Beach California's Beach Guide for Trips to the Beach

Beach towels are a necessity of life, especially if you plan on spending time at the beach. Sunbathing, ocean swims, and just wrapping yourself to stay warm are a few of the practical uses of the oversized towel that usually comes in anything but plain white. Why would you want to steer clear of white? Dirt.

Like most towels, beach towels are rectangular in shape and are oversized--usually the largest towels available. Other types of towels include bath towels, golf towels, sports, towels, paper towels, car towels, tea towels, and more.

Beach towels are bright, big and useful. When you travel, it isn't necessary to pack a beach towel. The beach concession stores around most beaches sell souvenir towels with the name of the city on them, and you can take them home and use them afterwards. Another option you'll find in the beach stores are woven beach mats. They work like a towel to keep the sand off your clothes, body and hair, but they lack the softness and multi-use options for staying warm, or for showering. 

Beach towels can be purchased discount stores like Walmart for around $6-10. Fancier, high quality cotton towels are around $15-20.  There's actually a beach towel that runs 36" X 60" called lightload towel. It is packed to fit into one hand for travel. Needless to say, it is paper thin, but for one time trips at around $8, it is ideal. We've seen them sold on Amazon. Whether going to the best beaches in California or not, you'll still want a towel. Since California's beaches are free admission, don't expect to find a towel waiting for you on the sand!

Beach Towel Advice:

• Stick with bright colors, and buy something you will remember as your own. You can even write your name on the content tag with a permanent marker.
• Keep it light when flying into a destination. While quality towels are great, they add extra space and weight to your suitcase. That room could be spent on a ton of other stuff.
• Solid, dark colors should be avoided for those warm summer days. Too hot!
• Buy it large. There are some beach towels that are skimpy. Length counts.
• Check hotels before traveling. Some hotels you may have pre-booked do have beach towels for hotel guests. If they do, then you've just saved yourself money & work toting that towel around on your trip.