Our 10 Family Beach Bag Essentials

1. The Ultimate Family Beach Bag: Sunnylife

Finding a beach bag took me much longer than it should have.

Some were too big. Others were too small. Some looked great online but were made from fabric that seemed determined to collect sand, sunscreen and every imaginable beach stain.

Our Sunnylife beach bag is the one that finally stuck.

It’s wipeable, hoseable and large enough to carry everything we need without becoming ridiculous. Unlike many beach bags, it also folds down to almost nothing, which makes it surprisingly useful for travel.

In fact, we own two. One lives permanently in the side pocket of our suitcase, alongside those inflatable wine bottle protectors that somehow always make their way home from holidays with us.

One of my favourite features is the removable pouch. Ours currently contains spare underwear for all three of us.

That might sound slightly odd, but beach days don’t always end at the beach. Sometimes they turn into a 5.30pm polo match in Sotogrande, cocktails at the marina or a very early dinner at one of the chiringuitos before heading home.

Having a few essentials tucked away means we’re never rushing back just because plans have changed.

You can find the Sunnylife bag we use here →

2. IZIPIZI Journey Sunglasses for the Whole Family

We own more pairs of IZIPIZI sunglasses than I care to admit.

In fact, our entire family wears them.

The pair I reach for most often are the Journey sunglasses in Sand. The colour seems to go with absolutely everything and they’re stylish without ever feeling precious.

I keep a pair permanently in my beach pouch and have different pairs in each of our cars, which is probably the clearest indication of how much we use them.

I was recently reminded why I like them so much when my husband accidentally sat on a pair and broke them.

Fortunately, replacing them wasn’t nearly as painful as it would have been with some of my other sunglasses.

A slightly embarrassing confession: I no longer buy new IZIPIZI sunglasses for my daughter. She loses them with impressive consistency. Instead, I’ve discovered that Vinted is full of children’s IZIPIZI sunglasses for less than €10, which makes replacing them considerably less painful.

They’re a great French brand that knows exactly what it is. Stylish, timeless sunglasses at a sensible price point.

They’re the Havaianas of sunglasses: stick to what you do and do it well.

Shop the IZIPIZI Journey Sunglasses here →

3. Windproof Beach Towel Bands

If you’ve never experienced a windy beach day, these probably look completely unnecessary.

If you’ve spent any time on the beaches of southern Spain, you’ll understand immediately.

Our beach towel bands started as one of those purchases that felt slightly ridiculous. Surely we could manage without them?

We could not.

On windy days, they keep towels attached to sunbeds, stop corners flapping into your face and prevent the constant need to rearrange everything every few minutes.

There are hundreds of options available, but I deliberately chose simple white silicone bands. They’re almost invisible once attached to a sunbed and don’t scream “beach accessory” in quite the same way as some of the brighter alternatives.

Unlike many seasonal purchases, these actually live in our beach bag year-round. They take up almost no space, weigh nothing and are always there when a windy beach day appears unexpectedly.

If you’ve ever found yourself chasing a towel across a beach or repeatedly re-making a sunbed on a windy afternoon, you’ll understand exactly why these earned a permanent place in our beach bag.

Shop the beach towel bands we use here →

4. My Beach-to-Lunch Pouch (Dior Beauty)

One of my favourite summer accessories isn’t actually a beach accessory at all.

It’s a small pouch that lives permanently inside my beach bag.

Mine happens to be a Dior beauty pouch that was originally a gift with purchase, but the concept is far more important than the brand.

Inside you’ll usually find my phone, cards, sunglasses and whatever else I need throughout the day.

The reason I love it so much is simple: when I leave my sunbed, I don’t want to carry an entire beach bag with me.

Whether we’re heading to a beach restaurant for lunch, grabbing an ice cream or stopping for a drink, I can grab the pouch and know I have everything important with me.

The same pouch has accompanied me to beaches in Sotogrande, the Algarve, Turkey, the Maldives and countless places in between.

A beach day is a beach day wherever you are in the world. Your valuables come with you and everything else stays behind.

Over the years I’ve used various versions of the same idea, but the principle never changes: a small pouch inside a much larger beach bag.

It’s one of those simple things that makes summer life feel considerably more organised.

If you’re looking for something similar, I’ve included three options below at different price points: Parfois, Mango and Vanessa Bruno.

5. Husband Beach Pouch (Vilebrequin)

For years, my pouch also carried my husband’s belongings.

His wallet. His sunglasses. His keys. Spare change. Whatever random item didn’t fit in his pockets at the time.

Eventually, I decided enough was enough and bought him his own pouch.

It was surprisingly difficult to find.

Most men’s pouches seemed either overly sporty, unnecessarily tactical or better suited to a hiking expedition than a relaxed day at the beach.

Eventually, we settled on a Vilebrequin pouch. Ironically, it cost considerably more than my Dior beauty pouch, which was a gift with purchase.

What I do love about it, however, is that it’s machine washable, incredibly practical and feels like it will last forever.

Like mine, it lives permanently inside our beach bag and comes everywhere with us.

Inside you’ll usually find his phone, wallet, sunglasses, keys, spare change, a tiny Anker charger and whatever book he’s currently reading.

