I picked up some fun new goodies for my trip to Florida this week from Vera Bradley and wanted to share how versatile their striped beach tote is as well as some of the items I keep throwing into said bag.

The bag is super lightweight, has a super fun double tassel charm and hangs from a 12″ drop strap that makes it easy to throw over your shoulder.  As much as I love my leather bags, taking them near water never seems like the smartest idea, so it’s been nice to have this bag for anytime I’ve gone near water — like when we went on a river cruise to look for manatees.

I picked the natural stripe color because I thought it would give me more mix and match options, but the bag also comes in navy stripes and lilac stripes.  Resisting the navy was super hard for me, but I’m trying to hold myself accountable and step outside my color comfort zone.  So what are the essentials that you need in your bag?

I always carry one of my Vera Bradley beach towels with me when I go to the beach or pool, this trip I’ve been using my tassel beach towel, but I also have several of the printed towels too.  They’re nice and thick and wash nicely too.  I don’t usually need my full wallet and to cut back on weight, I’ve switched to a small card sized coin purse that I can stick my debit and credit cards into as well as my license and some cash.

I love my Instax camera to take fun snapshots with so I’ve been throwing that in my bag as well as my S’well bottle.  I’ve told you all how much I love my S’well, but it has been a major key to this Florida trip.  With the heat and humidity here, a refrigerated water bottle is room temperature in under an hour.  The S’well keeps my water {or whatever I’m sipping on} cold all day.

One of the things that I love about Vera Bradley is that they have their classic styles {even for collections like Beach}, but they always work to incorporate the latest trends into said pieces. I love the fun double tassel charm on this bag.

Be sure to check out the rest of Vera Bradley‘s beach line here.