Tips for Sandcastle Building
in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach
You're never too old to build a sandcastle on Alabama's white-sand beaches. With 32 miles of shores stretching before you, there's no shortage of places to ditch your beach chair and dig in the sand.
Make new memories and relive the past when you build tall towers and dig deep moats around your miniature waterfront castle of sand and seashells. Everyone has their own favorite tips and tricks when it comes to building the perfect sandcastle. We’ve listed a few tried and true ideas below!
1. First things first, gather your equipment and get creative. While special tools are fun, they really aren’t essential for a fun day of sandcastle building. Grab some buckets of different sizes, shovels, castle-shaped sand molds, and other fun sand molds. These are easily obtainable at any Gulf Shores or Orange Beach souvenir store. Don’t have buckets? You can build some pretty great sandcastles with plastic cups.
2. Now that you have your tools gathered, draw an outline of where you want the castle. Don’t build too close to the water, or Mother Nature may quickly wash away your hard work with the waves.
3. You need moist sand to hold the castle together and the best place to find this is below the tide line. Scoop some into your bucket and add a little water to keep it moist. Some sandcastle experts suggest a mixture of half sand, half water in the bucket.
4. Mound the sand into the general shape that you want your sandcastle. You can fine-tune and shape it later. Pack the sand tightly.
5. Use buckets, molds, and shovels to craft your castle. Keep a bucket of moist sand nearby so you can reinforce the structure. This is really the fun part – seeing your castle design come alive. Sometimes, towers must be built more than once if the sand is not moist enough. The great thing about sandcastle building is that you can always start over on one tower without having to rebuild your entire creation.
6. For serious sandcastle builders, there are a variety of shapers, sand wedges and shovels to add details to your creation. They are great to use, but don’t worry if you don’t have them – your hands and fingers are perfect tools for adding details to your creation.
7. Remember to follow beach regulations and be mindful of wildlife. Visitors are required to fill in holes they dig before leaving the beach; this is crucial for protecting sea turtles from becoming trapped in deep holes. When you're done with your sandcastle, take a few minutes to level the sand. This small effort goes a long way in preserving the natural habitat and ensuring the safety of beach-dwelling creatures. Lastly, clean up all trash leaving only footprints.
If you want a lesson from the pros, book a class with Sand Castle University!
