I’m packing for a beach day and the usual move is grabbing whatever chips and a water bottle happen to be closest. Three hours later I’m sunburnt, starving, and that single bottle of water ran out somewhere around hour one. Familiar?
Spending a full day outside — especially near the ocean where salt air, sun, and sand drain your energy faster than you’d expect — takes a bit more planning than most people bother with. The good news is it doesn’t need to be complicated. Five combos. That’s all you really need to stay fed, hydrated, and actually enjoy the day instead of dragging yourself to the car by 2 PM.
Here’s the short version before we get into each one:
- Watermelon chunks with a pinch of sea salt cover both hydration and electrolyte replacement in one snack.
- Trail mix paired with coconut water gives you sustained energy without the sugar crash.
- Cucumber and hummus with a frozen water bottle keeps things cool and filling without being heavy.
- Peanut butter wraps with an electrolyte drink handle the protein and mineral gap most beach snackers miss completely.
- Frozen grapes and sparkling water work as the afternoon pick-me-up when everything else feels too warm and mushy.
Watermelon chunks + a pinch of sea salt
This one is almost too obvious but most people skip the salt part. Watermelon sits at about 92% water content (USDA Food Composition Database). So each bite is basically eating and drinking at the same time. Add a light sprinkle of sea salt and you’re replacing sodium lost through sweat, which is the electrolyte your body burns through fastest in the heat.
NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) recommends that people in hot environments eat salt-containing snacks alongside water to maintain electrolyte balance, rather than relying on water alone. The salt on watermelon does exactly that. And it actually makes the fruit taste sweeter — something about how sodium enhances flavor perception.
Pack it in a sealed container and keep it in a cooler bag. Pre-cut at home. Nobody wants to wrestle with a whole watermelon on a beach towel. The chunks hold up well for about 4 hours if kept cold, which is long enough to cover the first half of your day.
Trail mix + coconut water
Trail mix gets a bad reputation because most store-bought versions are basically candy with a few almonds thrown in. Skip those. I’m talking about a simple mix — raw almonds, cashews, dried apricots, maybe some dark chocolate chips if you want. That’s it.
The nuts give you protein and healthy fats, which digest slowly and keep your energy steady instead of spiking and crashing like sugary granola bars. Dried apricots bring potassium, which is the second electrolyte you lose in sweat after sodium.
Pair that with coconut water. Not the sweetened flavored kind — the plain stuff. Coconut water naturally contains potassium, sodium, and magnesium, which makes it a decent electrolyte drink without the artificial colors and 30+ grams of sugar you get from most sports drinks.
One thing though. Don’t rely on coconut water as your only fluid. It doesn’t replace plain water. Think of it as the electrolyte supplement sitting alongside your regular water intake. Bring both.
Cucumber + hummus with a frozen water bottle
This combo solves two problems at once. Cucumbers are about 95% to 96% water (UCLA Health), so they hydrate you while you eat them. Hummus adds protein and fiber from the chickpeas, plus healthy fats from the tahini and olive oil. Together you’ve got something filling that won’t sit heavy in your stomach while you’re lying in the sun.
The frozen water bottle trick is worth mentioning separately. Freeze a full bottle the night before. By the time you’re at the beach and ready to eat, it’s partially thawed — cold enough to drink but also acting as an ice pack for everything else in your bag. Two jobs, one item.
Cucumber slices hold up surprisingly well in heat if you keep them in a sealed container. They won’t go soggy the way bread-based snacks do. And hummus in individual portion cups (most grocery stores sell them) eliminates the mess problem entirely.
Peanut butter wrap + electrolyte drink
This is the most filling option on the list and it’s built for people who are doing more than just sitting on a towel. If you’re swimming, playing volleyball, walking the shoreline for a couple miles — you need real fuel. A tortilla with peanut butter, sliced banana, and a drizzle of honey takes about two minutes to make and packs well.
Peanut butter delivers protein and fat. Banana brings potassium and fast carbs for immediate energy. Honey adds glucose that hits your bloodstream quickly. The wrap holds it all together and doesn’t fall apart in the heat like regular bread would.
On the hydration side, this one pairs with a proper electrolyte drink rather than just water. After sustained physical activity in the heat, sweat output often exceeds water intake, leading to what researchers call hypohydration — a body water deficit that reduces your ability to regulate temperature (Sawka et al., “Fluid and Electrolyte Supplementation for Exercise Heat Stress,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000). An electrolyte drink with sodium helps counteract that deficit more effectively than water alone during active beach days.
Frozen grapes + sparkling water
By mid-afternoon, everything in your bag is warm. Your sandwiches are questionable. Your motivation to eat anything substantial is basically zero. This is where frozen grapes come in.
Freeze them the night before in a ziplock bag. They stay frozen for a couple hours in a cooler bag, and by the time you eat them they’re like little flavored ice bites. Refreshing in a way that nothing else on this list quite matches. Plus grapes contain about 82% water, so they’re doing hydration work too.
Sparkling water pairs well here because the carbonation makes it feel more satisfying than flat water when you’re already tired of drinking plain water all day. No sugar, no calories, just fizz. Your body doesn’t care whether the water has bubbles or not — it absorbs the same way. But psychologically, it feels like a treat at a point in the day when you need one.
Toss a couple cans in the cooler alongside the grapes. That combination has gotten me through a lot of late-afternoon beach sessions where I otherwise would’ve packed up early.
A few packing tips that actually matter
- Freeze at least one water bottle the night before. It doubles as a cooler pack.
- Separate wet snacks (watermelon, cucumber) from dry ones (trail mix, wraps). Moisture kills trail mix.
- Bring more water than you think you need. The CDC notes that in moderate heat, a person should be drinking about a cup every 15 to 20 minutes during activity. That adds up fast.
- Avoid glass containers. Sand and glass are a bad combination.
- Insulated bags don’t need to be expensive. Even a basic one from a grocery store keeps things cool for 3 to 4 hours.
None of this is complicated. The difference between a miserable beach day and a great one is usually just a little planning the night before. Five minutes of prep saves you from that 1 PM headache, the empty stomach, and the slow realization that you forgot to bring anything besides a warm bottle of water and some crushed chips.
References
- USDA Food Composition Database, Watermelon Raw – https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
- NIOSH Science Blog, “Keeping Workers Hydrated and Cool Despite the Heat,” CDC – https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2011/08/12/heat-2/
- UCLA Health, “15 Foods That Help You Stay Hydrated” – https://utswmed.org/medblog/hydrating-healthy-foods/
- Sawka, M.N. et al., “Fluid and Electrolyte Supplementation for Exercise Heat Stress,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000 – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523067370