Beach life in the 1950s and 1960s looked a little different than it does today. Retro beachwear aside, a glance at some beautiful vintage photos at the time reveal a fashionable item that has since fallen out of favour: the beach tent.

In a number of vintage photos posted to social media, locals reminisce about a time that a day at the beach meant setting up your own tent, often using a striped sheet and a complicated assortment of metal pipes. Sounds… heavy.

Before the time of deckchair and umbrella rentals, locals would set up these square tents to shelter their families from the baking sun, and they made for a pretty addition to the beach scene!

The photos also reveal a distinct lack of people on Malta’s beaches, which nowadays can get overcrowded in the height of summer.

Do you remember setting up a tent on the beach when you were young?