Standout Beaches

0:15Hi, I'm Ryan Davis. And I'm Kiernan Schmidt. And this is Out of Office, a travel podcast. Bissy Taken. Hey, Kiernan. Hello, Ryan. How you doing? I'm doing pretty good. How are you? I have to say the weather has not turned here in New England quite yet. We're still like rainy and in the 50s, but you do feel those Memorial Day vibes just starting. You're getting the summer travel bug is starting to tickle. Do you have Memorial Day travel plans? For Memorial Day, we're staying local, but we've got travel plans over the next few months. We've got a trip out to the Hamptons. And in fact, the Hamptons almost made it to my list today because we're going to cover, I mean, this is a good summer Memorial Day episode because we're doing beach mode.

1:12We're each going to share three of our favorite beaches that we visited. Yes, this is going to be fun. And I think we've mixed it up to kind of like hit beaches all around the world. Yeah. And to tie it back to my summer plans is, yeah, we're going to go. I almost included the South Hampton Beach, which is called Cooper's Beach, which is regularly on like best of the world beach lists. But then I thought that's people know about that. Let's let's do some more interesting ones. So we're going to we're doing a trip down to the Hamptons. we're taking late in the summer, we're going to a beach area on the Great Lakes, which we'll go to Chicago and then we'll drive up to there.

1:54It's sort of like, I mean, I've heard it's kind of like an undiscovered beach lake area. But then when I talk to my friends in like Michigan and Illinois, they're all like, oh yeah, we all go there. That's like where the moneyed people flee to. That's their Hamptons. So I'm very excited to check Check that out. I've been reading about this spot for a long time and wanting to go. Let's see, we're going to the Connecticut shore with my family. Actually, I'm realizing this is like a really beach-filled summer for me. Have you been to the vineyard? Do you know I've never been to Martha's Vineyard?

2:27Have you? Wow. No, I've been waiting for Brock to invite me, but nothing. Maybe sometime when you're up here, we could take a trip out there and do an overnight. At Martha's Vineyard, nor Nantucket, I'm more of a block island. sort of, uh, that's my tier in society is working your way up to the vineyard. When I was in the boy Scouts, we used to do a whole week camping out in block Island. It was awesome. We do like summer, uh, beach afternoons and then we'd bike all over the Island and we'd camp at night. I love you as a boy Scout. I love me as a boy Scout too. And you know, I, I, once when I was like in the, the gear closet that the quartermaster oversaw.

3:08I once found one of those old classic like Norman Rockwell Boy Scout hats where it's not a baseball cap, but it's like that little almost looks like those like paper hats that like a diner workers wear. But with the Boy Scout insignia, I used to rock that baby. I loved it with my merit badges. It was beautiful thing. Didn't you and I see that Wes Anderson movie together oh yeah moonrise kingdom yeah that brought me back yeah and and of course ryan you've got the expertise on the beach side because you grew up a beach boy i know we're gonna talk a bit about that uh on this episode um i'm i'm uh oh my god are you gonna turn this into an ocean city maryland episode like our third one it's got to get a shout out but uh yeah at this point we've got more ocean city than boston episodes that's really saying something second only to mark adams but yeah absolutely speaking of which it is okay so for those who don't know ryan loves bringing in this deep cut mark adams mark adams is a travel author famously uh wrote a machu picchu book that like every american heading to peru reads it's really funny he's he's a great uh travel writer and but But man, oh man, and he was our first guest on Out of Office ever, which he took a leap of faith in us.

4:30And we will never forget that. But I've been waiting for a new Mark Adams book for a really long time. I want to get him back on the show. I want to promote it here. Hungry to hear what he's up to. And I've been getting nada. Well, let's see. He's got to get a new book out. I am aiming. I have a really exciting guest for October. I'm not going to say who it is yet. But can you give a hint or at least like what the topic area is? The topic is traveling for graveyards, which I think is perfect. So you're going to get a ghost. I'm going to get somebody who knows ghosts. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right.

