{"id":11594,"date":"2015-05-02T10:40:51","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T00:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures?p=11594&preview_id=11594"},"modified":"2019-06-25T17:47:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:47:50","slug":"why-we-love-the-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My earliest memory is of a beach. I\u2019m about six years old and the sun\u2019s going down over a little cove on Mornington Peninsula, in southeast Australia.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent the day playing rounders on the sand flats with my cousins, chasing fish in the rock pools and collecting crabs in a plastic bucket (we used to release them all at once at the end of the day, like a scuttling tide). The sky has that peculiar purple haze\u00a0you get in Mornington in summer, and I\u2019m walking home through the sand and crushed seashells, my towel around my neck. I can taste salt. Wherever you grew up in the world, our memories of beach holidays are probably similar.<\/p>\n

But six-year-old me didn\u2019t know that he was part of a relatively recent phenomenon \u2013 the beach holiday. I was probably just looking forward to going home and watching The Goonies\u00a0in his pyjamas. But even though it\u2019s weird to think of it now \u2013 in a world where seaside screensavers and photoshopped palm trees are commonplace \u2013 people only began thinking of the beach as a travel destination in the mid 19th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

The beach break: origins<\/h4>\n

Before that, the ocean was something to fish in, drown in or (hopefully) cross. The idea of relaxing<\/em> there wasn\u2019t really a thing. It began, as most trends do, with the rich and powerful. In fact it was England, sitting all the way at the top of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, that popularised the beach holiday. Seaside resorts like Brighton and Eastbourne began opening up to the aristocracy in the early 18th<\/sup> century. Within a hundred years, railroads allowed more and more people of the middle classes to access the coast cheaply. Bucket and spade futures soared. The beach break was born.<\/p>\n

Today, idyllic beaches are the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean? Why is it the benchmark for rest and relaxation?<\/p>\n

A neurological approach<\/h4>\n

To my surprise, I found there\u2019s been a bit of research put into this field. Zoologist Desmond Morris proposed in his book The Naked Ape<\/em> (and he\u2019s not alone) that our species, homo sapiens<\/em>, descended from apes who lived by the shore. We learned to swim and dive, ate omega-rich seafood and climbed along our own unique branch of the evolutionary tree. This explains why we have less hair and our sense of smell is worse than most other primates. Neuroscientists like Michael Crawford from the University of North London maintain that it was this seafood-rich diet that allowed our brains to expand and grow so successfully. In theory, we owe our intelligence to the ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Sorrento<\/a>

Sorrento backbench on the Victoria’s Peninsula, Australia. Image Paul Hartyanszky<\/p><\/div>\n

The culture of cool<\/h4>\n

But none of this really explains people\u2019s love of deck chairs, tanning oil or coconut palms. I don\u2019t seek out coral reefs because they once played an important role in the marine ecosystem of my ancestors. Maybe social anthropologist, blogger and internet personality Christian Lander is closer to the truth. Lander wrote the popular blog Stuff White People Like<\/em> and dedicated a whole post to \u2018living by the water\u2019.<\/p>\n

He points out that living (and by extension holidaying) by the water carries a particular cultural cache. People want ocean views because they come with a certain level of privilege and exclusivity (\u2018Mountain views are seen as a poor substitute,\u2019 Lander writes). For some reason reading by the water enhances both the book and the water too. The ocean is just so cool<\/em>. Attraction to the beach, so the slightly cynical theory goes, is just one more little step on our continuous quest to be the most enviable version of ourselves we can be.<\/p>\n

But personally, I\u2019m not buying it. No-one needs to see<\/em> you enjoying the beach for that enjoyment to become real. I just find the sea an excellent form of visual meditation. It\u2019s one of the few things that gets more interesting the longer you stare at it. Waves jostle and hiss on the sand. Unidentified birdcalls give the whole thing a nice nautical feel. You can shower afterwards. It\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n

I was sitting on a beach once in Thailand with a friend, watching the longtail boats hum across the bay. The sun was warm, the water perfect green and a little old lady was selling pad thai right on the sand.<\/p>\n

\u2018Do you ever wonder where the waves go?\u2019 I asked him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Just enjoy it, mate,\u2019 he said. \u2018You\u2019re on a beach.\u2019<\/p>\n

Evolutionary imperative? Social convention? Fruit drinks? What draws you to the beach? Leave your comments below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Feature image c\/o Graham, Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

\"blog-800x150-AUSTRALIA\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15437,"featured_media":11604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[455],"tags":[996,72,329,35,92],"class_list":["post-11594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-beach","tag-belize","tag-greek-islands","tag-thailand","tag-zanzibar","ipf_region-belize","ipf_region-thailand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Good Times by Intrepid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-02T00:40:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-25T07:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Shackell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Shackell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/\",\"name\":\"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-02T00:40:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-25T07:47:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/11d2ea2f248b0acdbd016b63ac622a84\"},\"description\":\"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\",\"name\":\"The Good Times by Intrepid\",\"description\":\"adventure news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/11d2ea2f248b0acdbd016b63ac622a84\",\"name\":\"James Shackell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cropped-IMG_1852-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cropped-IMG_1852-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"James Shackell\"},\"description\":\"James Shackell is a freelance journalist with words in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Huff Post, Red Bull, Canadian Traveler and Smith Journal. One day, he\u2019ll be bumped to business class, and you\u2019ll never hear the end of it.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/james-shackell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid","description":"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid","og_description":"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/","og_site_name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/","article_published_time":"2015-05-02T00:40:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-25T07:47:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James Shackell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_site":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Shackell","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/","name":"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean? | The Good Times by Intrepid","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-02T00:40:51+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-25T07:47:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/11d2ea2f248b0acdbd016b63ac622a84"},"description":"The beach is the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg","width":800,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-we-love-the-beach\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life\u2019s a beach: why are we so drawn to the ocean?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/","name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","description":"adventure news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/11d2ea2f248b0acdbd016b63ac622a84","name":"James Shackell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cropped-IMG_1852-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cropped-IMG_1852-96x96.jpg","caption":"James Shackell"},"description":"James Shackell is a freelance journalist with words in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Huff Post, Red Bull, Canadian Traveler and Smith Journal. One day, he\u2019ll be bumped to business class, and you\u2019ll never hear the end of it.","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/james-shackell\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/beach-sunset-credit-Graham.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4OQMK-310","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11594"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36211,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11594\/revisions\/36211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}