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Most Florida beaches do not allow dogs on the sand at all, so the ones that do are worth knowing by name.
Fort De Soto in Pinellas County has a fenced paw playground with its own stretch of shoreline. Honeymoon Island State Park has a dog beach at the south end. Davis Islands in Hillsborough County has an off-leash dog beach. Canova Beach Park in Brevard County is the dog beach for that coast. Bark Beach in Miami-Dade, at the Haulover end, is the one in the south. Smyrna Dunes Park in Volusia County allows dogs on leash across the whole park, boardwalks included. Rules on leashes, hours and vaccination tags differ from county to county, so read the sign at the entrance.
Pinellas County. 1,136 acres across five connected islands at the mouth of Tampa Bay, the largest park Pinellas County runs and one that takes more than 2.7 million visits a year. North Beach and East Beach give almost three miles of white sand with swim centers and food concessions.
Open the guide →Pinellas County. More than four miles of beach on a barrier island off Dunedin, and the ferry to Caladesi Island leaves from here. Behind the sand the Osprey Trail runs three miles through one of the last virgin slash pine forests left in Florida.
Open the guide →Hillsborough County. The city lists this beach at the Davis Islands Seaplane Basin, 864 Severn Avenue, open sunrise to sunset. The Davis Islands dog park and dog beach is a separate place, at 1002 Severn Street.
Open the guide →Brevard County. A 9.1-acre county park at 3299 Highway A1A, Indian Harbour Beach. Free parking. Three dune crossovers, one of them ADA accessible. Outside showers, a drinking fountain, a pavilion, a grill and benches along the crossover.
Open the guide →Miami-Dade County. The only dog beach in Miami Beach, between 80th and 81st Streets on the ocean side of North Beach Oceanside Park, with the entrance at Collins Avenue and 81st Street.
Open the guide →Volusia County. At the north tip of the New Smyrna peninsula, on the south shore of Ponce de Leon Inlet, with water on three sides: the Atlantic, the inlet and the Indian River.
Open the guide →Florida has two beaches where clothing is optional with the county's agreement, and they are the only two.
Free beach parking has become rare on the built-up coasts and normal on the quieter ones.
Guarded beaches are the exception rather than the rule in Florida, and rip currents drown more people here than any other natural hazard.
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