5:07Well, Ryan, I don't want to neglect the Judy alert because this is the segment that's most important to your mother, our most loyal listener, Judy, because, you know, you don't keep that in great touch. You know, occasionally what a Christmas card. And so she's always fearful that, you know, where's Ryan? Is he in Turkmenistan? A Christmas email, a Christmas email. And, you know, in recent episodes, you've been in places where there's cartel violence. And we're all on the edge of our seat for what I like to call the Judy alert. So you sound like you're on a secure internet line today. So are you safe?

5:40And where are you? Yeah, I'm in my Bogota apartment here in the lovely neighborhood of Nagao. And yeah, but I am heading out next week for my yearly trip to Tampa to hang out with all my friends from high school. And then up to see my mom in Ocean City, which we're going to talk about probably today in the beaches. Are you heading up anywhere near my way while you're here? No, I'm not going to even make it up to New York. So I wanted to, but it wasn't anything I needed to see on Broadway. So I was like, tell me about it. It's dry out there. There is not much going on in Broadway. I have a good friend who he plays keyboard in the pits of the Lion King.

6:25And I mean, he's been he's been in he's been in tons of Broadway shows. Yeah. And we were just talking about that. He's like, yeah, you know, these giant shows, they sit in the theaters for like 30 years. I saw Lion King when I was in middle school. Yeah. I mean, that's Lion King. It's going to run until you and I are no longer on the earth, probably. I have to believe that Hamilton will eventually spill into two, three theaters that are just Hamilton all the time. Yeah. I feel like Hamilton's culturally peaked a while ago. Something tells me that the ticket sales are doing just fine. Yeah, but you can get in.

7:04Sure. Okay. Well, yes. I mean, that makes sense. It's been 12 years, something like that. Yeah, it's been a while. There's a new musical that's supposed to be sort of the Latino Hamilton called Mexodus. Ooh, what's that about? It's about the era when enslaved people in the United States would escape south of the border to freedom. But it's done in sort of like a Latino hip-hop kind of way. Boy, that's interesting. Kind of fun. Yeah. You know, honestly, I never I was skeptical of these like history based shows that were just trying to recreate Hamilton. But there's actually been quite a few good ones there before Hamilton, I think, was bloody, bloody Andrew Jackson, which was only OK, in my opinion, because they did like emo.

7:52That wasn't really my my type. But then six came after, which is the wives of Henry VIII, which I thought, is that really going to work? I thought it worked great. And I'm very open to more. I like this genre. Yeah, I like the genre too. Even before that, there was this MLK musical that was done in sort of a jazz rock style by my friend, Arian, who's best known as like the BC dude on Secession. And he had a theater company back in the day and he did this amazing musical all about MLK's life that I would love to see come back. so I think history of musicals can be great I mean you know Les Mis is I think also sort of a history musical in its own way yeah if we talk about musical theater too much people are too mean out I can hear the radios clicking off no politics, no musical theater those are the rules when you're at dinner with people we love hearing no politics we get that frequently on our reviews and speaking of reviews Ryan before we take off and head to the beach I do want to just spotlight, two reviews that have come in recently on Apple.

9:05We do like to look across the platforms. We greatly appreciate when people take the time to give us five stars and to, you know, give us feedback, suggest shows that they're interested in. And we've got one from a guy named Ken Face, Ken Face, and Ken Face gave five stars. He said, good fix for some serious wanderlust. Ryan and Kieran's out of office podcast is a perfect fix for my always dreaming of travel brain. I enjoy the structure of the podcast. Banter, substance, extras. This guy gets it. But, you know, people complain about that in the other reviews, but this guy gets it. And the humor woven throughout.

9:41A third witty, a third silly, and a third awkward. Only a third awkward? Well, wait until we get to the next review. They have some thoughts on that too. The analogies of prepare for takeoff and the last stop keep the theme of the podcast, and when it's time, I find myself reciting it along with them. So thank you very much for that, Ken Face. And the other, which I find very funny, is by somebody named Shorty Cool. Love the banter. Has five stars as well. And here's the bit I liked the most. I love the banter between these two, despite Kiernan's obvious obsession with Ryan's sexuality and his strange desire for Judy's attention and affection.

