Packing a Simple Picnic for a Seaside Day Out

Why a simple picnic works best at the seaside

The best seaside picnics are the ones you barely notice carrying. A short walk from the car park to a harbour wall, a mile or two along the coast path, a slow afternoon on the sand — none of it needs a hamper groaning with dishes. What it needs is food that arrives in the same condition it left the kitchen, and a bag you can still lift when the wind picks up.

Think of it as one course plus a flask: sandwiches, something fresh, something sweet, something hot to drink. That is plenty. Everything else adds weight, warmth and washing up.

Keeping sandwiches cool and worth eating

Make them in the morning, or the night before if you are leaving early, and chill them properly first. Warm filling in a cool bag is the quickest route to a disappointing lunch.

• Butter right to the edges of the bread — it forms a barrier against damp fillings.
• Keep tomato, cucumber and lettuce separate and add them when you sit down. Sliced tomato in a sandwich is a soggy sandwich by noon.
• Choose firm fillings: mature cheddar, ham, cold roast chicken, smoked mackerel, hummus with roasted peppers.
• Rolls, baguettes and pittas hold their shape better than sliced bread in a rucksack.
• Wrap each one tightly in greaseproof paper, then bundle them in a tea towel. The paper holds them together, the cloth keeps them shaded.

A frozen bottle of water doubles as a cool block and gives you cold water later. If you have a proper cool bag, use two blocks — one underneath, one on top — and keep it out of direct sun. Once you are on the beach, open it as little as possible.

Fruit and snacks that survive the journey

Soft fruit is the enemy of a picnic bag. Peaches, plums, ripe pears and loose bananas will all arrive bruised and leaking. Save those for the kitchen table.

• Apples, satsumas and easy-peel oranges.
• Grapes, picked off the stalk into a tub.
• Cherries, with a bag for the stones.
• Berries in a rigid tub with a lid, not a flimsy punnet.
• Dried fruit, nuts and oatcakes for the walk itself.

Crisps are a lost cause in sea air — they go soft within the hour. If you want something salty, take nuts or decant crisps into a hard container. For something sweet, flapjack, shortbread, fruit loaf and a plain madeira cake all cope with being squashed. A chocolate bar will melt; a ginger biscuit will not.

A flask of tea, and other drinks that behave

A flask of tea is the single most civilised thing you can carry to the coast. It weighs very little, costs pennies, and turns a cold bench above a harbour into a proper occasion.

Fill it well and it will still be hot three hours later:

• Swill the flask with boiling water first and leave it a minute or two. A cold flask steals heat from the tea.
• Brew the tea strong. It will dull slightly in the flask.
• Take milk separately in a small screw-top jar, or drink it black. Milk added before you leave will sour the whole flask.
• Alternatively, fill the flask with just-boiled water, pack tea bags and brew in mugs on the spot.

A second flask of cold water, or a bottle frozen overnight, covers everyone else. Fizzy drinks are best left at home: shaken in a rucksack and warmed in the sun, they end up sprayed over your sandwiches.

Packing the bag so nothing arrives flattened

Order matters as much as contents. Heaviest items go at the bottom and close to your back — flask, bottles, tins. Soft things go around them: the tea towel, a jumper, the blanket. The cool bag goes on top so it is the first thing out and the last thing open.

• A carrier bag for rubbish and another for sandy shoes.
• A packet of wipes or a damp flannel in a small bag.
• A flat board, small tray or upturned lid to put mugs on. Sand gets into everything.
• Something to weight the blanket down — stones will do, or sit against a groyne and let that do the work.

If the forecast is breezy, pack as though everything will try to blow away, because it will. Keep food in a box with a lid and take out only what you are about to eat.

Sitting down to eat, and leaving it as you found it

Find shelter before you unpack. The lee side of a harbour wall, a bench at the back of the promenade, a dip in the dunes behind a windbreak — all are warmer and far more pleasant than open sand. Sit with your back to the wind and the view in front of you.

Eat the fresh things first: sandwiches and fruit within an hour or so of arriving, cake and tea whenever you like. If a long walk comes before lunch, leave the cool bag in the shade or carry it only as far as your picnic spot.

Gulls are bolder than you expect and quicker than you would believe. Keep lids on, bags closed, and never leave food unattended. Then take everything home — crusts, apple cores, the lot. A picnic spot left exactly as you found it is part of the pleasure, and the next person along the coast path will thank you for it.