What springs to mind when you think of Food and drink at the seaside? No doubt it’s fish and chips, ice creams, crab sandwiches…there are certain foods that have a seriously strong association with beach trips, whether in the UK or abroad.

One of my fondest memories of childhood beach trips in the South of France is of begging our parents to let us buy a paper bag of caramelised nuts from the beach vendors, wolfing them down before demanding even more money for the seafront rides that always looked so enticing.

But trips to the seaside can be expensive enough with travel costs, buying new beach toys for the kids and the cost of the holiday in the first place – let alone having to fork out even more on food and drink.

Taking your own meals, snacks and beverages is a simple money-saving solution – and it means you can ensure that you’ll have something that everyone will enjoy, no matter their tastes, their age or their dietary requirements.

But a beach trip that involves food and drink isn’t always plain sailing…issues such as sandy sandwiches, plagues of wasps, keeping food cool and having to lug plates and rubbish home with you can take the enjoyment out of things.

If you are buying food while you’re there, it’s well worth researching local options in advance, so you can ensure that you find something that fits your budget and that keeps everyone happy, without spending hours traipsing around looking for a place to eat, taking valuable time out of your trip.

Or, if you’re bringing your own food, there are plenty of hacks to make sure you can make the food and drink element of your beach trip the very best it can possibly be.

Using old plastic drinks bottles to store small snacks such as raisins, nuts or mini crackers will mean that you can simply pour them into your hand instead of covering the whole lot with sandy fingers – and they’re easy to seal so there’s no risk of sand or salt water getting in. Or, if you want to bring finger food as snacks, try cutting up fruit, veg, cheese and other goodies, and bringing toothpicks to spear them so, again, you’ll keep the sand away.

If you’re bringing plastic or paper cups to drink from, bring drinking straws and cupcake cases too – turn the cupcake case upside down, cover the top of your drink and poke the straw through to prevent sand and bugs from getting in.

Travel Republic have also put together a list of 50 handy beach hacks, which includes various food and drink hacks. The idea of freezing bottles of water to use as ice packs is brilliant – once defrosted, they can then be drunk, saving you money on buying drinks while you’re there. They also suggest bringing individually wrapped food – such as cereal bars and fruit with skin – to avoid the sand issue, and creating drinks holders by sticking a twig to the bottom of an empty food can, pushing into the sand and using the can to hold your bottle or can of drink.

Have you got any more beach food and drink hacks to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

The post Life’s a beach! Top food and drink hacks for seaside trips appeared first on Bristol Bites.