10:23But all jokes aside, I listen to the podcast, even when I'm not interested in location they're covering because these two definitely bring the funny. Thank you very much for that, Shorty Cool. You know, I think obsession might be a little bit of an overstatement, but you know, Ryan, I grew up in a real Catholic bubble and, you know, we all know there's no gays in Catholicism, right, Ryan? So you were the first person who I met who was like, hey, let's go to Bossers down the street, which is a gay bar and a gay chain in New York City. And it was sort of my first view into this whole other world that Ryan lives in.

11:05And I'm almost like an anthropologist when I'm with him. Yeah, I remember how wide your eyes were when you saw the bartenders at Fox's. You know, it's just a world I don't understand. And, you know, this is why we love travel, too. You're just opening ourselves to learning and new opportunities. And so now I later came to find out Ryan was testing to see whether I was gay. Oh, yeah. And you, because I'm straight, you've sort of, you've gotten past that. So how about the obsession with that? Why isn't that noted in any of the reviews? You know, I know a lot of straight people. It's not that interesting.

11:46All right. Well, I don't think we're going to any gay beaches or nudist beaches in this particular, though I don't know Ryan's list. So perhaps you'll take us to some interesting gay nightlife here. Yeah, I'll touch on that briefly, but I think it's time to take off. Tell the cabin crew. Flight attendants, prepare for takeoff, please. All right, Ryan. So, you know, as we've established, you grew up in a in a you're in a you you really grew up in a beach location. So, you know, the rhythms of like a seaside town. Yeah, and that's actually the town I'm going to start with. Ocean City, Maryland, which is a classic mid-Atlantic beach town with the really long boardwalk that has arcades and those old school games where you have to throw the frog into a hole and you win.

12:47you know, like, like you're at a carnival and just endless seafood restaurants, um, huge line of beaches, you know, and, and that's what I wanted to kick off with because I feel like my other choices is sort of less, uh, Americana. But when I think about, you know, what is that classic mid Atlantic experience where you're going to play miniature golf, you know, in a, in a dinosaur themed mini golf. Yeah. I mean that, yeah, that sounds great. Yeah. And then And you're going to go and eat these incredible French fries on the boardwalk after you spend a day on the beach. And Ocean City brings all that sort of like classic family energy.

13:23And then at night, you know, a good town to have some drinks and party at. And did you find like as a local, would you go to all the beach stuff during the nicer weather? Like, would you go year round or do you guys like go, you know, after Labor Day, it kind of thins out. What time of year do you recommend the most for this? Yeah. So as a kid, we went, you know, my grandparents retired from Baltimore and they bought a little beach house. And so we would go visit them a couple of times a year during the summer. And, you know, it's a traditional summer weather. So if you want to have, you know, you want it to be hot.

14:05You want to go in like May, June, July, August. you know even even September is a good time to go because it's still warm and the water is kind of almost at its at its warmest but the city itself has done a really good job in extending sort of the calendar by having these these huge beach concerts now they have two they have one that's sort of focused on 90s rock and roll where you can see like ever clear and then they have one that's a country version of that so they you know they're constantly sort of extending the travel window. But if you want the real beach experience where you're bringing a lunch and you're bringing your chairs and your blankets and you're setting up early, that's best during the peak summer months.

14:54And what's the wildlife situation here? Do you get, is there like dune, are there like protected dunes? Do you get interested? Do you ever get sharks? I'm going to talk a little bit about sharks making their way up into New England recently. I'd imagine they must come near Maryland. Yeah, there have been occasional shark sightings, you know, every couple years and, you know, people clear the beach. But they don't get that close to the shore. um the wildlife situation that i think is sort of the the uh the secret one is this uh national park or it's a state park excuse me uh called assateague island and what's really cool about this place is they have all these feral horses um that live there so wow i do not associate that that always makes me think of like the outer banks yeah they've had feral horses there for I think hundreds of years they were released by some kind of like random rancher and then they just kept you know their horses so they they breed and uh and yeah and they've and they uh and there's so many of them that every year they have to kind of catch a catch a bunch of them and and then kind of I guess domesticate them and and um so every year they kind of like capture some of these horses but it's pretty fun because you go set up on the beach and then you can be sitting there and they have signs all around like keep your coolers closed because you know the horses the horses will come yeah the horses will come oh my god they sell a hamburger they're like that's better than what i'm eating now and they're kind of like head over and wow yeah yeah so assateague island is is really a cool special place it's probably like a 20 minute drive out of ocean city and you know ocean city when you're at the beach you're you know you're at the beach you either in front of the boardwalk or in front of a hotel.

