Unpopular Opinions - Beach Vacations are Overrated - Rachael Berghahn

 

It's almost Spring Break and in a normal year, numerous people would be planning vacations to sandy beaches of the east coast of the US or the Caribbean. People find these beaches as a paradise, a place to escape and relax from the chaos of the world. For many people, beach vacations, whether in the summer or another time of the year, are a kind of yearly tradition that they hold dear to them. However, from my experiences, I fail to see the value and need to take these trips, unlike many other people. 

My mom emphasizes that the reason why she enjoys going to beaches so much is to relax and take a mental break. She just wants to sit on the beach and do nothing. I always argue with my mom because I can't do that. Whenever we've gone to a beach, I try to sit and "do nothing," which only ever would last a few minutes, before I'd have the need to get up and do something. This may be due to me not personally finding being out in the sun relaxing, but also fear of missing out on the other activities you can be doing. I find that there are easier ways and places to relax than traveling several hours to a beach to do it there. 

For many years when I was younger, my family would take yearly beach vacations to my grandparents' condo in Florida. I enjoyed these trips, as the ocean is always nice to see, but I always quickly run out of things to do, which gets to my second problem, which is boredom. When I think of the beach, I imagine all the things I could be doing there, but while there, I find that I easily run out of things to do. You can walk, swim, dig a hole, but after activities like those, I get pretty bored. I also am aware that people who go on beach vacations also often go for the atmosphere and activities in the nearby beach town, but if you are going to the beach, it feels wrong to not spend most of your time there. This is just a personal problem, but I find it wasteful to be spending your money and time on a trip when you are just going to spend time being bored. 

That gets into my third and biggest problem with beach vacations, which is I find so much more value in taking trips to explore and gain new experiences, rather than to a beach to relax. Any major trip, which beach vacations commonly can be classified as they cost a fair amount of money and I would say that money could be much better spent going somewhere new. This can be both contributed to my desire to go to new places and the two other reasons above, of not finding beaches relaxing and instead rather boring. The same idea of finding it more valuable to spend my money on non-beach vacations also applies to time, as I'd rather spend my limited vacation time gaining new experiences. 

I can definitely understand how people find beach vacations fun, as it is often time to spend with their friends or relaxing. Through my experiences, I've found that they aren't for me as a focus of leisure money, as I'd much rather spend my time and money traveling to new places and gaining new experiences, instead of just going to beaches to relax. This is just my opinion though, as personally, I find beach vacations overrated, but for other people who find value in them, they aren't, as my reasons for finding them overrated are due to what I enjoy on a vacation.