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The whole Atlantic coast, from Amelia Island down to Key Biscayne. The ones worth setting an alarm for are the undeveloped stretches, where nothing stands between the dune and the horizon.
Canaveral National Seashore at Playalinda in Brevard County and Apollo Beach in Volusia has thirty miles of it. Fort Clinch and Amelia Island State Park in Nassau County are the same at the north end. Anastasia State Park in St Johns County, Bathtub Reef in Martin, and Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge on the same coast. If you want it with coffee within walking distance, South Pointe Park at the end of Miami Beach and Delray Municipal Beach in Palm Beach County both work. Sea turtles nest on these beaches in summer, so watch where you walk before it is light.
Brevard County. Undeveloped shoreline inside Canaveral National Seashore, north of Titusville. A vehicle entrance fee applies. Nothing is built behind the dune and there is no commercial frontage anywhere along it. One of the best rocket launch viewpoints in the county, and it closes around major launches and in bad weather, so check before driving out.
Open the guide →Volusia County. The northern district of Canaveral National Seashore, entered from South Atlantic Avenue one mile south of Bethune Beach. Entry is $25 a vehicle and covers seven consecutive days at any park entrance; a motorcycle is $20, a walker or cyclist aged 16 and over is $15, and an annual pass for the park is $45.
Open the guide →Nassau County. 2601 Atlantic Avenue, at the northern tip of the island. $6 per vehicle for two to eight people, $4 for a single-occupant vehicle, $2 on foot or by bicycle, and $2.50 a person for the fort.
Open the guide →Nassau County. The southern tip of the island - over 200 acres of undeveloped sea island with nothing built behind the dune. One of the few beaches in Florida where you can ride your own horse on the sand; the ranger station handles the arrangements and Nassau County requires manure catch bags.
Open the guide →St. Johns County. Open 8:00am to sundown, 365 days a year. $8 a vehicle for up to eight people, $4 for a single-occupant vehicle, $2 on foot or by bicycle, and camping from $28 a night plus tax.
Open the guide →Martin County. 1585 SE MacArthur Boulevard in Stuart. The reef offshore was built by tiny tube-building Sabellariid sea worms that cement sand grains together into a vast network of tube dwellings, and more than 500 marine creatures live in it, endangered sea turtles among them.
Open the guide →Martin County. The refuge beach is reached from the Refuge Beach parking lot on North Beach Road, at the north end of Jupiter Island. Beaches and trails are open sunrise to sunset.
Open the guide →Miami-Dade County. A 17-acre park at 1 Washington Avenue at the southern tip of Miami Beach, open sunrise to sunset, looking out over the ship channel into Biscayne Bay. There are lifeguards on the beach and the access onto it is step-free.
Open the guide →Palm Beach County. Seven thousand feet of beach with marked areas for swimming, surfing, volleyball, sailing, windsurfing, snorkeling and kite flying. Cabanas for rent, and city lifeguards.
Open the guide →Florida has more standing lighthouses than any other state and about a dozen let you climb them.
Sanibel Island in Lee County is the reason people fly in with a bucket.
Manatees cannot survive long in water below about sixty-eight degrees, so from November to March they crowd into the springs and the warm-water outflows, and that is when you see them in numbers.
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