I love the coast, but that’s not the same thing as ‘the beach’.
I hate sitting in the sun on a sandy beach (or any other of the typical holidaymaker-type family beach activities). I love coastal foraging and beachcombing.
What’s the difference? My ‘beach’ activities don’t stop because it’s January, or because it’s wet and windy.
I should mention that when I was a kid, we went to the beach every day in the summer. Started out at Founder’s Landing (on the Bay) in June, but moved to the Town Beach (on the Sound) when the Bay got too warm. We spent an hour or two there – a long swim, some time on the beach to dry off (and get some ice cream from Jack’s Shack*), then a short swim. We were home by 3:00 pm.
*Named for my Uncle’s brother, who died last year at 104.
I vote “meh”. I’d much rather be hiking in the mountains than lounging on the beach (although I do love me some fresh seafood). My wife, OTOH, must visit the beach several times each year. I think she’s part mermaid. As others have said, it’s the sand that ruins it for me. If they’d just grass it all in I’d be all over it.
One could say the same for streams, lakes, forests, bars…
For most of my youth, I didn’t understand why anyone liked the beach - being fair and easily burned, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to bake themselves in the sun. My friends all loved it, and I tagged along like an idiot, hating it all the time as they baked (in baby oil!) and carried nothing but towels. For decades, I couldn’t understand why anyone would like this idiotic torture.
As an adult, I got schooled by some beach-pro friends; yeah, we’re the dorks who pack everything and basically set up camp. I have a cool wheelie cart that carries everything and converts into a table with cup holders. We bring an umbrella for the burners, plenty of provisions (seltzer and cherries are a must - and sometimes sangria!), chairs, reading material, tons of sunscreen etc. Whatever we need to be comfortable, we bring it. Now that I know how to do it right, I love it!
Growing up on Vancouver Island, most of the places we lived had waterfront property where the beach was our backyard and where we played constantly. We had our own dock and a large boat and three dinghies which we were always out in from a very young age.
When we weren’t playing on the beach or out on boats, we would make rafts out of driftwood and row out to big rocks to look at the seals. We would build rock bridges to smaller, closer rocks too.
As teenagers there were bonfires and “going for a walk down the beach” which usually meant sneaking off to smoke or make-out with boyfriends/girlfriends.
I still love the beach 
I love it. In fact, I confirmed a trip for June to the Gulf Coast today.
I’m fine with beaches although it’s more of a family thing. No doubt I’d be content to sit alone on a sandy shoreline and contemplate life but I’m happy enough to take the kids to splash in the water alongside other people. We typically go from Chicago around the tip of Lake Michigan to the MI side and spend the day or weekend there – it’s less crowded, the water is cleaner and feels good to “get away” even if it’s really just a 90min drive. Dig holes, play in the water, watch sea gulls & boats, and stare out over the seemingly endless expanse of water.
I’ve been to ocean beaches as well and have nothing against them and there’s something to be said for the roaring waves and sea shells and all that. But there’s also something to be said for not having everything salt-encrusted, a lack of jellyfish and for more moderate wave action that isn’t going to drown my kid 
Here’s a sorta cool video that I took at Drakes Beach last year. It was a windy overcast day at Point Reyes National Seashore. The clouds were breaking up as they passed over the bluffs, creating a really neat effect as the shadows moved across the blowing sand: https://youtu.be/JXlGoVXt1mc
I don’t like lying out on hot summer beaches, or swimming in the ocean. However, if I’m on vacation in the UK or Ireland, or visiting my parents while they’re wintering along the Gulf, I like taking off my shoes and socks and walking sometimes miles down cold-water beaches – as long as the water isn’t too cold. (Like it was last spring when I spent a morning at Clacton-on-Sea near Colchester. Freezing North Sea water. I put my shoes right back on and continued the rest of my walk some distance from the shoreline.)
Depending on how you define “the beach.”
If you mean any shore on any body of water (like a lake), I’d much rather be boating than just sitting at the shore. If you mean on the ocean: inasmuch as I live 700 miles as the crow flies from the nearest body of saltwater, and inasmuch as I don’t make much money, going to the ocean/beach is a rare treat to be looked forward to. And I freaking love it! Daytona Beach is my favorite.
I grew up close to the Shore and I guess I got too used to it as I definitely didn’t go much in my late teen years (and especially tried to avoid it during tourist season). However, as I moved away more inland, in my return trips I look forward to going to the beach. Even though it usually is during the Summer, going to the beach during weekdays makes the crowd far more tolerable. I enjoy laying out on a chair, reading, and when I got too hot, jump into the water for a bit to cool off and then go back to the chair to read and bake some more. Wonderfully relaxing.
