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Three parts of the coast allow it, all on the Atlantic side.
Volusia County is the one people know - Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, Ormond Beach and parts of New Smyrna - where you drive on through marked ramps, pay a daily or annual fee, keep to the posted limit and stay inside the conservation markers. Ramps open and close with the tide, the season and the weather, so check before you set out. Nassau County allows driving on parts of Amelia Island, including American Beach, Peters Point and Burney Park. In Duval County, Huguenot Memorial Park lets you drive and park on the sand. Everywhere else in Florida, driving on the beach is prohibited.
Volusia County. Vehicles are allowed on the sand at marked ramps. From May 1 to October 31 they may be on the beach between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. or sundown, whichever is earlier; from November 1 to April 30 it is sunrise to sunset, tides permitting.
Open the guide →Volusia County. A driving beach. Frank Rendon Park, 2.25 miles north of Dunlawton Boulevard, sits above the sand with over 130 parking spaces, restrooms, a playground, picnic pavilions, showers and bike racks, and is accessible throughout.
Open the guide →Volusia County. One of the Volusia County towns with a vehicle ramp onto the sand. Cardinal Drive Beach Park, 1.25 miles south of Granada Boulevard, has six accessible and 118 regular parking spaces and a signalized pedestrian crossing to the ramp.
Open the guide →Volusia County. Vehicles are allowed on the sand at marked ramps. A day of beach driving is $30 and an annual visitor pass is $150, and Volusia County residents pay nothing once they register a vehicle.
Open the guide →Nassau County. Established in 1935 by A.L. Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire and president of the Afro American Insurance Company, as the first beach resort in the state open to African Americans, with its own motels, restaurants and shops.
Open the guide →Nassau County. 4600 Peters Point Road, off South Fletcher Avenue. A large parking area, restrooms, indoor and outdoor showers, picnic tables and barbecues, and fishing is allowed. Four lifeguard towers are staffed from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Open the guide →Nassau County. 1556 Gregg Street, the public park at the south end of American Beach and the way onto that shoreline. A paved parking lot, restrooms, indoor and outdoor showers, a covered gazebo with picnic tables, and fishing is allowed.
Open the guide →Duval County. 10980 Heckscher Drive, and a beach you can drive onto - 5 miles an hour, four-wheel drive advised for the soft crossing, and at your own risk. $5 a vehicle for up to six people and $3 on foot or by bicycle, half price for active duty and veterans.
Open the guide →Most Florida beaches do not allow dogs on the sand at all, so the ones that do are worth knowing by name.
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.
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