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There seems to be very polarizing thoughts regarding beach towns with respect to it either being a situation of blue collar struggling to get by or upper income folks. Here in FL alone there are a number of exemptions to that "rule" with plenty of family-friendly suburban examples that just happen to be beachside. Places like Hollywood, Melbourne Beach, Satellite Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Tarpon Springs and North Naples all have a significant middle class family vibe.
I used to work in Ocean City, MD when I was in college and also spent time there in the off-season. Life is either ON or OFF. The summer is jam-packed with tourists and traffic and many of the locals are working themselves into the ground (but still managed to find time to party
It differs. I lived in a modest beach town in New England for five years and enjoyed it most of the time. Upsides were the beautiful beach and that you could just walk over to it in less than a minute. Walk back home if you forgot something or wanted more ice in your drink. We were just a few houses in from the open Atlantic Ocean.
Summers were perfect. The crowds generally stayed down at the other end where the shops were located although we did have constant clop clop clop clopping as people walked by with their chairs and coolers. Fireworks over the ocean every Saturday night in summer and we could watch from the deck. Wonderful beach walks and nice to just walk around and breathe the clean salt air. Lots of people out walking their dogs. Relaxing. A fancy restaurant on the ocean for you to eat at and a short walk to pizza and ice cream shops.
Winter was pretty bad. Tourists left, most homeowners left. What remained was drug addicts--we seldom saw them but it was an unsettling feeling knowing they were there in the cottages that were low winter rentals.
The storms were awful and the houses that were right on the water were inaccessible due to snow piles or flooding. We often would lose power for a day or so. I'm not sure anyone could have gotten to us if we had an emergency.
We had all the shopping that I needed but you did have to drive a bit to get to a grocery store. Sometimes in winter our only store was CVS. Shopping was spread around throughout nearby towns. Luckily a small city was very close by and it had everything, especially great year round restaurants. It had a hospital, fitness facility, a downtown, entertainment, etc.
The months of Jan and Feb were the worst and we would be stranded in the house by the ice and snow, sometimes with no power. We couldn't get our car out either. The town didn't place much priority on plowing. It was never boring though. If you love the ocean and marshland and wildlife, it's like heaven--most of the time! (Even with a winter storm it could be fun because often an old shipwreck would be exposed and everyone would go to see it and take pictures.) One downside in summer was lack of parking but that problem went away in the winter. The only reason we left was the scary winter situation which wasn't safe at our age.
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