A nice novel, tanning and having a picnic are some of our preferred ways to spend summer days at the beach (with the use of sunscreen, of course. But everything that lies surrounding might occasionally seem a bit dull. If you’re looking for something to be done after catching up on the background magazine issues or just because you want to spend a more active day on sand, we advise you to take a beach game – many of which have more play than standard soccer or frisbee, but often take up less space than one of these. (We have a few specialists who said that it is difficult to find a simpler game, but for minimalist beach-goers it is enjoyable more than frisbee.)
We asked six toy shop managers to propose your favorites to identify the finest beach games for adults. Read about your selections – everything is as pleasant, as it is, for children as it is for children in the heart.
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Table of Contents
Best overall beach game
Kate Salop, Tisbury Toy Box co-owner on Martha’s Vineyard adds that Spikeball “quickly becomes a summer fixture” and has been more and more popular in recent years. Spikeball is like volleyball (which also got highest ratings in our round-ups of the greatest outdoor sports), except you bounce the ball off a net, approximately a foot from the ground, rather than striking the ball on the net. You will have to split four players into two teams of two, and the goal of each team is to get the ball off the grid in such a way that the other team cannot rebuff it. Susan Hay, owner of Long Beach Island toy stores The Haymarket, who also advises the game “To knock the ball in the net so the opposite team can’t return it,” says. She adds that “a team is allowed to return up to three keys,” and a round, like volleyball, goes on until a team is unable to return it. It is not permitted. Salop says she first played Spikeball this summer and “experienced how enjoyable it is and how hard it is.” Amazon’s hyper-enthusiastic critics concur that Spikeball is “the largest lawn game ever conceived,” while another writes that he’s played with 5 and 65-year-olds.
Best old-school beach game
Stacey Fauci, proprietor of the Runnin’ Wild Toys at the Carroll Gardens, says ProKadima is “a traditional sandy shore-paddle game,” if you want a time-tested beach game, it’s great. She thinks it is “very easy to put in and simply go in your beach bag.” “Every summer we sell out.” For one reason ProKadima is a classic: as Fauci points out, it is lightweight and requires no net. You have to play only two individuals (although you may play as many of the racquets), and play is as easy as striking the ball back and forth. (Simply try not to launch the boat to nearby beach people.) Also ProKadima is advised by Salop: “It’s a game we’ve tucked inside our beach bags every time.” “The contests are quite exciting for the family – and most of them friendly! We started to play when the children were little and now love them as teens.”
Best beach game for large groups
“Is it not LCR who loves?” Say of dice game whose acronyme stands for Left Center Right, Sherry and Mark Bergeron, owners of the Cape Cod’s The Village Town Store. LCR Big is the over-scale version of the so-called “fast-paced dice game” by the Bergeron, without a restriction on the number of participants able to enter in. “To select where they pass their chips, players roll the dice. The final Chip player is the winner and winner of the center pot.” The Bergerons further add that the chip is constructed of ‘durable plastic,’ which is also said to be acceptable for outdoor purposes. The L CR Big consists of dices produced with ‘High Quality EVA foam which make it safe for any surface indoor and outdoor.’ (We recommend Bergerons to use quartering or sweets instead when playing in a particularly huge gathering and run out of plastic chips)
Best board game for the beach
“My all time favorite playgammy is Backgammon, a toy-pack delivery service suited for children with special needs which is simple to move with, and entertaining for children and adults,” said the owner of Brooklyn based Toy Space shop and creator, Toy Space Therapy. “I don’t have to ride in the heat or worry about striking other people on a crowded beach day by playing Backgammon.” Simon proposes to seek for a 3-in-1 game set that also has chess and checkers, so that people who don’t know the backgammon may always join the fun. And she suggests a magnet set such as these for the beach in particular. During travel or game play, she says, “Magnets protect things off being lost or shift.”
Best lawn game to play at the beach
Hay proposes attempting soft bocce for a seaside spin on a popular grass game. “Soft bocce includes plastic hollow balls to play on the sand,” she describes the main difference between soft and normal bocces (which, to the uninitiated, requires players to toss a small ball called a pallina, or jack, and then take turns tossing larger balls as close to the pallina as possible). This is a four-player set with 8 weather-resistant balls and a carrying case. If you are a purist who loves a hard-bocce set, this is Hey! Play! made our list of the finest outdoor games (someone knows it’s going to drag a lot heavier).
Best one-piece beach game
As we have already mentioned, two of our experts believe that a frizz is one of the easiest ways to have fun on the beach. Salop enjoys carrying a frisbee “for either tossing into the ocean or sand; this is another game easy to play, which is a point of sale for me, because there’s plenty to take on to the beach,” she tells me.,” she says. In addition, Fauci suggests a frisbee, especially the “small and simple to transport” Fireball flyer. It’s a little bit softer than your typical frisbee, made of so called a “foam matrix coating” which might be useful to you if you miss your target when toss.
