Local Guide

What to Pack for a Beach Week

Almost every beach packing list opens with chairs, an umbrella and a bike rack. At a partner home those are already at the house, which changes the list more than you would think: the bulkiest four items are gone, and what is left is the small stuff people actually forget.

Already at the house, so leave it at home

Beach chairs and an umbrella

Backpack chairs in solid wood or aluminum, and a fiberglass umbrella. The chairs go on your back, which is the whole point when the walk from the access to the water is a few hundred yards of soft sand.

Worth knowing: So do not buy chairs at a big-box store on the drive in. That is the single most common wasted hundred dollars of a beach week.

Bikes

Beach Bike cruisers with a carbon belt drive instead of a chain. No oil, nothing to rust in salt air, and a coaster brake, so you stop by pedaling backward.

Worth knowing: Leave the bike rack at home. Bring a helmet only if someone already wears one.

A six-seat street-legal cart

Gas or electric depending on the home, parked at the house before you arrive. Six seats and a belt for each of them.

Worth knowing: The only thing you need to bring for it lives on your phone. See below.

That is the roof box, the bike rack and most of the boot, gone. It is worth saying plainly because the temptation on arrival day is to stop and buy chairs "just in case", and every year somebody does.

Ask before you pack it

These vary by home and are worth one message to your property manager rather than a guess. A five-minute question saves a shopping trip on your first afternoon.

Beach towels, and whether they are separate from bathroom towels.
A cooler, and whether it is a soft one you can actually carry over sand.
Sand toys, boogie boards and anything left by previous guests.
A pack and play, a high chair, a stair gate, and bed rails.
Laundry: in the house, or in the building, and whether detergent is provided.
Beach parking: a pass, a permit, or a decal for the community gate.

The one thing to do before you travel

If there is a cart at your home, the driver needs three things done before it unlocks: a driver's license uploaded, current auto insurance uploaded, and the low-speed vehicle walkthrough signed. That driver must be 21 or older.

None of it takes long, and all of it is easier from a sofa than from a driveway. Photograph both documents onto your phone before you leave home, and the cart is ready roughly when you are.

What to actually bring

The cart paperwork, on your phone

A clear photograph of the driver's license and of the current auto insurance card, for whoever will drive. The cart unlocks after those are uploaded and the low-speed vehicle walkthrough is signed, and that driver has to be 21 or older.

Worth knowing: Do this before you leave home. Hunting for an insurance card in a driveway with a hot car and tired children is the avoidable part of day one.

More sunscreen than feels reasonable

Then a second kind: a stick or a spray for faces and ears, which is the bit that gets missed. Mineral formulas are the courteous choice around reefs and dune systems.

Worth knowing: Apply at the house before you walk out. Applying it over sand at the beach is a fight nobody wins.

Shoes that can get wet, and shoes that cannot

Sandals that survive salt water and a pair of real trainers. The trainers matter more than people expect: the trails at Topsail Hill, Robinson Preserve and Big Talbot are root, shell and boardwalk, not sand.

Worth knowing: Boneyard Beach at Big Talbot is rock and root at the waterline. Flip-flops are the wrong answer there.

A car charger and a battery pack

You will use your phone for tide charts, flag conditions, the stay link, maps and photographs, all day, in heat. Phone batteries hate the heat as much as you do.

Worth knowing: One charger per car and one battery pack per adult is not overkill on a beach week.

A dry bag or a waterproof pouch

For car keys, a phone and a room card at the water's edge. Cheap, tiny, and the difference between a relaxed swim and one person standing guard over a pile of clothes.

A mesh bag and a laundry bag

Mesh for shells and wet toys, because sand falls out of it. A separate bag for wet swimsuits, so the rest of the case does not smell like a swimsuit by Wednesday.

A small first aid kit

Plasters, antiseptic, tweezers, antihistamine, aloe. Sand, shell, sunburn and jellyfish are the four things a beach week reliably produces.

Worth knowing: Tweezers are for splinters off boardwalks, which are commoner than anything in the water.

Layers, honestly

Not for the beach, for the evenings and the restaurants. Northeast Florida gets properly cold from December through February, and every coast here runs the air conditioning hard indoors.

With small children, add

A rash vest or long-sleeved swim top each. Far easier than reapplying sunscreen to a moving target.
A pop-up sun shelter if you have one, for a child who needs shade at ground level rather than under a chair.
A wagon, if you own one and have room. On the First Coast the sand packs hard enough to pull one; on the Gulf beaches it is soft and a wagon sinks, so there the backpack chairs do the work instead.
Swim nappies, more than you think, and a changing mat that does not mind sand.
A nightlight. Unfamiliar dark rooms are the commonest cause of a bad first night.
Something familiar for bedtime. The single highest-value item in the bag.

Worth leaving behind

Beach chairs, umbrellas, bikes and a bike rack. Already there.
A hairdryer, an iron and a full coffee setup. Almost every home has them, and it is a quick thing to confirm.
Too many clothes. A beach week is swimsuits, shorts, one nice thing for dinner, and something warm for the evening.
Anything breakable that matters to you. Sand and salt get everywhere.
Hard plans. The tide, the flags and the weather will rearrange at least one day, and the guides here are written on the assumption that they will.

Common questions

Do we need to bring beach chairs and an umbrella to a vacation rental?

Not to an Amenio partner home. Backpack beach chairs and a fiberglass umbrella are already at the house, along with the bikes and the cart. That is four of the bulkiest things on a normal packing list gone, which is usually the difference between a roof box and no roof box.

What do people most often forget on a beach trip?

A second pair of shoes that can get wet, a way to charge a phone in the car, and enough sunscreen for the number of people actually going. After that it is the unglamorous things: a laundry bag for wet swimsuits, a small first aid kit, and something to keep car keys dry at the beach.

What do we need to bring to drive the golf cart?

Nothing physical, but do one thing before you travel: photograph your driver's license and your current auto insurance card and keep them on your phone. The cart unlocks once the driver uploads both and signs the low-speed vehicle walkthrough, and the driver must be 21 or older. Doing it at the airport beats doing it in a hot driveway.

Should we bring bikes on a beach vacation?

Not to a partner home. The Beach Bike cruisers are already there. If a child rides with a helmet at home, bring the helmet, since a familiar one is more likely to actually get worn. A bike seat or trailer is worth a question to your property manager before you assume.

How much sunscreen does a family actually need for a week?

More than you packed. A useful rule of thumb is that a proper application for an adult is about a shot glass worth, and it should be repeated every couple of hours and after swimming. Reef-conscious mineral formulas are the courteous choice on these coasts. Buy some before you fly and expect to buy more once you are here.

Staying at an Amenio partner home?

The bikes, cart, and beach gear are already part of your stay. They are at the house when you walk in, so there is nothing to pick up and nothing to carry home. Amenio works only with partner vacation homes on Florida's Emerald Coast, Suncoast, and First Coast, so if your house is one of ours, the gear is already there.

Want to see what is at the house? See the beach gear, or find your reservation. Questions about equipment at your home? Call or text 850-231-8000.

Already booked a partner home?

Open your stay to see the bikes, cart and beach gear waiting at the house.