Beachin' with Bonnie… and her Babes

Navigating our Local Beaches with Ataraxia

While our previous favorite local beach was getting renovated, me and my three babes explored a bunch of other sandy day getaways. Check out our take on them, and my tips, tricks, and gear for a great beach day in the Washington DC region. In the summer of 2023, seven year old Perry will give his take on some of the places he will get to revisit during camp.

Betterton Beach

Finally made it out to this beach on my bucket list for the summer. Betterton Beach is a free, large bay beach that is…. JELLYFISH FREE! The catch? It’s about 1.5hours away with no traffic.

We got there as early as we could because we were not sure about the parking situation, and encountered an interesting new challenge. Roads were closed off because we happened to pick Betterton Day to try it out. We were able to park on a grassy area a little more than half a mile from the beach. Glad I had my cart to tow our stuff. When we got to the beach we were welcomed by a noisy fun parade and tons of people. I think we were there on the busiest day of the year!

Probably as busy as it gets.

Anyways, finally got onto the beach and it is very wide, with plenty of space even with it being quite crowded on this particular day. By the early afternoon the water was kind of crowded, but it was not a rowdy.

Boats parked on both sides of the beach. You can see the sand has quite a few shells.

The sand is largely soft but has lots of shells so it’s not powdery. Great for little shell collecting, but not great on the feet. The water was a little chill but felt good on a hot summer day, and was placid and jellyfish free. The water is not as shallow as the other bay beaches so probably best to have your littles in a puddle jumper, vest, or floatie.

View of parking lot

The parking lot is small, so if you are going on a weekend in peak summer you make sure to get there early. There is a bath house with bathrooms and a water shower outside to rinse off. The closest place to eat or get food is Marzella’s By the Bay which is close to where we parked, so come prepared with snacks and food, or the walk uphill to the one eatery. There’s also a picnic area that is mostly shaded.

Picnic area by beach. Busy from Betterton Day.

What we liked…

  • The size, lot of area for playing in the sand
  • NO JELLYFISH
  • Calm soft water
  • FREE! (except for the cost of the bay bridge and gas)
  • Bathrooms and place to rinse off

Not a fan of…

  • Distance… and if there is any backup on the bay bridge it easily tacks on time
  • Not super soft sand
  • Family found it crowded. But that may have been because it was a special day there
  • Limited food access

Concluding thoughts

I really really liked this beach and wish I could have stayed longer. Definitely not a quick escape though and requires planning which I don’t love.

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