Packing for a Beach House Weekend with Friends

Sep 28

Fun fact. I actually don’t like the beach at all. It’s a combination of logistics, having to carry everything you want for a whole day, and having to figure out where to go to the bathroom. But through the years I have had a few opportunities to be a part of girls’ trips to the beach where I’ve learned that if you stay in a house right near the beach, it alleviates some of this burden. While it lessens the burden of carrying items back and forth from the beach, you do, however, still need to put them all in your bag and drive them to the house. So I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from my girls’ weekends (with the help of some co-conspirators) and captured it here so that you too can have a wonderfully relaxing weekend.

Choose the right house

We chose our house six months out. We searched AirBNB for our top parameters. We chose Atlantic City for our New Jersey destination as it is easily accessible via public transportation, does not require beach passes, and is not a dry city. (If you stay in a location that requires beach passes, sometimes they come with the house you rent, be sure to check!) After that, we looked for:

An assortment of beds that would require the fewest number of people to share
An acceptable number of bathrooms (approximately 1 per 3 people)
Parking on site (but based on past experience we knew we’d probably be able to find street parking, just a little further away from the house)
Wifi (while I shouldn’t need to say this anymore, but I’m throwing it here just in case)
Beach accessibility (no pass required and an easy walk)
Beach gear already at the house (chairs, towels, wagon, umbrella, coolers)
A well-stocked kitchen (since we knew we were going to be eating in a few times)
A good balance of common areas and private space (with a large group, people are going to want time for both!), and
A reasonable price (you can usually cross check this against other AirBNB options or hotel prices)

Plan your itinerary

While it can be hard to know all of the details ahead of time, the more you know, the less items you’ll need to pack and the less food you’ll need to buy (because you won’t be packing for the “what-ifs”). Whether your weekend is for a guest of honor or just a good time, all of these questions are worth considering:

How many nights each guest will be in attendance
When (and how) people will be arriving and departing
Which meals will be eaten in and out
Dietary restrictions and preferences
Generally when meals will be eaten
What types of activities folks will want to do
How much alcohol people will actually want to drink

In addition to knowing what clothing and accessories to pack, this will help you figure out how many meals you will need to shop for ahead of time. Share the general itinerary with folks ahead of time so that tweaks can be made, as needed.

Pack for the group

You should start thinking about what to pack a few weeks out. I have found that starting a pile in a corner of the house with random one-off items that you think to bring early can be good to not forget anything.

For the kitchen, consider bringing cling wrap, chip clips (so that they don’t get soggy with humidity), Tupperware, and zip lock bags to be able to save food. For administrative purposes, it was very useful to have tape (of any sort, but my new favorite thing is the idea of kitchen frog tape), post-it notes to label items and put notes on the fridge, pens, scissors, and sharpies. For serving purposes, while our kitchen was fully stocked, you may want to consider bringing specialty items like birthday candles, cheese knives, condiment spreaders, or specific spices. We also found that buying different patterned koozies for everyone in attendance helped to keep our drinks sorted all weekend.
For the bathroom, consider bringing toilet paper (if you are somebody who appreciates good quality), glade spray to make your bathroom experience less awkward, dark-colored washcloths if you will need to take off make-up, and general medicine for the house. (I didn’t do this last time, but in the future would pack a box full of Tums, Alka-Seltzer, Gas X, Advil, Tylenol, and Benadryl. We did, however, remember liquid IV and Pedialyte popsicles.)
For entertainment, consider bringing technology cords. While you are able to cast to most televisions these days, it’s best to not leave that up to chance, so don’t forget your HDMI cables and adapters! You may also want to bring speakers to be used in the house and at the beach, fun lights, and party playlists to set the vibes. If your group is into artsy things, we also found that having party glitter, temporary tattoos, and beads for friendship bracelets have been good activities to pass the time. (Although I’d recommend getting this stretch cord for them.)
For the bedrooms, consider bringing night lights to help navigating rooms with multiple people and unknown hallways easier.
For the beach, if the house you are staying in doesn’t already have it, you may want to consider bringing beach towels, a beach blanket, beach chairs, a wagon, coolers, ice packs, an umbrella, sunscreen, bug spray, and toys/activities.
If there is a guest of honor you may need (or want): party games, decorations (including photos), gifts, or swag items.

