Best setting on Nikon D3000 for beach?

I'm going to Destin in a few days and I was wondering what the best setting would be for my Nikon D3000? I'll be taking pictures of both the beach and portraits of people, but mainly people.

Why do you think it comes with so many settings?

Best settings change with weather, time of day etc.

Try and find a couple of websites for pointers, but nobody can tell you unless they're actually there and looking over your shoulder.

Also, be very careful, sand and cameras don't mix.

"How fast should I drive my car and how far should I turn the steering wheel?"
That is a crazy question, right, because it always DEPENDS on the circumstances.

Same with photography. Each situation calls for the photographer to use his/her skills to make the best choices (or leave the camera on Auto and cross fingers for a semi-decent result).

Don't look for a magic setting - go look for some photography books/tutorials/classes, instead.

Andrew and Selina was right, there's no magic setting for everything.

Though I would advise you to use Aperture Priority Setting (Av Mode) when under the sun. For Beach, set the Aperture to 8 to 11 and everything else will be controlled by the camera. For people/potrait, set the aperture as big as possible (small f number like f/3.5, f/4)

For a start, get a good plastic bag to protect the camera - sand is not good stuff to get into any camera.

Use any of the program settings; aperture priority or exposure priority, etc. You can't use Auto as I don't think the exposure compensation will not work in Auto.

Then set your exposure compensation to +2 if your photos have a lot of beach sand in them, as most cameras underexpose beach photos.

If the white beach sand turns out grey, you have to use the exposure compensation to correct it. However, if there's enough contrast in the photo - you will not need to adjust the exposure compensation. So whether you need to use exposure compensation - or how much you need to set it to depends on the scene.

When there's all white or all black for that matter, all cameras have problems with exposing the photo correctly (beach, snow, black walls, white walls, etc). Those are the times you need to use exposure compensation.

And of course, don't get any sand in your camera. Keep it in a closed camera bag at all times when you are not using it so that some big ol guy doesn't walk by and kick sand into your camera.