16:47You go to Assateague Island, that's where it's only protected wildlife space and then the dunes. And it's a much quieter, more relaxing experience. So I always recommend if you want to do a classic beach day, do the Ocean City beach. And if you want to do a more quiet kind of family oriented day where you're going to see these wild horses, you're going to see a lot of fun birds and stuff, that's where you kind of take the trip out to Assateague you pay the five dollars to get into the park and then you kind of get to experience sort of the the weirdness of the the wild horses walking around watching you watching you swim boy that is it's really it sounds unique I definitely will bring my hardest core cooler yes you definitely want to pack up that cooler make sure that those horses are not getting inside there um and then and then obviously at night hit the boardwalk you know get the get the french fries get the pizza you know you're not you're not going to eat healthy um when you're in ocean city but that's not the point when you're on a beach vacation i don't think so um yeah and then and then uh you know ocean city is right on the on the coast so you can uh go a little bit north and get up to those quieter delaware beaches which are quite lovely and and sort of less less touristy.

18:07So it's really just a, you know, it's just a line of beaches that really begins up in New Jersey and keeps going down to the, you know, the Outer Banks. And we'll throw a link in the show notes for those who are interested in a deeper dive into Ocean City, because Ryan has done what proved to be quite a popular episode about Ocean City specifically. Yeah, well, yeah, it was Maryland's Eastern Shore. I extended it. Um, but one thing I will say is I, I actually, uh, grew up, you know, uh, 30 miles from, from ocean city. So I didn't live there. Um, but for a couple of years, we lived at what you like to call the beach house.

18:44Yeah. Your beach house. I always know you're going to talk about your, I figured that would come up. Yeah. And that's actually on the Chesapeake Bay, not on the Atlantic ocean. And, and, and a little, and when I say a little town, uh, called Dame's quarter, I mean like 80 people live there. Oh, wow. Yeah. Um, and they, they have a couple kind of publicly available beaches, but it's mostly, uh, you know, it's mostly private homes with private, private beach access. This is not like luxury beach the way that Kiernan, Kiernan thinks of it, you know, he's imagining his friends in the Hamptons or something.

19:16This is, this is a much different kind of vibe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's nice to hear that little enclaves like that, uh, still exist and haven't been like blown out and developed and ruined. Yeah, no, it's it's it's I think that it's just not it's just not convenient enough to really become a serious tourist destination. But it has a fascinating history, if you allow me to want to call out one place called Henry's Beach. And Henry's Beach is in Dames Quarter in the 1920s and 30s was an incredibly popular destination for black folks from around the Delmarva area. and they built a massive, at that time, a very big hotel, which is now defunct, you know, like abandoned.

20:04And they would have all sorts of, you know, pretty famous like jazz and blues performers come. And so, you know, families had a safe space to come and have a really good time. And then at night, the kids would go to bed and the adults would hang out and listen to music and dance. And, you know, by the time that I lived there, the hotel was already abandoned. But it's just fascinating to imagine that it was such a hotbed of culture for that community over the years. So, yeah, that's Ocean City, Maryland kind of beach area. And, you know, definitely a place that I would recommend for a quick, easy weekend getaway.

20:47It's only a four hour drive from New York, so not too bad. Very cool. What is your first beach? Yeah, so I decided on my first one to also stay fairly local and American. And actually, I think, just quickly glancing down the list, these are going to be our last non-international. So these are the only American beaches that we're talking about is your Ocean City. And then, you know, I was tempted to talk about Cape Cod. I actually think Cape Cod would be a great episode for us to do separately. And, you know, given that I'm based in the Boston area, Cape Cod is a place that we get down to. But to be honest, I find Cape Cod to be a very daunting place to visit because so many people head that way.