Go food shopping

If you have the time, food shopping is something that can be done over a number of weeks taking advantage of what each store is known for. For example, Trader Joe’s is great for snacks and staples, Costco is great for large scale items, a regular grocery store is good for regular-sized items, a liquor store will probably give you the best prices on alcohol, and Target will dependably have family-sized versions of unhealthy snacks. That said, you could probably do all of this at a regular grocery store on your way out the door. As you are doing all of this shopping - and transporting of groceries - don’t forget freezer bags, coolers, and ice packs. Have more freezer bags on hand than you think you need. Especially if you plan to stop at a grocery store on the way. (We thought the 6 cooler bags we had would be enough and ended up buying another one at Wegman’s, our seventh grocery store.)

Create a general game plan on when you want to order in, go out, and cook. Ordering in may be particularly useful for the first night that you arrive in order to allow you to settle in. This can even provide some leftovers in the fridge for the rest of your trip. (Something like pizza or sandwiches is super easy!) Going out is more expensive, but great to celebrate special occasions — and to get a break from needing to cook on vacation. Everything else will be made. Or at least assembled.

For cooking lunch and dinner, easy options include pasta and pizza. For more of an assembly style line (or assembling as you wish) process, consider making sandwiches or tacos. For breakfast, it is easiest (not healthiest) to lean heavily into the carbs (muffins, bagels, croissants, oatmeal, etc), but you can also cook eggs and potatoes, make casseroles or stratas ahead of time, and get all sorts of fruit. For snacking you have your typical categories: sweet, salty, and chocolate. Beverages deserve their own category. All actual numbers discussed below are for a group of approximately 8 35-year-old women (who are not heavy alcohol drinkers) for three nights. We didn’t have a super strict timeline, so we ended up buying a lot of what-if items. Buying these items could have been avoided with more of a plan ahead of time.

Our downfall was carbs — we bought too many. We bought 20 bagels, 16 muffins, 12 croissants, 12 ciabatta rolls, 12 hoagie rolls, and focaccia bread. In the end, we didn’t end up needing the focaccia and could have done with half the number of croissants, no ciabatta rolls, and no hoagie rolls. We thought we would need lunch every day and bought the makings for sandwiches, but because we ate breakfast so late, people just snacked until dinner. Therefore we also didn’t really need to buy the ham, turkey, sliced cheese, eggplant spread, avocados, potato salad, grain salad, lettuce, mayo, roasted red peppers, or mustard. BUT, we didn’t know that until after we arrived. Here are some overall thoughts by category:

Breakfast: Muffins were easy because they were grab and go and could constitute a whole breakfast alongside fruit. We only used about 8 bagels, but the rest were good for people to take home. The one day we cooked breakfast we used 16 eggs, some sliced cheese, and 2 pounds of sweet potatoes. We didn’t do any meat, but we maybe could have thrown in bacon or sausage. We also had one extra large container of strawberries, one of blueberries, and one of raspberries. We ate some yogurt and some granola, but they may not have been necessary either.
Lunch: Our plan for sandwiches was good, it just didn’t pan out. I would start with the list of ingredients above if we were to need it in the future (with less bread). If we hadn’t done pizza the first night, pizza may have been a good option too. Either that or just ordering enough food the first night to have leftovers would have been fine.
Dinner: The one day we cooked dinner we made 2 pounds of tortellini with two different types of sauce, 1 large bag of Cesar salad, caprese salad, and about 8 meatballs. We could have just used the ciabatta as bread instead of focaccia. For a group of 8 people, using the serving size on the bags and/or on the recipe is probably the best start, factoring in whether or not you want leftovers.
Snacks: We bought a vegetable tray, sliced cheese, and crackers to take to a distillery with us one day (which also negated the need for lunch). From a less healthy perspective, the most popular snacks were nerd gummy clusters (by far), followed closely behind by chips and gouda dip, frozen chocolate-covered strawberries, mini chocolate chip cookies, and clementines. We also munched on nut-forward trail mix. We probably didn’t need the tortilla chips and salsa, the sour cream and onion chips, the pretzels, nor the Nutella breadsticks. I think the moral of the story is to have two savory options, two sugar-sweet options, and one chocolate option.
Beverages: Over the course of the weekend we consumed 35 seltzer waters, 120 oz of cold brew, 2 quarts of chai concentrate, 2 quarts of oat milk, 1 pint coffee creamer, some 2% milk, some juice, and plenty of tea. We packed a box of many types of tea bags and the most popular were the sleepy time teas at the end of a long day. I would also add peppermint next time to help settle one’s stomach. Somebody asked for honey, which I did not have. (This group had more tea drinkers than coffee.) From an alcohol perspective, we only opened wine bottles when paired with a meal, otherwise people grabbed spritzers and hard seltzers (which better fit the beach vibe and were easier to commit to). There were also Jell-o shots (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Therefore, overall we drank 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of prosecco for mimosas, approximately 32 cans of alcoholic beverages, and 30 Jell-o shots. (If you, too, need to make Jell-o shots for a crowd, my good friend Johanna recommended this book to me, which turned out to be a winner. There were so many good options though that I ended up making 80 Jell-o shots, which were definitely not needed. The crowd favorite was the peach bellini.)

