What do you do at the beach for a week?

[MSSANDRA]

We do the beach a little differntly. We go to Myrtle Beach SC So much to see and do but not really a budget trip at all.We spend a little time on the beach but not a lot. Always get a condo with an indoor pool/ lazy river ride. There are tons of shopping outlets, broadway by the beach (think down town disney), alagator adventure, tons of put-put places, malls, aquarium, childrens play centers, movies, a amusment park, water park, and a lot of night time shows/ dinner shows. There is a minor leage base ball team near by as well. So many resturants that it would take many trips to try them all out!!!

Been a while since we did a whole week but we certainly have and never got board!!!!

 

[Kay1]

Our "real" vacation is a beach vacation. We spend 10 nights, but are working our way up to two weeks. I will say this, I do not see it as an inexpensive alternative to Disney. For us, Disney is much cheaper. Our condo costs about $250/night in the off-season. We could get something much larger and much cheaper at Disney.

Of couse, we keep APs and that makes all the difference. It's the cost of admission that makes Disney so expensive. Otherwise, it's easy to spend very little there.

What do we do at the beach? Not much and sometimes our teens do get a little bored and that leads to spending more on entertainment for them.

 

[AndreaDM]

We love the beach. Like someone said earlier our Disney vacations are packed solid with hitting the parks, getting here and there for dinner, fireworks, shows etc. Our beach vacations are laid back. Start out on the beach by 7 surf fishing with the boys for a couple hours. Be out on the sand for the day by 10 with a bloody mary or a fruity concoction (coconut rum, OJ, and splash of cranberry is our fav), catch some rays, then set sail with the Captain (Morgan) until we feel like dragging ourselves off the beach. We eat where and when we want, no schedules, nowhere to be, nothing we HAVE to see...total relaxation. Get up the next day and do it all again!

This is totally us too! No schedule, and no one judging us for drinking before noon! Take a little nap in the afternoon and head back out. DH and I both read a few books that week too. We usually rent a house on the Jersey shore for a week, but this year we're renting one with friends on Atlantic Beach NC. Splitting a bigger house makes it so much more afordable, but you have to make sure you really like your travel mates! We LOVE having a deck with a grill and eat pretty much all our meals there. For us it's easier to throw something on the grill at the house and we all just eat in our bathing suits or whatever. It's more of a hassle getting the 5 of us cleaned up, go to a restaurant, stand and wait and pay more for mediocre food. DH and I love taking a walk on the beach in the morning with our coffee before the kids get up (2 teenagers and a 7 year old). Ahhhhh, all the beach talk is making me long to be there with a cooler full of Corona...July seems like such a long way off!

 

[Maddie2]

We go to Cape Cod every few years and rent a cottage. For us, it works best to plan "something to do" every other day.

We alternate lazy days on the beach - boogie boarding, reading, playing in the sand, looking for starfish, shells, and sea glass - with days away. One day we go into the city and find a museum to explore, another day we might mini-golf, shop, & find something interesting a little closer.

To keep food expenses in check, we eat "at home" on our beach days and on away days, we take along snacks for part of the day and then choose either lunch or supper out. We play lots of board games and Uno at the cottage too. Great memories!

I am more of a person that likes to go, go, go on vacations, while DH prefers to sit and relax. We have found this schedule to work for us. Usually while I am sitting on the beach, I am reading area newspapers and those free little booklets you can sometimes find in grocery stores planning the next day away. There are often coupons in these little booklets too.

Have fun! I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be very memorable ... wow, 6 boys! We have 2 boys ... can't imagine 6! Now, that's A LOT of pinewood derbies!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We could not spend a week at the beach. We like to have an active vacation. I really don't like the feel of sand, or the lake/ocean water. I prefer a pool, and even then I get bored after a couple hours.

If it was a state park or something with lots of nature trails, and things to explore that could keep us more interested. We like hiking.

If I were flying into Orlando, and wanted to save money over Disney, I would go to Universal. You can get tickets much cheaper, and my boys love it. We could easily spend 4 days there. We could rent a house with a pool for a couple of relaxing days. There are plenty of things to do in the Orlando area.

