During the summer of last year, my family took a vacation to Hawaii. While many people would prefer to stay in lavish accommodations, such as five star resorts, we decided to save some money by camping on the beach.
When we first arrived at the campground, it was very exciting. My parents and two of my sisters stayed in a tiny cabin with a few beds, and my other sister and I slept in a tent. We were only fifty feet away from the ocean!
Although the accommodations were very basic, just a few beds and a shared shower house nearby, we didn’t mind at all. After all, we came to Hawaii to see the beautiful beaches.
We discovered so many new places far from where tourists visit just by walking down the beach. One was a cool local restaurant where a local gave us an impromptu Hawaiian language lesson. We took local busses all over the island, and locals were happy to tell us all we needed to know about Hawaiian culture.
Camping was great because our vacation was very cheap, and we got to stay in Hawaii much longer than we would have been able to afford by staying in a hotel. After two weeks, we had to leave, but we learned a valuable lesson while we were there - in the end, it does not matter where you sleep to have a cool experience in a new place. Beach camping gave us the opportunity to have many more interesting experiences in more fun ways than we would have in a resort - and for much less money.
Izabel Antle is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program. She's traveling the world with her family.
Photo courtesy and copyright Izabel Antle