BE BEACH READY
These items will come in handy for those planning a fun day in the sun
Sunscreen. Towels. Swimsuits. Toys. Sunglasses. Even the most minimalist beachgoers can’t avoid a little gear. Because the sun and sand are relaxing only if the sun doesn’t burn and the sand doesn’t come home in the car.
“You have to approach a beach day almost like a mini-camping trip,” says Molly Fergus, general manager of Tripsavvy. “Come overprepared, with more than you think you will need of everything.”
We asked some beach-bum experts to find us the latest and greatest goods and gadgets for beach days. Here are their picks. (But don’t forget water and sunscreen.)
Reading is a prime pastime on the sand. Alexander Howard, lead editor for home page and interests for the travel guide company Lonely Planet, is based in Nashville and goes out of his way when travelling to find the best beaches. He always packs the Kobo Forma, a waterproof e-reader with a large display that can be read even in bright daylight (C$299.99 to C$349.99, kobobooks.com). It’s perfect for “beach-going bibliophiles,” he says.
Frequent road-tripper Chandler O’leary of Tacoma, Wash., often sketches at the beach and keeps her sketchbooks in a Matador Droplet Wet Bag (US$14.99, matadorup.com). “It’s super handy and stuffs down into a teeny-tiny case that can hang on my key ring when I’m not using it,” says O’leary, author of The Best Coast: A Road Trip Atlas: Illustrated Adventures Along the West Coast’s
Historic Highways. She also keeps her phone, camera and anything else she wants dry in the bag.
Surfer Julia Chaplin, author of The Boho Manifesto: An Insider’s Guide to Postconventional Living, likes to keep her beach days lowkey: “I don’t like gear, especially beach furniture, as I want to feel the texture of the sand and smell the sun-kissed salt when I’m lying down.”
As a surfer, though, she does need sunscreen, a sarong and sandals, which she carries in a Blue Ogunquit beach tote (US$225, seabags. com; can be shipped to Canada). It has a pocket for wet swimwear and a grommet in the bottom to shake out the sand.
An Australian engineer and surfer who was tired of wet towels sticking to sand designed the Sandusa Beach Towel (US$49.95, sandusa.com), a 33.5-by-63-inch (85 cm-by-1.1-m) cotton beach towel with a waterproof, sand-resistant backing. “The towel doesn’t get wet from the sand, and you can sit on it in the car in a bathing suit and you won’t get your seat wet,” says Laura Begley Bloom, chief content officer of Family Traveller.
Mott50 makes clothing with sun protection built in: shirts and leggings, as well as swimsuits and coverups for the whole family. Living in Palm Beach, Fla., Stacey Leuliette, owner and editor of the Scout Guide, says she loves the Mila one-piece swimsuit in the Le’orangerie print, which is also available on several other clothing pieces — as well as matching kids’ suits (US$118, mott50.com). The zippable suit, which has hand covers for added sun protection, is made of UPF 50 fabric. (UPF stands for ultraviolent protection factor and is used to measure the amount of UV radiation that reaches the skin through clothing and other fabrics.)
“I love playing cards by the beach or on a boat, but it’s way too easy for them to fly away,” says Tripsavvy’s Fergus, who recommends Hurricane Cards (US$19.99, hurricaneplayingcards.com). They are “weighted, waterproof and even float in the water,” she says, noting that they shuffle well, too.
The Washington Post