And add to that the appeal of the boardwalk (esp boardwalk pizza and salt water taffy), it wins quite significantly.
I’m far more a beach person than a mountain person, as the mountains have no appeal for me whatsoever.
Same here! I would like to try a tropical beach during a slow time with fewer people but just to see if it’s more enjoyable. I am someone who burns easily too so the precautions aren’t always worth it either.
I am definitely not a beach and island/tropics sort of person. I like streets and walking and relaxing in bars if all I want to do is veg out with some friends over beer and conversation. Or camping somewhere woodsy if we’re being all nature-y and stuff. Beaches and tropical islands have never held any sort of appeal for me, although I will make an exception for Hawaii (even though I’ve only been to Lanai’i) because it seems to have an amazing range of climate, flora and fauna there.
A beach like Ocean City, MD, with acres of sand between the boardwalk (or houses) and the water? Hell, no. Why would I want to plop myself down in the middle of a fucking desert, just because there’s ocean at one end of it? Fuck that shit.
But my wife and the Firebug and I go to the beach for a week every summer…down on Anna Maria Island on the gulf coast of Florida. At the cottage we rent, we’re maybe 25 feet from the back door to the water. And there is a big tree overhanging the water, so we’ve got shade right there. That beach, I totally love.
We move easily from the sunny, airy cottage to the back deck overlooking the water to sitting on the seawall with our toes dangling in the water at high tide, or on the sand otherwise, to being in the water itself. No need for beach umbrellas or coolers, kitchen’s just steps away when you want to refill your iced tea glass or grab some munchies, and most of the day, either the tree or the house shades a good part of the deck. And the short part of the afternoon when it doesn’t, the tree shades the water, so you can be in the water and in the shade at the same time, or you can just go inside and relax.
Yeah, I love that beach. But it’s not your typical beach.
The only beach I liked was paddling to a far-off sandy key in FL of only around an acre of size with no other human in sight, where you didn’t even need to fish and could just net your meals: it was sort of surreal in that I forget where it was and it was so long ago that it seems suspended out there by itself, timeless.
But I’d still much rather be in the Rockies somewhere miles from anyone else.
I grew up in Houston, both sets of grandparents lived about 5 mins from Galveston, and one of my closest childhood friends’ parents had a beach house on the bay somewhere vaguely near Baytown.
So I grew up at the beach in some ways. It got less fun the older I got; the kid stuff like sandcastles lost their luster as I got older, and without that stuff or fishing, the beach is boring, to be honest. Maybe that’s the idea- you just chill out, roast in the sun and drink. But I can do 2 of those 3 at home, and in air-conditioned comfort without sand, sunscreen or showing my pallid, hairy body off.
That’s not to say that I don’t like the water though; I really enjoy inshore fishing and stuff like boating, jetskis, water skiing, etc… But the beach itself? Dullest part of being down there by far.
I love going down the shore. I used to go for at least a week a year when we had a condo in Wildwood but now there is no we so that doesn’t happen. I miss that. I try to take my daughter once a week during the summer. I find nothing more relaxing than sitting on the beach. Of course the Caribbean would be nicer but the chances of me ever being able to live on any beach is unlikely to happen.
A few winters ago during our St Martin vacation, we rented a divorce boat (tandem kayak) and paddled out to Pinel Island.
On the way there we stopped on a tiny (less than an acre) rocky island. There was a twenty foot long “beach” where we sat and had some wine and cheese.
There were skinks on the island. They ate tiny pieces of bread and cheese we tossed them. Eventually they became bolder and were taking crumbs of cheese from our hands.
Not your typical beach. 
I like being in the water. What I don’t like is having to leave all my stuff unguarded.
I have fond memories of the Jersey shore from when I was a kid. A week here and there in Ocean City and day trips to Island Beach SP. My friends and I rented a house a couple blocks from the beach in Manasquan one summer back in the early '80s. The drinking age was 18 and there was much fun and debauchery.
Nowadays I like the idea of the beach more than the reality of sand everywhere and sunburn. I grew up on a lake with a beach and have basal cell carcinoma out the wazoo (bad burns at altitude in CO didn’t help). Plus I find it difficult to commune with the infinite when I’m trying to keep my daughters from being swept out to sea.
Some of the finest beaches I’ve been to were in the Grand Canyon (if that counts). Sitting on the sand, marveling at the canyon walls and watching the river go by. Bermuda’s nice too. One of the most interesting was a beach in Denmark, where the water temperature was quite nice.
Day trips to the beach are tough. The best way IMO is to at spend a night or two within walking distance and experience the evening and nighttime.