I love hiking to alpine lakes surrounded by white glaciers and jagged mountain peaks. After dark, I look up and feel awed by the glowing Milky Way and billions of sparkling stars. We all need more low-level ecstasy in our lives.

Mountains , cabins and fire pits are where it is at.

I'll take the beach, thank you!

A cabin or cottage in the woods for me, please.

Mountains of course !

Mountains. For pretty much exactly the same reason HippieChick gave.

I am surrounded by both. I ask what can one do at the beach, besides launch a kayak. I much prefer a hike in the mountains.

Mountains nearly every time. But I'll take the beach when the waves are crashing and the wind is howling and there's no one else there.

I grew up in a beach town was in the coast guard and spent most of my life living near a beach. Today I live In the Shenandoah Valley surrounded by mountains and I love every minute of it

If I want the beach experience I'll throw some sand in my underwear and my lunch, sit in front of a fan and try to light a cigarette. Gimme the woods any day

I'm going to have to say mountains. I am palest of the pale, and on the beach there is very little shade. I have about 3 minutes of exposure before sunburn. Being pigment challenged is a pain in more ways than one.

As much as I LOVE being in and around water, I voted mountains. I just think they possess more natural beauty. Also, I hate sand.

I live in the mountains, so life is pretty damned fine.

To me, the top of a mountain and being at an ocean beach illicit the same reaction. It's almost spiritual.

You see out to the horizon, and you realize that this is just a tiny speck of nothing in the middle of a world that is far more vast than our brain is ready to process. That world is just a tiny speck, invisible in the cosmos. It makes you feel ... I don't know, connected? Like your problems are insignificant, your worries pointless.

The beach wins for me for one reason. Have you ever slept by the seaside? Kick open a window or the door to your balcony and fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing into the shore? I've never slept better.

Also mountains are fucking cold, lol.

I say beach but I preferred ocean. The ocean at night with no light pollution revels a sky like none other.

That's enough "beach" for me.

Mountains only in case of tsunami.

No vote but I am a sailor... a mountain may take me high but only the blue ocean is going to do it for me. And no better view than pulling into a port and you see the city from a distance in the high seas getting closer, league by league, waves smashing in sand, the smell of salt in the air, seagulls pointing toward a distant spot and you realize it is a nude beach!!! ...and no trees to fuck your view. Sleep tighly mountain people, sleep tightly!

I enjoy both but since I live near the beach. There is nothing like the beach air and sound of the waves. Now a log cabin in the mountains is not a bad thing either.

I like the mountains but the beach is for me.

A mountain lake is my pick!

I burn to a crisp in the sun, so the mountains are always friendlier to me...with sunscreen.

Grew up in the cold, ended up in FL and am pretty damned happy about it still - mountains are lovely but for me it's beach all the way. And - finally found a quiet beach without a bunch of nasty tourists, t-shirt shops, and bars (not that I am opposed to bars, but they bring noisy crowds). Playalinda Beach, on the federal land at Canaveral National Seashore. BONUS - at the far end of this beach is a nude beach.

I love both but a beautiful Hawaiian beach will always be my first choice.

I love the beach. Walking along the wet sand during sunrise and sunsets, collecting shells...playing in the warm water...scuba diving and snorkeling. I own more bathing suits than I do jeans!

I can get to the mountains in less than an hour for a weekend getaway when I am tired of the beach...which is almost never.