At the moment, that’s The Alchemist.

There’s also usually a Cat’s Cradle lurking somewhere inside, because when you travel with children, somebody always ends up carrying the emergency entertainment.

Shop the Villebrequin pouch here →

6. Portable Tech: The Tiny Anker Charger

Some of the most useful items in our beach bag are also the least glamorous.

One of them is a tiny Anker charger that permanently lives inside my husband’s beach pouch.

It’s not even the newest version.

In fact, it’s one of our older Anker chargers from when everything seemed to use Apple’s Lightning connector.

We do own the newer USB-C version and that’s the charger that travels with us and gets used every day. It’s smaller, faster and undoubtedly better.

But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the older chargers.

Rather than throwing them away, we bought a handful of tiny adapters and gave them a second life.

These older Anker chargers now live permanently in our beach bags, which means they’re always there when somebody’s phone battery starts looking a little too optimistic for the rest of the day.

Like many of the items on this list, it’s not particularly exciting. It simply does its job quietly and reliably.

Shop the latest Anker charger here →

Shop the Lightning-to-USB-C adapters we use here →

7. The Ultimate Sunscreen Pouch: Longchamp

Every beach bag needs somewhere to keep all the little essentials that seem to multiply throughout the summer.

For years, I’ve used an old Longchamp cosmetic pouch.

It wasn’t bought specifically for the beach. It simply turned out to be the perfect size and has stubbornly refused to be replaced ever since.

Sadly, I don’t think they make this particular version anymore, which is a shame because it’s probably one of the most useful cosmetic pouches I’ve ever owned.

One of my favourite features is the handle. It sounds like a small detail, but it makes it incredibly easy to grab from the bottom of a beach bag when somebody inevitably asks for sunscreen.

Inside you’ll usually find body SPF, face SPF, hair SPF, spare hair ties, mini wipes, hand sanitiser, pocket tissues and a Tide pen.

The tissues are mostly for runny noses, while the Tide pen has rescued countless summer outfits from ice cream, paella, black rice and various other holiday mishaps.

The pouch permanently lives in the beach bag, which means I always know exactly where to find everything. It’s simple, practical and somehow still looks remarkably good despite years of exposure to sand, salt and sunscreen.

Shop similar cosmetic pouches here →

8. Durable Double Sided Beach Towels

I never expected to include beach towels on this list, but here we are.

Our towels are the Nicola Spring Deluxe Beach Towels, and they’re now heading into their fourth summer looking remarkably good.

They have lightweight fabric on one side and proper absorbent towelling on the other, which gives you the best of both worlds. They’re comfortable to lie on, dry you properly after a swim and don’t feel nearly as bulky as traditional beach towels.

Unlike many of the other items on this list, these don’t travel with us. Most of the hotels we stay at provide beach and pool towels, so there’s rarely any need.

Instead, these live in Sotogrande and get used heavily throughout the summer. Which is exactly why I’m so impressed by them.

After four summers of beaches, pools, sunbeds, sunscreen and countless washes, I genuinely expected them to be looking tired by now. Instead, they’re still remarkably pristine.

I haven’t been able to find the exact colourway we own anymore, but if you can find the Nicola Spring Deluxe Beach Towels online, I’d happily buy them again.

Shop the closest alternative here →

9. Emergency Entertainment: Cat’s Cradle

Of all the items in our beach bag, this one probably costs the least and gets the most use.

A simple Cat’s Cradle string permanently lives inside my husband’s pouch and somehow comes to the rescue time and time again.

It weighs virtually nothing, takes up no space and never runs out of battery.

We’ve used it while waiting for food at beach restaurants, during travel delays and in all those moments when a little distraction is needed.

The best part is that they usually come in packs of six for just a few Euros.

We have them everywhere.

There’s one in the beach bag, one in our travel bag, one in our daughter’s restaurant backpack and several more scattered around the house. Whenever one disappears, another somehow appears.

It’s one of those old-fashioned things that has survived remarkably well in a world full of screens.

Read: Best Plane Activities for 5–7 Year Olds →

Shop Cat’s Cradle here →

10. Skip Hop Wet Bag for Wet Swimwear

Somewhere along the way, our daughter outgrew nappies, toddler snacks and most of the things we used to carry everywhere.

The wet bag stayed.

Ours is a Skip Hop wet bag that dates back to the toddler years and, despite several attempts to replace it with something prettier, it’s still going strong.

At the end of a beach day, wet swimsuits, swim shorts and goggles go straight inside so they don’t soak everything else in the bag.

It’s not particularly glamorous and it’s certainly not the most exciting item on this list.

But after a long day at the beach, it’s the difference between arriving home with a slightly damp bag and discovering that everything inside now feels like it has been swimming too.

What I find particularly impressive is that Skip Hop still sells it today. In a world where products seem to be redesigned every five minutes, there’s something reassuring about a product that has remained largely unchanged because it simply works.

Like many of the items in this article, it wasn’t bought for the purpose it serves today.

It simply turned out to be useful and quietly earned a permanent place in our beach bag.

Shop the Skip Hop wet bag here →