Summer break is great because you get all this time off, away from school and your worries. Unless you work, then I really feel sorry for you. But look on the bright side, at least you're making money. Anyway, free time is great for relaxation or adventure. You can just sit back at home and chill, or you can go explore and enjoy nature. If you're the type to go and enjoy nature, you may come across having to choose between going to the beach or going hiking. With both, you get to enjoy nature, but its different. You can get sand and water at one place but trees and dirt. Both are great options, but which one is better?

Beaches are great for the ones looking to relax a little more. Laying on the sand and enjoying a cold drink under the warm sun is pretty relaxing. Add fun friends and good food and your day has gotten tens times better. If you live in SoCal, your best bet might be a beach. There are so many around the LA area. Combined with the numerous beaches in San Diego and Santa Barbara, it's easy to want to go to the beach. Beaches are for fun and relaxation. Good food and good company. Summer is the time for beaches. When the sun is out and everyone wants to add a little color to there skin, it makes sense to go to a beach. Barbecues on a beach are popular too. Cook up some great food, maybe try some of those recipes I mentioned in my previous articles. And while the food is cooking, you and your friends can have some fun on the sand. You can play football in the sand, play volleyball, go surfing, wind sailing, ride your bike or your skateboard, take a jog along the tide. There's so much things you can do at a beach. No need to worry about a thing.

Now with all that said about beaches, it's hard to do a lot of those things on hikes. You can't really play any sports, or skateboard, or barbecue. But the awesome thing about hiking is exploring. There's not much to explore at a beach. At most beaches, there's water and there's sand. Great. But hiking is different because of the thrill of exploring. Let's be real for a quick second. Most people don't look too hard at the maps. You look at where you are, where you need to go, understand the general path and just go. A lot of people are confident in their sense of direction, so no maps. Great, now we've been real for a little more than a second. When you go down the path you think is right and find something you weren't expecting, like a waterfall, it feels pretty cool to have found that waterfall, even though you're totally lost now. Or on the flip side, you kinda know where you're going and you end up at your destination, you feel pretty great about yourself too. It's that satisfaction of reaching a destination that makes hiking fun. Some people like to go off-road and blaze their own trail. Exploring like that can be fun too, dangerous, but fun. As you walk through the forest and you hear the trickle of a stream nearby or the sound of the breeze flowing through the leaves or the sound of birds and other animals in trees, this feeling of peace hits you like train. Like, plows right through you, leaving nothing left behind. All your worries are gone. All you care about is now.

So both hiking and beaches can be relaxing, but it really depends on what you feel like at the moment. Are you feeling like you want to lay back and enjoy the sounds of the tide and company of your friends under the warm, summer sun. Or do you want to explore, maybe with the same friends, and take in the calm, relaxing vibes nature provides. It's up to you. Do whatever you want to do.