You don't need to live near the ocean to enjoy a day at the beach. Give your guests some fun in the sun as they enjoy beach-themed party games. Visit craft or dollar stores for some basic beach items such as plastic buckets and shovels and water balloons to get your imagination going.
Sand Games
If you want your guests to have an authentic beach experience by letting them get sand between their toes, plan games to play in a large sandbox or sand volleyball court in your yard or at a local park.
Have a sandcastle-building contest. (Make sure to provide water to moisten the sand.)
Use beach towels to play a beach version of musical chairs. Lay out a towel for each guest in a circle. The guests walk around the circle while music plays, then each person finds a towel to lie on when the music stops. Eliminate one towel with each round.
Host a treasure hunt in the sand. Bury seashells or small prizes throughout the sand and let the guests find them by using their hands or a pail and shovel.
Water Games
Give a basic game of tug-of-war a splashy flair by putting the two teams on either side of a kiddie pool filled with water. The team that pulls on the rope the hardest pulls the other team into the water.
Play a few rounds of water-balloon volleyball. Have guests pair up and hold a beach towel between them. Toss water balloons back and forth over the net by catching and throwing the balloons with the towels.
Have a water relay race by dividing the guests into two teams and giving each person a plastic sand shovel. The first person on each team scoops water out of a bucket with the shovel, walks to an empty bucket and dumps the water in. The team with the most water transferred at the end of a certain time wins.
Other Activities
Test your guests' flexibility by having limbo and hula-hoop contests.
Have a relay race using beach items. Make two teams, and for each team have sunglasses, a hat, flip-flops, inflatable arm floaties and a towel to wrap around the waist. Put the items 10 to 12 yards away from each team. The first person on each team should run to the items, put them on, run back to his team, take off the items and give them to the next teammate. That person then puts on the items, runs to where the items started, takes them off and runs back to the team for the next person's turn.
Tags: each team, your guests, back team, beach items, each person