A Traveling Mom’s tips for the Beach

Many of our cruise shore excursions have involved beach time. In this picture, Tim took a photo of the boys and I enjoying a beautiful beach in St Lucia adjacent to one of the Pitons.

Here are a few tips for making the most of these amazing beach experiences:

Many shore excursions involve a public beach next to a resort. In our experience there are not usually public beach chairs. The resorts charge a nominal fee to use their beach chairs, so remember to figure this into your budget if you would like to use a beach chair during your stay on the beach. Also, be sure to bring your own beach towel.

Arriving as early as possible allows you to enjoy the beach before the crowd arrives in beach destinations that welcome many cruise ships. We found this to be true at Divi Little Bay in St Maarten. We disembarked as soon as the ship docked and took a taxi to the beach. We were able to enjoy time on the beach for a few hours before it became very crowded with cruise passengers who were arriving from all the ships in port that day on cruise line shore excursions.

Several years ago when the boys were fairly new to beach experiences we rented life jackets that were available. We did not rent the jackets for the first hour. After some time the boys wanted to try going out a little farther in the water. Even though they didn’t travel far, they had a great time just floating around with the jackets. This added to their experience with the waves, the sand, and Mom and Dad’s peace of mind.

There are many beautiful beaches available on your Mexico and Caribbean cruises, what is your favorite?