Beach Umbrella or EZ up Canopy for Gulf Shores,ala

This depends on whether you're in a house or a high rise condo. If it's a house I'd use the pop-up canopy. The condos sometimes have rules that you have to rent their umbrellas, or you have to put your umbrellas BEHIND their rentals, which would really stink. Have fun!

I would recommond renting because everytime we bought an umbrella no matter what kind we would get we never could get it in the sand deep enough that it would stay because it was always so windy by the beach. The people that rent out the umbrellas have something they use to get the umbrella very deep into the sand so you don't have to worry about it.

We just got back from Destin Sunday. We took our own umbrella (we bought the little "screw cork" at Walmart in Destin for $10. You just screw the metal thing into the sand and put your umbrella into it. We also bought the material covered styrofoam body boards at Walmart in Destin for $10 each. Totally great investment. We also have twins who are 7 and a 9 year old! :) It was a great trip. Our kids said they would choose Destin again over Disney World! We didn't look at renting, so I don't know the cost. In Destin you could by a rather large umbrella for $29 at Walgreens (we already had a some what smaller one we used). Have fun!

We rented a beach house last year in Gulf Shores and took a hugh beach umbrella. However, we will take an ez up next time. With the ez up you can just leave all your chairs and stuff and not drag them back and forth. We did leave our umbrella all week and chairs but it would have been nice to have a little more shade. Where we were we didin't have access to renting one or we would have. Have Fun!!!

We went to South Padre Island and brought a beach umbrella with us. It broke within 5 minutes. We then bought an ez up canopy and it was great. It was a great buy because we can use it at home too.

A.,

We have always rented...usually chairs/umbrellas are set up by 9:00 and they take down around 6:30...last summer, new guidelines were implemented in regards to items being left on the beach at night. In past years, you could leave tents, umbrellas out over night...now they require you to take all toys, chairs etc up with you each evening (this is due to turtle nesting). One item I would invest in here locally is a folding beach chair and boogie boards if you think you will use them. They are usually twice as much there. Most chairs rented at the local resorts are so heavy you can't move them by the water. I like being close to the water so that I could put my feet in and be closer to the kids.

Also take some white vinegar in a spray bottle...if you get stung by jelly fish, this is what they recommend putting on the sting. Jelly fish were bad while we were there last summer (1st time out of 4 visits).

I love this area...enjoy your visit.

Hi A.-

I would definitely recommend renting! We rented a condo in Gulf Shores a few years ago and we found a rental company that provided beach umbrellas, chairs, bikes and even a jogging stroller-and the bikes and jogging strolelr were waiting for us in the condo when we arrived. Much easier than packing it and driving! The guys on the beach set up the umbrellas and chairs- they will NOT blow away/over in the breeze. .

Enjoy your vacation!