Ask 1stFlorida
The white sand is on the northwest Gulf coast, in Walton, Okaloosa, Bay, Santa Rosa, Escambia and Gulf counties.
It is not coral and it is not shell. It is fine quartz that came down the Appalachian rivers over thousands of years and was carried along the coast, so it is close to pure white, very fine, and it stays cool enough to walk on at midday. It squeaks underfoot when it is dry. Grayton Beach, Inlet Beach and Topsail Hill in Walton County, Henderson Beach in Okaloosa, St Andrews in Bay County and Cape San Blas in Gulf County are all this sand. Further south the sand turns tan and shell-heavy, with one exception: Siesta Beach in Sarasota County is about 99 percent quartz and is as white as the Panhandle.
Walton County. Nearly 2,000 acres of white quartz sand, dune and coastal forest, and the beach is regularly named one of the best in the United States. Western Lake, 100 acres of it, is one of three coastal dune lakes inside the park, a kind of lake found in only two states and four countries.
Open the guide →Walton County. Walton County's regional access at Inlet Beach, numbered 2a, 2b and 2c. Seasonal lifeguards and a beach conditions flag. ADA restrooms, an ADA boardwalk, ADA parking, a water fountain and beach wheelchairs to borrow.
Open the guide →Walton County. Three miles of white quartz sand a few minutes from Destin, with Topsail Hill itself standing 25 feet above sea level behind it, shaped like a ship's sail. Rare coastal dune lakes lie between the dunes, holding freshwater fish and drawing the Choctawhatchee beach mouse.
Open the guide →Okaloosa County. Thirty-foot white sand dunes, and the park exists to hold on to what the state calls Destin's last genuine stretch of coastal dune scrub. A hiking trail runs back through that dune and scrub.
Open the guide →Bay County. More than a mile and a half of white sand in several separate swimming areas, with rock jetties that draw divers and snorkelers and hold gun mounts left from the Second World War.
Open the guide →Gulf County. A narrow peninsula about twenty minutes from Port St. Joe that runs out and then curves back around St. Joseph Bay, one of the least populated and richest coastal ecosystems in the state.
Open the guide →Sarasota County. 948 Beach Road on Siesta Key, and the sand is why people come: TripAdvisor named it the number one beach in the United States. Lifeguards. Restrooms, picnic shelters, and a historic pavilion with raised seating looking over the water.
Open the guide →Siesta Beach on Siesta Key in Sarasota County is the one people name.
Two different answers, and the second one surprises people. On the coast, the clearest water is the Gulf off the Panhandle in calm summer weather, and the Keys - Bahia Honda, John Pennekamp and Dry Tortugas, where the water sits over sand and reef rather than river mud.
The Gulf side is calmer than the Atlantic side almost every day of the year, and the calmest water of all is behind a barrier island rather than in front of it.
Have a different question? Ask 1stFlorida →