21:31And there is a single bridge that it all comes down to. And during the great weather for Cape Cod, for visiting Cape Cod, the traffic becomes so egregiously horrible that it really makes you wonder, is this worth it? And so where Catherine and I like to go is we go to the northern shore above Boston in the sort of Gloucester and Ipswich area. And there's a whole string of northern shore Massachusetts beaches that we've just had amazing times at. And so I'll give you a couple of the names of the ones that we particularly like. There's a few others out there. They are, you know, I will say they at most, they're kind of like five miles of beach and individual beaches.

22:17So you don't get like the humongous, like everlasting stretches of beaches that you get in, you know, places like California. Even Rhode Island has some beaches that are that can feel that way. But they're super swimmable. They're incredibly family friendly. Um, they don't have, you know, what's interesting about your ocean state recommendation is you've got the boardwalk and sort of the kitschy Americana cultural stuff, haunted houses and miniature golf and all that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I find these Northern shore Massachusetts beaches, um, they feel more in touch with nature. Many of them are next to nature preserves and they have nonprofits that are protecting the areas, um, for different birds and, and, uh, for like the dunes.

23:01And so here's the name of some of them, because I'm sure they'll be unfamiliar. Crane Beach, Winger Chic Beach, which is just to spell it because it's a little odd. It's like a German take on a Dutch name. And so it's gone through a lot of different changes. It's W-I-N-G-A-E-R-S-H-E-E-K Beach. Plum Island, which is a small sliver of an island. Catherine and I did a trip out there two years ago. Had a great time and they have really nice beaches and a lot of great seafood there. And then I love the name of this one because it goes really against the idea of a nice beach vacation. Cawthons Beach, but it's just named for a farmer who used to have a farm close to this beach.

23:49So it has an unfortunate name. I like it. It's very Puritan, Massachusetts Coffins Beach. Yeah, these are just great, natural, beautiful, really nice, fine sand beaches. A little less sceny than Cape Cod. Certainly, if you're heading up there at 10 a.m. on a beautiful summer weekend, you're going to get the same traffic. You do have to book parking in advance if you're not a regular pass holder. But Catherine, I found that if you look within, you know, early in the week that you want to go the following weekend, you can still get in. It's not like preventatively small. And, you know, we've headed up there driving it at like 8am and it's been just fine.

24:32I mean, you know, the reason I'm going on about this crowd control stuff is because New England beaches, they do suffer for the fact that you're so close to New York, to Boston, to like central areas that tons of people flee to the shore every weekend. So you do have to kind of game it. And that's why I think Northern Shore Massachusetts beaches are a great recommendation. Plum Island has tons of great Airbnbs that you can rent out, really charming shore houses. There's also, though it doesn't have the kind of kitschy boardwalk culture, there's a very cool attraction in Ipswich that I want to call out, which is called Wolf Hollow.

25:15And Wolf Hollow is a preserve for North American gray wolves. And you can actually take a tour there and see their docents interact with these protected wolves that are right there. And again, you're like one mile from the beach. It's a really cool, special thing there. And there's lots of these nature preserves. If you want to get out and hike. You can really build a whole week exploring these beaches and doing those sort of more nature-oriented cultural visits as well. You know, what's amazing is I don't think I've ever been to a Massachusetts beach before. I feel like my Massachusetts visits are always pretty much centered on Boston.

25:59Yeah. I mean, you do have to make an effort to get there. I mean, of course, there are public ways to get to these places, but they're not super accessible without a car. So I'm not surprised you haven't. It'd be really fun if you came to visit. We could do one of these trips out there. And by the way, I love Cape Cod too. It's just that it's packed with people and you can get a similar, slightly more laid back experience on the Northern shore. But if you've never been to New England beaches, Ryan, Cape Cod's still a great place to hit up as well. I recall a really terrific movie that's probably about a decade old now called Manchester by the Sea.

