How to Pack for Baby's First Beach Trip

We just returned from a week away to Amelia Island, FL with our 1 year old and had a great time! It was our daughter's first experience at the beach and I spent so much time reading online to try to figure out what to pack to make the trip enjoyable for everyone.

First, I'll dive into how we picked Amelia Island and the VRBO that we rented for the week. I had suggested a trip to the beach before Summer picked up to avoid major crowds, and since our daughter is in daycare throughout the year, it didn't limit our options. Next, I was checking for a location within 5-6 hours of driving time so we could hopefully make the trip with about 3 stops. As far as the location and city, I wanted a "sleepier" town - meaning, there are things to do but we wouldn't be overwhelmed by options or crowds/traffic. Having the flexibility to walk up to any restaurant and not have a wait time would be ideal since planning ahead doesn't always work with a one year old!

When looking for a place to rent, my husband requires that we can see the ocean from the place we rent - which I cannot blame him, watching the sunrise with coffee in hand over the ocean is an amazing feeling! We also wanted a condo with a pool (incase our daughter was not a fan of the ocean/sand). Finally, having a washer and dryer in the unit made the packing list a little smaller as well as the day back MUCH easier. We did laundry ahead of coming home so that all the towels and most our clothes just had to be unpacked!

Once we found the spot, we booked it and started making a packing list.

Here is a summary of what all we packed:

For Baby

• plenty of swim diapers (3+ per day)

• disposable grocery bags

• baby mineral sunscreen

• baby beach hats

• baby swimsuits (more than 1)

• beach blanket

• baby size beach towel

• bottles and sippy cups

• inflatable splashpad or little pool

• beach toys

• baby monitor (ours does not run on wifi for privacy concerns)

• pack n play

• foldable play mat and some toys

• travel changing pad

• baby bath mat

• black out paper shades

• Hatch sound machine

  

  
  

  

  
  

Quick summary here for the list of items! First thing we did when we checked in was set up our daughter's room. We applied the stick on black out shades to a few windows to dim the brightness, set up her pack n play and baby monitor. We also travel with the hatch, not to blast and drown out noise, but to give a night light and light white noise. We also attached a banister guard netting for the exterior porch - while we never took her out there, it was something we figured we'd need in the future so went ahead and bought it to use.

For the beach, we took down extra swim diapers, wipes, and a disposable grocery bag if she needed a change while at the beach - which happened one day. She loved having the splash pad filled with water to sit in and play with toys. We took her a few times to the ocean but didn't spend much time in the open water because she is so young. For the beach blanket, we originally brought it for her to nap on under a large tent we brought, but I mostly sat on it while she was playing in the splash pad and tossing sand everywhere, haha.

For Us

• aloe

• speaker

• card games

• Tubberware containers

• Ziploc bags (multiple sizes)

• fans (stroller/travel size)

• beach umbrellas (we set up 2 to maximize shade)

I always appreciate having containers to pack food in since we end up cooking or eating breakfast and lunch on our own while traveling. It was helpful to have containers to store our daughter's french toast sticks I made or pack blueberries to take to the beach with us. We brought travel fans, which we used one day, to ensure the shaded tent space we had was cool enough for our daughter. Nick and I are normally diligent about sunscreen application and reapplication, but in the chaos of the first day, we totally forgot the middle of our backs and we got sunburnt! We did much better the following days, but being so concerned with your little one's sun coverage may mean you miss your own so aloe to the rescue!

After our daughter went down, it was so nice to sit out on our deck, play some music, and play cards.

We ended up renting chairs for the week through our rental unit which we would absolutely do again. The car was already packed full, so having 2 less major items was great. We would possibly rent umbrellas and other items in the future.

Some things we learned on this trip:

• maximize naps - even though our daughter was typically only taking around 60-90 minutes of naps in a normal day, we needed about 2-3 hours on this trip. Being outside and so active each day meant she was exhausted. We failed miserably the first day on the beach and she was in such a bad mood - poor girl! But after a 2 hour nap she was ready to conquer the day! So, for the next few days we scheduled around 11am and 3pm to give her a quick bath and put her down for a nourishing meal and long nap.

• pack plenty of fluids and snacks - we had a milk and water bottle with us in our cooler anytime we were outside, as well as fruit pouches, blueberries, and pirates booty. We offered her water about every 15 minutes so she'd get some sips (and remind ourselves to do the same)!

• we stored most of the beach items in my car instead of the room - with our daughter being mobile, it clear up space and made the beach set up/breakdown easier.

• set up ahead of taking little one to the beach - Nick and I decided on a schedule ahead of time, but made some adjustments. Two of the mornings I went to the nearby Y to workout around 5:30am, and when I got back, he went down to the beach to set up our station. Around that time our daughter was waking up (7-7:30am), so I would feed her breakfast and get her ready while Nick went on a run outside. This worked out well so we could ultimately get to the beach around 9-9:30am. For the afternoon, we'd go to the pool for a little bit of swimming (our daughter did swim lessons and enjoys kicking in the water), meanwhile Nick would then back up the beach so we could also go upstairs at the same time for her bath and nap.

• you may not need everything you packed, and that is ok - we purchased a large tent after I did research online for recommendations, and honestly it was more hassle to set up than we really even used! We found that using the two traditional umbrellas created enough space and shade for us. I was thinking she may need it for naps on the beach but since we were so close to our condo, it was easier just to give her a break from the heat and do naps inside!

• be flexible - as I mentioned, our first day was a bit of a disaster with us not coordinating the set up schedule well, we had too much on the beach which made the set up/breakdown time super long, and our daughter needed a massive nap. We made adjustments and a new schedule, and it worked out well. Let your little one decide though, it never works out the other way!