Mountains or the seaside: where to go on vacation

Going on vacation is one of life’s greatest pleasures. You take a break from your work or simply change the scenery for a while so you can relax and have fun. It’s one of the best times life offers you, when you can turn off your cell phone and enjoy yourself, forget about problems for a while.

Over the years I went on vacations in all sorts of places: in the coutryside to visit relatives, went camping with my schoolmates, went so see castles and museums in different cities. The best times though I had at the seaside and in the mountains. From my point of view, the best vacations I had were there: sunny seaside and relaxing mountains.

A few years in a row I was lucky enough to go both places. I would go a few days to the seaside, swim, get a nice tan, hit some clubs. After that, another few days I could alocate for the beautiful mountains we have in our coutry. I went camping, climbed rocks and took amazing pictures. I had the best times of my life on vacation and can’t wait for the next one.

Lately though I either find the time nor the money to enjoy both places so if I want a vacation, I would have to chose. The good part is that I live quite close to cities that have both mountains and sea so that would not be a big problem, but I would love to see more cities, not just the ones in the area.

For this I have a list of pros and cons regarding whether to chose a trip into the mountains or a trip to the seaside.

Seaside

The seaside is amazing in it’s own way.
You have the hot beach with sand under your feet. You can get a nice tan, which is also a healthy thing to do if you don’t exagerate. You can go swimming, rent a boat or a jet ski and you have a lot of fun during the day.
The beach is also full of people selling yummy stuff such as icecream, boiled corn or other junk food you can enjoy since it’s your vacation so you can go a little crazy.
When the evening comes there is a lot of stuff you can do to have fun. You can go for a walk on the beach or for a run even, you can go hit the clubs and dance all night, you can eat dinner at a nice restaurant or you can find other sources of entertainment since at the seaside they have everything a vacation needs.

These are all good aspects I find worth mentioning but the seaside also has a few negative aspects. Just a few:
– it’s crowded. Everyone and his dog goes to the seaside, the beaches are always full, there are loud people and running children everywhere and at night people roam the streets like ants. If you are looking for peace and quiet, the beach is not the perfect place.
– it’s not always safe to leave stuff behind. You find a place to place your towel and then you want to go for a nice swim. If you have valuables with you you might want to leave them in the car or in your room. Of course, if you are not alone you’ll have to ask the others to pay attention to your wallet or camera so it won’t suddenly dissapear. You never know.
– it’s more pricy. Since everyone goes to the seaside the prices go up quite a bit when the season opens. You can try and save your money and not buy everything you see but still eating and drinking will cost you more that usual.

Mountains

There are plenty of good aspects about having a vacation in the mountains.
Whether you’re camping with friends or are staying at a bungalow or hotel, the fresh air will do you much good. It’s like a recharge for every individual. The mountain views are amazing, nature is always fascinating and when you go hiking and se a marvellous view through the trees you can’t help but smile and stop a little to admire nature in all it’s beauty. Also hiking is good exercise.
In the evening, going for a walk in the woods is not really the safest thing to do but there are plenty of restaurants or places you can go have a drink or sing karaoke. The mountains tend to be more quiet when it comes to finding something to do which means you could relax more if you are not a fan of crowded places.

Bad aspects though we find here also:
– bears, snakes, wolves etc. It’s not something that should frighten you, but if you are not careful when walking in the woods and don’t follow your guide or wonder alone on patchs that are not marked, don’t be surprised if you step on a snake or hear a bear roar in the distance. You should ALWAYS be careful and folow the group or at least folow the marked paths.
– mosquitos and things that crawl. The mountains are more humid regions than the seaside is and thus it’s more likely you get bitten by a mosquito or see cute little spiders enter your tent. If you are not allergic or afraid, it’s ok, but you need to be careful anyway.
– muscular fever, blisters or other mild injuries. If you are the adventurous type it’s a pitty not to wonder around the mountains and do some serious hiking. You should know though that, since you don’t do this every day, you could get some nice blisters from walking a lot or you could either trip on a stone or get scratched by a tree or something like that. It’s not the worse thing in the world but still, try not to fall from some tree, you want a vacation in the mountains, not in the hospital.

These are the good and bad aspects I picked up over the years. I love both the mountains and the seaside and if I had to choose I’d go one year to the seaside, the next year into the mountains. What would you pick?