 

[maggiew]

Clearwater is a nice area. Have you looked at hotel prices? It can be pretty expensive. A cruise is great but if you thinking summer there won't be too many bargains. Cruising is a wonderful family vacation though!

Check here: http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/universal/
for ticket prices to Universal. A bit less than Disney. And really fun for your sons if they like the thrill rides. Possibly with an off site hotel or condo?

It will be interesting to see your cost comparison for the Disney vacation vs beach/ other entertainment. I hope you will post what you find out. I find Disney to be one of our least expensive vacations - thousands less than cruising actually. Comparable to a week at the beach but not really less. At Disney we usually stay at the value resorts where on the beach I want to be on the beach in a condo or nice hotel. So the cost comes out the same. Please post what you find! Thanks!

You could do a 4 night/5 day cruise on the Monarch with Royal Caribbean for around $300-$400 for the 1st & 2nd person in room and $200-$300 for the 3rd or 4th person (depends on the dates, I didn't catch that in your post). And then spend a night before the cruise at the beach and a night after at the beach? Or even stay in a cheap room offsite Disney and do DTD for the evening or tour the hotels, etc.

Maggie

 

[Maddie2]

Just thought of something else you could do for an afternoon ... for basically FREE!!

We were in Las Vegas last summer visiting relatives and we found an Exotic Pets store. DS12 LOVES reptiles and this was his very favorite part of the entire vacation. They had animals that we had never seen before and when we told the owner where we were from and how much DS loves these reptiles, he was happy to pull out some of the lizards/chameleons/other creepy crawly things and allowed DS to hold them. He was OVER the MOON! It was quite sweet to see DS so happy. We ended up buying a $20 book, but for the memories made that day (and photos taken!), this was a very cheap day.

I believe Florida has similar stores as they have a climate that supports these critters. As you may have guessed, I was not overly thrilled with the prospect of touching these things, but watching my boys was a true joy.

 

[MELSMICE]

What to do at the beach for a week..........literally nothing but read a book & relax! For me, that's what the beach was made for!

 

[*pixie*dust*]

I am a water person. I love the beach. It is different every single time. I can really charge my batteries and not worry about anything. Some of the things we do at the beach:

Swim
Boogey Board
Skim Board
play in the sand
Fly kites
Read
play board games
nap
listen to music
beach comb
picnic
take pictures

 

[OceanAnnie]

I am a water person. I love the beach. It is different every single time. I can really charge my batteries and not worry about anything. Some of the things we do at the beach:

Swim
Boogey Board
Skim Board
play in the sand
Fly kites
Read
play board games
nap
listen to music
beach comb
picnic
take pictures

That's us! All of the above. There are times we'll go checking out the town for Aquariums, botanical gardens, movies, putt-putt, shopping and such. But there are some vacations where we don't venture out (past the beach) at all. It's all good!

 

[Belle5]

OP here...I want to thank you all for your great ideas! DH is telling me we shouldn't have to put any of these ideas to use this year--he believes there is no issue with us continuing our plans to stay at WDW--but this thread will be a great reference thread for everyone (including me) to use in the future should we use the search feature to investigate beach vacations.

 

[czycropper]

I am a water person. I love the beach. It is different every single time. I can really charge my batteries and not worry about anything. Some of the things we do at the beach:

Swim
Boogey Board
Skim Board
play in the sand
Fly kites
Read
play board games
nap
listen to music
beach comb
picnic
take pictures

Add to this snorkeling, eating seafood, going on bike rides, exploring the sand dunes, watching the waves, getting up early to see the sunrise over the ocean or seeing sunsets (depending on which coast we're at).

We love to do beach vacations because we the beach since it's so relaxing!!!

 

[MrsPooh]

We used to do week long beach vacations with the kids at Pensacola Beach. We are not all day, every day beach type people but we do enjoy using our vacation to relax and take things easy.