Pack for yourself

This part is mostly like any other vacation, but I’ve never actually written this down before, so today’s the day.

The basics: You’re familiar with these. Clothing, underwear and socks, shoes, loungewear, pajamas, slippers, toiletries, medications, glasses/contacts, purse/bags, water bottle, chargers, ID, and extra bags. You may also want to add in specific items if you know you’ll be sharing a room, for example a robe, earplugs, or white noise machine.
Going out: Take a look at where you know you will be going. Will you be going out dancing? Will they all be casual hangs? Do you need to look cute for brunch? Cross reference this to the weather. It never hurts to take an extra sweater. And a small purse.
Beach: This may include swimwear, cover ups, sunscreen, flip flops, sunglasses/hat, and book or entertainment. Other items from the “group” area above include a towel, chair, umbrella, cooler, and wagon.
Other activities: If you have any other specialty activities you plan to do (hiking, golfing, bowling), make sure you don’t forget these items as well.

If you personally need any of the items in “pack for the group” list that aren’t already available, add them into this category as well.

Make it yours from the start

No matter how many days you’re going to be there, set the place up like it’s yours from the beginning. This will help make everyone feel at home from the start. Setup the refrigerator, freezer, and beverages to make everything accessible, label anything that might need an explanation, and consider opening bags of things so nobody needs to be the first one.

Set up the decorations and arts and crafts as early as possible so that they are available for the most possible enjoyment and set up a speaker for ambiance. And if you’re able to give the agenda to folks ahead of time, it can help them best prepare for the weekend ahead.

Tools to make it a success

There are a few tools that can be helpful to make the weekend a success.

From a digital perspective, an expense sharing application like Splitwise can help for tracking costs. A photo sharing application like Google Photos can help to create shared photo albums so everyone has access to the files. A messaging application can help leading up to the event to see if anyone has any items that are needed for the house, can be helpful during the event to set meet-up times (and find folks who are missing), and can be helpful to stay connected after the event (especially if you made some new friends!). And a music app (like Spotify or YouTube music or Apple Music) can be useful to create playlists ahead of time – or even to create a “jam” that will combine you and your friends’ music preferences.

From an analog perspective, we found that post-its were incredibly useful all weekend to help share information. We put notes on open bottles in the fridge so people knew which ones to grab first. We put notes on the chai to highlight the flavor profile of each option. We labeled the Jell-o shots so people knew the flavor and how much alcohol was in each one. And the day everyone went to the beach, we even used the Post-It notes to highlight all of the food options available to people. Furthermore, I mentioned it above, but we found that giving each person a differently patterned koozie created less room for confusion with open cans around the house.

When you start packing ahead of time, start the group chat early, and keep an eye on the weather, your time at the beach can feel just like home. If there are any other items you’ve found to be useful, please share them in the comments below!

PS. Yes, you will notice that I did not in fact have any pictures of the beach shown above. Apparently not a beach girl, never a beach girl, but logistics will always have my heart.