Home Travel Packing Lists A Long Weekend At The Beach (Avalon, NJ)

A long weekend at the beach is the just right Rx for a summer refresh. I brought a li'l capsule wardrobe too, so here's my packing list for the shore.

A Long Weekend At The Beach (Avalon, NJ)

June 27, 2019

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My mom was visiting Philly over Memorial Day Weekend, so we ended up taking her to the shore for a few nights. Since we were short on time, we booked a room at the ICONA Hotel instead of renting a beach house. It turned out to be a perfect little weekend getaway, especially for anyone who can’t commit to a beach house rental (or can’t seem to get organized enough to plan one).

The ICONA is, technically, in Avalon, but it’s much closer to Stone Harbor’s downtown than it is to Avalon’s little downtown. But it doesn’t really matter, because it’s the kind of place that’s tough to leave. We had a gorgeous view of the ocean from our giant balcony, the beach is really accessible, and the pool (and associated poolside service) made it tough to leave. It really did feel like a weekend of pampering…even with the kids.

My only word of caution is that the food…wasn’t great. The mojitos are fantastic (but they ran out of mint), and the food sounds good…but the reality was underwhelming (‘pico de gallo’, for example, was really just jarred salsa). But given the ease of the weekend, we happily ate burgers poolside (and switched to margaritas).

Besides, the ICONA is so close to Stone Harbor’s downtown, it gave us a perfect excuse to take my Mom out to one of our very favorite places….

And waking up to that gorgeous view is pretty hard to beat….especially when someone snuck back to Stone Harbor for MaryAnne’s doughnuts. OMG.

And since the beach is RIGHT THERE….

There was just enough of everything to make it one of the easiest weekends we’ve had in a while. As much as we love our adventure vacations….sometimes it’s nice to have absolutely nothing on the agenda. And a weekend where every night ends in a gorgeous view + late night hot tub? Not.Bad.

What I Packed For A Beach Weekend

I structure all of my beach packing around swimwear and cute loungewear. And then I add warm stuff, because I’m often surprised by how cold the beach is at night (even if it’s just late-night wine drinking on the balcony). Jeans, always, Tiny shorts, of course. And a straw bag and big sunnies to finish it off.