When did people start going to the beach?

Actually, common thought says that human beings started going to the beach about 50,000 years ago but not for a pleasure outing. Back then, it was all about survival, and humankind realized that besides the land, there was food to be had in the oceans.



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Beachgoing or beach tourism is the cultural phenomenon of travelling to an ocean beach for leisure or vacation. The practice developed from medically-prescribed sea-bathing by British physicians in the 17th and 18th centuries and spread throughout Europe and European colonies.

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Like so many things, the beach vacation actually rose to popularity in Britain late in the 18th century and spread through the world from there. (This isn't to say people avoided the beach entirely before then, but vacationing at the beach wasn't a cultural phenomenon.)

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The practice developed from medically-prescribed sea-bathing by British physicians in the 17th and 18th centuries and spread throughout Europe and European colonies. With the advent of affordable air travel seaside resorts developed worldwide into the modern tourism phenomenon.

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In the 1600s, doctors in Great Britain began to prescribe both drinking and bathing in seawater--cold seawater--as being good for one's health. Beach-going soon became the rage for affluent Europeans from the English Channel to the Baltic Sea. But the upper classes didn't swim, they merely took a quick plunge.

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Although the culture of vacationing at the beach only really got started in the late 1700s in Europe, as improved transportation made it easier to reach the sea, there is evidence that ancient Greeks indeed did enjoy the country's sandy shores.

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The practice of sea-bathing developed starting in the mid-1800s into the modern cultural phenomenon of beachgoing. In the 19th century, the introduction of railways led to the further development of seaside resorts and bathing boxes.

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Less well-heeled Romans were also drawn to the Gulf, going to Tibur (now Tivoli), Antium (now Anzio) and Baiae, now sunken at the bottom of the sea. This was not a classic seaside vacation in today's sense. People did splash around on the beach but were mainly interested in the healing springs in the thermal baths.

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Most beach materials are the products of weathering and erosion. Over many years, water and wind wear away at the land. The continual action of waves beating against a rocky cliff, for example, may cause some rocks to come loose. Huge boulders can be worn town to tiny grains of sand.

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The word 'beach' comes from Old English 'bæce' (stream). In the period of King Henry VIII the round worn-out pebbles on the British seashore were called beaches.

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Donkey rides were very popular too. Children also loved building sandcastles, digging big holes and playing in the sea. There were also rock pools to explore and animals and plants to spot that children who lived in the cities never saw at home. A very fashionable thing to do was take a walk along the promenade.

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