With Spring well and truly upon us, the days getting longer, the sun shining more, and temperatures warming up once again, many Brits will be planning beach days, hoping to enjoy a fun-packed or relaxing trip to one of the UKs many, wonderful beaches.
Beach trips are one of the best ways to enjoy the warm sunshine and have a little holiday without leaving the country and spending hundreds or even thousands on trips abroad. And why not? There are some incredible beaches to visit here in the UK!
From the every-popular beaches of Cornwall, such as Fistral Beach and Sennen Cove, to beaches like Botany Bay in Kent, King Edward’s Bay in Tynemouth, and Llanddwyn Bay in Anglesey in Wales (with spectacular views of Snowdonia National Park), UK beaches are just a short car journey away for most Brits!
How to make the most out of your next beach trip
Our beautiful beaches are there to be enjoyed by everyone, and there is an absolute plethora of activities to do during your beach visit!
Why not try some of these games or activities out next time you visit the beach:
Cricket
French Cricket (using your legs as the stumps)
Rounders
Beach Volleyball
Beach Bowls or Bocce Ball
Frisbee or Frisbee Golf
Kite Flying
Building Sand Castles
Toss and Catch - using the velcro paddles and fluffy tennis balls
Surfing
Paddleboarding
Canoeing or Kayaking
Bodyboarding
Water Bucket Relays
Seashell Hunting
Tug Of War
Rockpooling
Football
Sharks And Minnows
Or just enjoy an old-fashioned dip in the sea or relax, sunbathing on your beach towel with a good book!
Just don’t forget to bring your cooler filled with Bensons Chilly Billys, Totally Fruity fruit juice, Joosed Fruity Water, Joosed Fizz, or a few bottles of Eccentric English Cider!
In fact, we’re giving you the chance to win a beach bundle of Bensons goodies - read on to find out more and how to enter!
Also, make sure you’re well stocked up with water and sun cream, and regularly topping yourself (and your kids) up with both!
Let’s ensure our beaches can be enjoyed by everyone!
As lovely as it is to enjoy a day on the beach with the sun beaming down on you, it is important to remember that these beaches we love so much need to be taken care of.
With the help of organisations like Surfers Against Sewage and Clean Cornwall, we can all do our part in keeping our beaches clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy, including future generations.
Surfers Against Sewage is a campaigning and marine conservation charity who campaign for clean oceans, rivers, and lakes for wildlife and people to enjoy safely and they have been demanding an end to sewage discharge into bathing waters and an end to plastic pollution on UK beaches around the UK by 2030, and more.
Clean Cornwall is another non-profit organisation and partnership of local businesses, voluntary organisations, and the people of Cornwall, whose main aim is to protect the Cornish landscape and keep it clean and tidy by reducing the impact and presence of litter.
What can you do to help?
Both organisations have provided some great tips for how you can help look after our precious beaches and make them more enjoyable for everyone during your visit.
To some people, leaving a small amount of rubbish on a beach, like an ice cream wrapper or a plastic shopping bag, doesn’t seem like much. However, a study at the University of Exeter by BlueHealth researchers found that around 271 million visits are made to beaches and coastlines in England each year. If only 1% of those visits led to just one piece of rubbish being littered, that would still equate to 2.71 million pieces of rubbish littering our beaches and coastlines. And that’s just the number of visits to English beaches and coastlines.
When you consider that nearly 300 million visits are made to English coastlines every year, if the majority of people followed these simple steps below, imagine how much cleaner, safer, and more enjoyable our beaches would be!
Take your rubbish with you!
Number one for a reason, this piece of advice could make the biggest difference to our coastlines. Make sure you either dispose of all your rubbish responsibly in a bin or take it home with you and dispose of it there. If there are no bins available, take your rubbish with you. If the bins around the beach are full or overflowing, take your rubbish with you. If you always have a rubbish bag with you on trips to the beach, this takes very little time and effort but can make a massive difference to the quality of our beaches.
Bring reusable water bottles and food containers.
If you bring and use reusable water bottles and food containers, and avoid using single-use plastics, you’ll not only save money over the long term, but you’ll also be helping the environment and minimising waste.
Don’t bury your rubbish.
Ok. This is pretty much the same as number one but it’s worth mentioning as some people think “out of sight” is ok. Burying your rubbish is just as bad as littering in plain sight and is still harmful to wildlife and the environment as it is still pollution.
Leave nothing behind.
Again, this is similar to rule number 1 but encompasses everything. A lot of rubbish found on beaches includes beach toys, chairs, tents, and towels that are used for the beach trip and then discarded or forgotten. This still pollutes the beaches and can be harmful to coastline wildlife. Take everything you bring to the beach home with you. Or, if it breaks or you don’t need or want it afterwards, then dispose of it responsibly.
Respect the local environment and wildlife.
Please avoid disturbing the local wildlife and their habitats - they live there, you don’t. You wouldn’t want anyone coming into your home and ruining it, so please do the same for the creatures that live at and around the beach. Avoid feeding them too - many animals can’t process the food we eat and eating the wrong thing, no matter how well intentioned the offering of it was, could cause them serious harm.
Use eco-friendly products.
Using eco-friendly or “green” products, like environmentally friendly sunscreen, can reduce the impact we have on the environment, not just from its use at the beach but from the way it’s made, the sourcing of the materials, and the way it’s dealt with after disposal. And add on to this would be to take home and recycle anything that’s recyclable instead of just throwing it in the bins at the beach.
Pick up litter.
Unlike rule number 1, this one means litter in general, not just your own. If you see litter on the beach, pick it up and dispose of it properly. Litter picking can even be made into a fun activity - many children especially enjoy litter picking as an activity. It can even be made into a competition to see who can pick up the most litter. This way, you’re looking after our beaches and having fun! Both Surfers Against Sewage and Clean Cornwall regularly run and promote litter picking events and beach clean ups. You can get involved with the Million Mile Clean with Surfers Against Sewage here. Clean Cornwall asks you to let them know how many bin bags full of litter you collect so they can record the statistics.
By following the simple steps above, we can all make a huge difference in keeping our beaches clean and tidy. The biggest thing to remember is that every little thing you do counts, whether you just spot a crisp packet on the floor and pop it in the bin or scour a beach for litter and fill up 10 bin bags full of litter, it all counts and helps improve our beaches!
Let’s work together to make sure the beaches of Britain can be enjoyed by everyone and remain safe, clean, and enjoyable for generations to come.
Competition to win a Bensons Beach Bundle!
Speaking of enjoying our wonderful beaches…
Would you like to win a Bensons Beach Bundle to enjoy on your next trip to the beach?
To keep you totally hydrated on beach days our bundle includes:
A case of 6 Joosed Fruity Water Blackcurrant and Apple
A case of 6 Totally Fruity Raspberry and Apple
Simply enter your details below and you’ll be in with the chance to win a whole host of Bensons goodies!
Entries close on 30th June and a winner will be chosen at random 7 days after the closing date.
