zipper bagBeach activities are the perfect way to embrace the summer! Now that summer is less than a week away, summer vacations and activities to do when at the beach are on everyone’s minds. Every time my family goes to the beach, it seems like we spend more time trying to think up activities than actually enjoy the sun, sand and just enjoy ourselves.

30 Fun Beach Activities for Kids this Summer Vacation

Keep the kids occupied this summer on the beach with these fun activities:

1.) Take beach pictures and build a sandcastle:

Make it a competition between two different sand castles, or give the kids a time limit to finish. Need kids beach toys? WE love this one with a zipper bag.

2.) Oil drilling:

Tell the kids they have five minutes to dig as deep in the sand as they can – the winner is the deepest.

3.) Summer vacation activity: Build a Sandman:

Build a traditional snowman model…using sand. This one works best if you bring a carrot for his nose. Then sit back and watch the double takes. Build a sandman with these cool beach shovel and pail sets.

4.) Sand sculptures:

You can get really creative with these, sculpting turtles, aliens, or anything you want. Decorate with shells and pebbles for added effect. There’s some inspiration here.

5.) Everyone loves body-boarding:

A body or boogie board for a child should be less than £20. Check out this site for tips on how to teach your kid to body-board.
Once they’ve got the hang of body-boarding, you might want to try surfing. There are some good tips about modifying an adult longboard to suit children here.

6.) Beach activities – Try castle battles:

Two teams build a sandcastle each, about 20meterss apart, and place a flag (or towel) on top. Each team has to get the other’s flag. Very simple and a lot of fun.

7.) Play beach games like Sand Bullseye:

Draw three circles in the sand and collect some stones and shells – players have to throw the stones into the circles for points (one for the big outer circle, two for the middle circle and three for the center circle).

8.) Ping pong race at the beach:

Dig a series of sloping channels of equal length and big enough to take a ping pong ball. Put a colored ping pong ball at one end of each channel and race each other blowing the ball down the channel to the finish.

9.) Beach volleyball:

Bring your own net or improvise with windbreakers or picnic baskets.

10.) Nostalgic Beach activities: Cricket or rounders:

Bringing a soft ball and a bat is best for either game, but if you’re playing impromptu you can improvise with what you find on the beach – a piece of driftwood for a bat and a crumpled drinks can for a ball.

11.) Beach activities treasure hunt:

One of the oldest and best – hide objects and coins in the sand for the kids to find. Get a pre-made treasure hunt for kids, here.

12.) Bowls:

Invest in a set of plastic bowls and bring it to the beach with you, or improvise with a few plastic bottles and a tennis ball.

13.) Fill a bucket relay:

Place small plastic beach buckets about ten meters from the water, one bucket for each team. The aim is to be the first to fill the bucket with water from the sea, using only hands to carry it.

14.) Frisbee:

Have one person in the water and another on the sand and toss your favorite frisbee back and forth. We love this glow in the dark frisbee!

15.) Limbo:

Get two people to hold a stick, or tie a ribbon between two trees, and have players go under it as it gets lower and lower. This is great for the beach as the soft sand means no-one’s afraid to fall.

16.) Squirt ball:

Bring water guns and a beach ball to the beach, and draw a line in the sand for each team. Place the beach ball between the two lines. Players have to use the squirted water to get the beach ball over the other team’s line.

17.) Beach Activities: Enjoy the sand with sand memory:

Draw two 4×4 grids in the sand (or smaller for younger children), and get the other team to look away while you place shells on some of the squares in one grid. They have five seconds to look at where the shells are before you cover the grid with a towel, then recreate the pattern on their own grid.

18.) Jewelry making:

Look for shells with holes in them and thread them onto a cord to make a necklace.

19.) Sand art:

Draw pictures in the sand using hands, sticks or shells. You can draw a frame first that each child has to draw their picture inside, or judge the best picture.

20.) Speech pics:

Sit with your back to the players and describe an image in your head or one you have on a piece of paper. Players have to draw their version of it in the sand – the winner is the one whose picture is closest.

21.) Seek and retrieve:

Assign a part of the beach as a boundary, and tell everyone to bring back the most interesting thing they can find within the boundary area. Bonus points for whoever gets back first.

22.) Fly a kite:

If it’s too windy for volleyball, get the kite out and fly it on the beach.

More Beach Activities:

23.) Sharks and minnows:

Get everyone into the water and designate one person as the shark and the rest as minnows. The shark stands in the middle of the group. On ‘go’, the shark has to catch the minnows.

24.) Towel tag:

Dip a towel into the water and roll it up, then tag people by throwing the towel at them. If the towel hits them, they’re ‘it’.

25.) Beach Activities – Try a foot race:

Have a race at the water’s edge, where the sand is wet and harder to run on.

26.) Beach ball bash:

Stand in a circle and hit the beach ball to each other, counting out loud how many times it can be hit without falling. Try and beat the record, or have players shout out something as they hit the ball.

27.) Sand hopscotch:

Draw a hopscotch grid on the sand and use shells as markers.

28.) Beach activities: Moat and bailey:

Build a sandcastle a couple of metres from the water’s edge just before the tide comes in, and get the kids to protect it for as long as possible from the water. They can build a dam of shells, rocks and seaweed, or try a moat for the tide to go into.

29.) Sand Twister:

Draw a Twister board on the sand, using symbols such as crosses, squares etc instead of coloured circles. Assign ‘right foot, square’ and so on.

30.) Collect beach treasures:

See who can find the most interesting beach treasures. From seashells and starfish to beach glass.

For more travel ideas on Stagetecture, click here.