Top 5 Beach Vacation Must-Haves
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I’m so thankful to have been able to spend some time away at the beach for a long-awaited (and much needed!) family vacation with my husband’s family. We’ve been planning this trip for nearly a year and there were times over the past few months that we weren’t sure if it would still happen or what it would even look like. We all stayed in a house that we found through AirBnB and things felt fairly “normal” - until you were in the mood to go out and do anything. Hah! Spending our days on the beach, we didn’t need to wear masks just to be on the beach like normal, but walking on boardwalks or to bathhouses obviously required masks. My husband and I spent an evening out together for mini golf, and that felt strange to have to make sure we had a mask with us and wear it around other people. But all in all, I felt safe and responsible even being around more people than we have in a long time, and am super thankful to have just a tiny bit of normalcy built in to our year and I don’t take that for granted!
With this being our first year going on vacation with a baby, I wanted to share a few of my must-have items with you that made our vacation or time at the beach the best it could be! A few of the items are not necessarily baby-related, but these are by far the top things that I am thankful that I had for this vacation!
Top 5 Beach Vacation Must-Haves
1. Avana Water Bottle
My absolute must-have of the summer! I remember last summer sitting on the beach and saying to my husband “why isn’t there an insulated bottle that also has a straw in it, so that my drink can stay cold on the beach all day long?!” Well guess what… it exists! I had this Avana Water Bottle on my list for my birthday this past year, and almost forgot to bring it to the beach again this year. The fact that you can choose whether you want to sip your drink with the straw or tip the bottle and pour is so purely genius. And the entire thing stays within the the insulated bottle with a screw-on top, so that your drink can stay cold for hours! I’m a notoriously slow drinker but that doesn’t mean that I enjoy lukewarm water on a crazy hot day at the beach. I can’t speak enough good things about this bottle… as someone who loves a straw for my drinks, this bottle is an absolute game changer and a summertime must-have!
2. Towel Car Seat Covers
This is by far one of the best purchases that I’ve made in a long time! I did not initially buy this just for going to the beach, but they certainly came in so useful for that exact thing! Really, I just wanted (no, needed!) something to cover the black leather seats of our SUV so that I could manage to even sit in the car on the crazy hot days of summer! There are SO many options out there, but I really just wanted to find something simple that I could put on and take off with ease. I wanted a somewhat temporary solution for the summer months when it’s too hot to sit on the leather. I liked these because they fit snug over the headrest and buckle around the bottom of the headrest, then just lay over the front of the seat. They also have rubber dots on the backing to help keep the cover from slipping. It’s not fool-proof, and depending on how you sit down, the cover will move around, but it’s exactly what I was looking for!
3. Stroller Fan
This stroller fan is something that I’ve had my eye on ever since we had our little boy and started planning for our summer vacation. I know how much I dislike being hot and sticky, and it’s proven true that my son gets just as cranky as his mom in the humid heat. (Oh boy!) I ordered a fan extremely similar to this (pretty sure it’s the same thing with a different name on the label) - I’m fairly certain that I ordered a white, but ended up with a pink one. Thankfully it’s more of a peach/pink, but not what I had intended for our sweet boy. Not that he noticed at all! The flexible legs of this fan were great for wrapping around the arm of the beach chair to keep some air moving on our baby while he napped in our arms (or when he was laying down on the blanket).
4. Waterproof Wet Bag
I believe that every diaper bag should come equipped with a quality wet/dry bag and I have been so happy with this one that I put on my registry. This is something that I usually keep in our diaper bag, but it served a great purpose in the beach bag this summer to keep things dry! Normally I use it to put dirty/wet clothes in until we get home and I can do some laundry, but it also works well to keep things dry from the wet clothes in the beach bag at the end of the day! It worked so well and was the perfect size for a couple of books and my wallet. I didn’t have to worry about wet or damp towels on top of my bag on the way home that would ruin the books or important items that I was carrying with me. I really need to add another one or two of these bags to my wishlist so that I always have one on hand!
5. Sound Machine for Baby - Hatch Rest+
I can’t imagine making it through family vacation with the baby sleeping in our room without a quality sound machine. We always use this at home for naps and bedtime, but it was even more crucial when staying in the same room as our baby, in the same house with the rest of our family. This would also work well if you are traveling and are staying in a hotel room with your baby. We use this everywhere we go! If you already have it programmed for your favorite sounds on the touch ring, you don’t have to worry about being connected to WiFi - you can still cycle through all of the favorites from the touch ring, without connecting to use the app from your phone. If you do want to connect it to WiFi and use the phone to control the sounds or lights or use it as a remote, it’s super easy to setup a new WiFi connection!
BONUS: Rest Travel Case - I don’t have this (yet!), but it sure would have made packing so much easier! It’s now on my wishlist! Haha. If you are considering using your Hatch Rest+ for travel, I would recommend getting the travel case right away!
The other thing that was super important to help our baby sleep in the same room as us during vacation was the extra bed sheet that I happened to have with me! I’m so glad that I packed it! We moved our son’s pack ‘n play to a corner of the room and I hung the bed sheet along one side of the pack ‘n play as a privacy screen. I didn’t want to cover all sides, because I had set up our video monitor to be able to check on him while we were downstairs hanging out with family during naps or early bedtime, but I knew it was going to be important that the baby wouldn’t be able to see us if he happened to stir or wake up when we came back into the room at the end of the day or needed anything while he was napping. It worked like a charm - such a simple hack!
Once again, I am so SO thankful for some time away with our family and have returned home feeling more recharged and refreshed! It was so fun to watch our little man grow and adapt so quickly in just a week’s time - I feel like we went on vacation with a baby and returned home with an almost-toddler!
What are your favorite items or must-haves for a successful family vacation or trip to the beach?
