Beach and Coastal

Practicalities Types of Holiday Beach and Coastal 

Advantages

Because of their popularity, coastal holidays often give you access to amenities such places to eat, entertainments and facilities, sometimes including water sports like wind surfing, snorkelling and sailing, whcih would be popular with older children. Seaside hotels are likely to be more geared up to catering to families. with the possibility of babysitting, children's meals, kids clubs and even equipment hire (generally via the tour operator).

Drawbacks

Big waves and large expanses of sand are not every child's cup of tea. If the beach turns out to be too crowded, expensive,windy, difficult to get to from your accommodation or if there are dangerous currents, you may well end up regretting your decision. Something better value for money further inland, with services like cleaning, catering, babysitting, and a swimming pool might be a better choice.

The facilities can be very helpful but, as with the basic cost of the holiday, this is at a price. Food shopping in particular can be rather expensive though if well geared to visitors it is likely shops will stock some usefully familiar brands.

Choosing Your Beach

If you do opt for a seaside holiday check that the beach is sandy, not too crowded or windy, doesn't disappear at every high tide (less of a problem in the Med), or suffer dangerous currents. British visitors, used to free accesss to their native coastline, are often horrified to discover that in some countries you actually have to pay to use the beach. Watch out for extras too; Italian umbrella hire charges are notoriously high).

Good accessibility is essential: you might have a sea view but do you have to cross a six-lane highway to get to to the beach? Do the roads have pavements and safe crossing places? Are there steep steps down to the beach? A 10-minute drive to the beach is okay, but is there

More Information

For the bigger resorts don't just rely on one tour operator's brochure; compare photos in different brochures to get an overall picture. If you can, check out the resort information in the OAG gazetteers, which are held under the counter by most travel agencies. The resort but not the hotel information from the gazetteers is available on the internet at Virgin.net which covers over 600 resorts worldwide and covers the quality of the beach and the style of the resort