We did not do everything as a family. My older dd liked to sleep in late while younger one got up early so we did some things seperately. For the most part we would get up, eat a leisurely breakfast, walk across the street to the beach, spend an hour or two collecting shell and playing in the water and then headed back to the rental house. We'd all shower, relax and eat lunch. In the afternoons we'd find other things to do - explore gift shops, go to the National Park, drive to a movie theater and other things like that. We don't just stick at the beach. I usually try to do some research ahead of time to see what is in the area and also if there is anything special going on. Like on Pensacola we could ride the free trolley the length of the island which was kinda fun and on some evening they had free concerts or other free events. Because we were always trying to keep our cost low we didn't do much as far as mini-golf or go-carts or the other touristy things but we had a great time.

One year I investigated different craft projects we could do with shell and sand and brought along the supplies we needed. We made our own souvineers and had a great time making them.

The house we used to rent included bicycles, boogie boards and beach toys. It also had vcr/dvd players and movies as well as games or raining days or just hanging out time.

Most evenings we did an evening walk on the beach and often a late afternoon or evening swim. One morning dh was lucky enough to be out swimming along with several dolphins!

We always had a great time and truthfully I consider that more of a vacation than Disney - Disney is more exhausting.

 

[swilshire]

Last year we did part Disney first and beach second. It was hard to enjoy the beach time because we were used to being so stimulated at Disney. So if you've never been on a beach vacay it might take some adjusting to get used to the slower pace

We did just the opposite a couple of years ago and I regretted not doing it your way. We could have used a week to relax after the hectic week at Disney.

Sheila

 

[Mas17]

I just relax all week. Sitting by the pool, to the beach, back to pool. Walking the beach. I don't need anything else. Although I'll ususlly end up shopping part of one day, especially if the weather is rainy. Other than that, I like to sit by the pool or on the beach til about 4-5pm. Then I go in, shower, and we head out out to dinner.

There are no beaches in the midwest, so when I go, I take advantage.

Bev

GO COLTS!!!!

 

[MELSMICE]

I just relax all week. Sitting by the pool, to the beach, back to pool. Walking the beach. I don't need anything else. Although I'll ususlly end up shopping part of one day, especially if the weather is rainy. Other than that, I like to sit by the pool or on the beach til about 4-5pm. Then I go in, shower, and we head out out to dinner.

There are no beaches in the midwest, so when I go, I take advantage.

Bev

GO COLTS!!!!

Sounds like my family. In fact, believe it or not, this is what we do at Disney also. Spend the day at the pool & then head to the parks for dinner or after dinner.

We don't get many relaxing days at home because DH & I each own our own businesses & schedules are crazy. Just sitting down with a good book & doing nothing is heaven!!!

 

[Evi]

I'm not a beach bum I have to be super active and since I'm naturally tan I just charcoal without the burn. So if I'm on the beach I'm in the water or I'm in the shade reading a book. Honestly I'm not a big beach vacationer I like active vacations where you do stuff if i sit somewhere quiet to reflect I like it to be a private place where I can truly relax. somehow laying in the sand half naked with people walking by and kids screaming isn't relaxing to me lol. But if it was a private beach well then thats another story.

 

[shortbun]

We read, we fish, we shell, we swim, we talk, we laugh, we walk, we have our favorite music, we make castles, we surf on boards and body surf, we skim board, we meet people, we have beach fires, we love each other, we drink, we sleep in, we watch the storms come in, we people watch, we dig our toes in the sand, we go to bed early, we play tennis-shoot hoops-kayak, bird watch.....we stay 2 weeks and most times we run out of time to do the things we love at the beach.

 

[MickeyP]

Has anyone gone to Cape May? Is there a boardwalk there? What other activities are there?

 

[solfan68]

Our regular vacations to OCNJ are the "anti-Disney" vacation. No, up at the crack of dawn, then out all night. No worrying about dining reservations. Its all about "feet up, sitting on the front porch, and watching the world go by". One day we usually take a run down the coast to the Cape May zoo. Before kids it may have been a one day north to Atlantic City and the casinos. But for the most part, its cracking open a good paperback and taking it easy.

Then at night we stroll up to the boards. Take the kiddos on some rides at the amusement pier. Maybe get an ice cream cone or some carmel corn. This summer is a beach year, with a return to the 24/7 of Disney in 2011 !