26:40Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. That's around this area. Yeah. So that, uh, that, that's sort of the vibes that I get when I think about the Massachusetts beaches. Um, and I, you know, I brought up sharks for Maryland. This is something that's like still, you know, when I was growing up and we used to go to a beach in Connecticut, uh, quite a lot during the summer, but I never remember any warnings about sharks. Um, but as the oceans are warming, a lot of the small fish that great white shark see are migrating up into the New England area. And so you do actually have these like shark alerts going on now.

27:19And we're really getting better at watching out for them and warning when folks are swimming, because most of our beaches are very swim friendly, very family friendly. But that is kind of a new weird thing that we're dealing with on our beautiful New England beaches. Is Jaws, Jaws is in Massachusetts or no? Am I making that up? Yeah, Jaws is in Massachusetts, but really like out in the ocean. You know, like they're not, they're not like, you know, on the shore looking for Jaws. Oh yeah. Okay. So that's an, it was shot in Martha's Vineyard. Yeah. It's here. It's here. It's that they're, they're getting just closer and closer to shore.

27:59Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's, that's scary. Sharks are kind of scary. I'm sure the hot take. Yeah. Have you ever gone diving? No, never gone diving. Me either. I'd be interested to do that one day. I just I've never I'm always too lazy to do like the hours of work you have to do. Well, for me, it's that I tend not to take beach vacations. Like I'll be highlighting places where we've gone to a beach within a bigger cultural exploration. but to me, like laying on the beach in the sun, I don't know, like I feel that I can do that in the summer here without traveling thousands of miles to do it. And so to me, like you have to go to one of these places.

28:43If you're going to be diving, you're probably taking a vacation like that and adding it in. And it's just not, I tend to be more of a like, let's go city, let's go theater, let's go museums kind of traveler. Yeah. Yeah. No, I hear you. And you know, I, I tend to, because I grew up on a beach where you had to bring everything with you and it was like a hassle to do beach day and find parking. And then you had to lug the cooler and a bunch of chairs and all this stuff. And so as an adult, I like beaches where you just show up and they have everything for you. Oh, I'm going to have one like that for sure.

29:18All right. So what's your second one, Ryan? So my second one is I'm going to actually say the best beach that I've ever been to. And this is in Baru, Colombia. And I stayed I've been twice. I stayed at the Sofitel, not to be not to be too fancy. And this is right on the Caribbean. And I have to tell you, the water there was as warm as any non-artificially heated body of water I've ever been in. I mean, it was kind of bizarre how comfortable it was. Because Ocean City, in my mind, the water is always cold. It's never really hot. But this is not the case in Baru. It feels like you are, you know, like it is like a heated, heated ocean just for you.

30:16And these beautiful white sands. And this is about an hour from Cartagena. So you fly into Cartagena. Cartagena has beaches and, you know, but it's much more like Ocean City vibes, you know, beaches in front of massive hotels. But, you know, you go out to Baru, it takes about an hour by car or by boat. And it's a whole other kind of calm, private world that is just absolutely kind of magical and lovely. And this is not the kind of, obviously, a quick, easy vacation. This is more like anniversary or fancy sort of like vacation. But, you know, unbelievably beautiful, great place to do snorkeling, boat rides, you know, to spend the day on the beach that, you know, these beautiful beaches with these warm waters.

31:10And, you know, it's definitely a place you plan in advance. You don't just show up to Baru and expect to find a beach that you can be at. You got to book a hotel in advance and figure out your travel logistics. But if you're looking for that sort of ultimate, peaceful, luxury beach vacation, I think that you really can't do better than Baru. Sounds great. And is it mostly locals, tourists? What's the mix you get? It's almost all tourists, you know, just because of the hotel situation. um you know it's it's and it takes so long to get to like uh you know it takes it takes about an hour to get there you know outside of the main part the hand beaches where the locals go because it's just a bunch of public beaches there so uh yeah it's it's it's really lovely and um you know i'll post a few pictures of of all these different beaches but but certainly uh you know baru colombia I won't name her, but one of our colleagues at Blue State emailed me and she was like, looking to go to Columbia, we want to do a beach.