Happy New Year, everyone!
The last two years have been... a lot. If you and your family have any time off, the beach is one of the best ways to unwind and reconnect with nature. We didn't make it to the beach this Christmas 2022 as we had gastro, it took the entire family down. Truly a memorable Christmas for all the wrong reasons!
Once we were feeling all better, I wrote BEACH DAY on our fridge calendar and set a plan in motion. Mom, dad and our two sons Brooks and Parker were going on a road trip to the beach!
In my opinion, there are quite a lot of essentials needed for a successful family beach day. We live approximately one hour from Queensland's famous beaches, so I wanted to ensure we had our car packed with everything required to keep us and our young children happy in the sun.
Below is a list of everything we take to the beach for a day trip, our family beach day essentials this summer!
As a nice surprise, we were recently approached by Australian brand Tesalate once again to review one of their famous sand-free beach towels, this time the larger double towel! We happily accepted, as we are now a family of four and need all the space we can get! We've done a more comprehensive review on Tesalate towels in the past, so we know it's a good product that is lightweight and sand-free.
We chose the beautiful blue print called 'Bora Bora'. It really is bright and eye-catching on the beach. It's large enough that the four of us can sit cross-legged on the sand, and it's very lightweight even once wet. It can even double as a picnic blanket in other seasons, so dual use. Which is why it's so perfect for families!
This beach towel really does avoid collecting sand! Tesalate are known for creating the original Australian beach towel with this great feature. Their towels are built with AbsorbLite™ fabric, which has been purpose-engineered for sand to slip right off easily. A very handy feature for families with kids, when they inevitably get sand everywhere after a day at the beach.
This double-sized beach towel is absorbent, yet lightweight! Tesalate have specifically designed this large towel to hold up to one litre of water. When you're spending the day dipping in and out of the water, this feature is really handy as it allows the towel to stay dry, even with the four of us sitting on it! Much dryer than a traditional beach towel (that turns heavy and unusable once wet). If you do need to hang it up to dry, it has a little hook and will dry quickly.
This double-sized beach towel is compact! You can roll it up and carry it within the smallest of spaces. This was especially handy for us, as a family of four, our beach wagon gets full very quickly holding two kids, beach bags, food, beach toys, beach covers etc. The Tesalate beach towel also comes with a handy black string pull bag for storage.
It took up no space in our wagon. A win-win product for us, and we were so happy to use Tesalate's double-sized towel in the beautiful colour of blue 'Bora Bora'. A definite must-have in our family beach essentials kit every summer!
You can buy the over-sized beach towel by Tesalate in many colours, or our beautiful 'Bora Bora' print as seen below by clicking here.
The towel is $119 AUD with free shipping, and they also offer a 10% discount on your first order when you sign up to their mailing list.
With over 39,000 verified reviews on their towels, you cannot go wrong!
I'm not sure why every parent in Australia doesn't own one of these. If you have kids, and enjoy spending time at the beach, it is an absolute must to save your back and arms from carrying everything.
We can fit basically everything in our wagon, two kids (aged 3.5 years and 15 months), a beach shade, towels for four people, changes of clothes, hats and sunscreen, an insulated food bag and beach toys.
The weight capacity is 110 kilograms and the BCF website sells different accessories that fit this specific wagon, to also make our lives easier. E.g. an attachable cooler, table, umbrella and cover to protect it.
The wagon is sold on the BCF website and in store for $99 AUD if you're a member (free to sign up). You can buy the beach wagon by clicking here.
Beach Toys
With little kids, this seems pretty straight-forward. Choose toys that are inexpensive, without batteries that will be ok with sand filling through it. Buckets, spades, trucks, body boards etc are all good options.
There certainly are more expensive/better quality beach umbrellas out there in the world, but this cheap and cheerful one has been adequate for now. It's 2m with a steel frame, and has 95 + / UVE protection from the sun. We also purchased the adjustable sand anchor to go with it, to make sure it's secure in the sand and won't blow away. Not bad for $19 AUD. You can purchase the umbrella by clicking here and the sand anchor by clicking here.
If you've been on any beach in Australia this summer, all you will see is a 'sea of CoolCabanas' beach shades everywhere.
The CoolCabana called themselves the world's best beach shade, with UPF 50+ protection, bright colours. 5.8 meters of shade and sand pockets to keep it secure on the beach, you can see why.
Normally $249 AUD or on sale for $199 AUD during special periods, they also offer free shipping.
Fruit Kebabs
Our final beach essential is homemade fruit kebabs!
A family tradition of ours, you take your favourite seasonal fruit and cut it into small pieces.
Stick those pieces on kebab sticks (I cut the sharp points off the top so my kids don't hurt their mouths/eyes) and wrap the lot in alfoil.
Place it in the freezer overnight before your beach trip, and pack it in your insulated food bag ready for your day! An amazingly refreshing beach snack, we never fail to get comments from passers-by. Delicious and healthy.
Disclosure: We were on the hunt for a new, innovative and lightweight large-sized beach towel for this summer, which is why we've partnered again with Tesalate on today's sponsored post reviewing their large-sized Sand-Free Beach Towel.
The Johannessen Family was gifted the Sand-Free Beach Towel in the colour 'Bora Bora' to conduct a fair and impartial review. All opinions are 100% our own and reflect our honest experiences with the product.
We only share what we believe you’ll find helpful. Thank you to Tesalate for this collaboration opportunity.
We hope you enjoyed our blog post review on the large-sized Sand-Free Beach Towel by Tesalate, plus our other summer family beach day essentials! ♡ Any questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Tag us at @thejohannessenfamily or contact us!