we've prioritized this bonding time, even though we would enjoy these vacations much more without them.