Palm Coast
Start with Palm Coast to understand the established center, nearby services and everyday rhythm within Flagler County.
Complete Florida county guide
Flagler
County
A quieter coastal county with planned neighborhoods, nature preserves, an intimate beach town and convenient access to both St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.
Sunrise FloridaAtlantic Coast
REGIONAtlantic Coast
COMMUNITIES TO START WITHPalm Coast · Flagler Beach · Bunnell
LIFESTYLE SIGNALSLow-key coast · Trails · Retirement
Start with daily life
What Flagler County feels like before you choose a neighborhood.
A quieter coastal county with planned neighborhoods, nature preserves, an intimate beach town and convenient access to both St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.
Use this guide as a first-pass planning tool. On a scouting trip, compare actual commute routes, insurance requirements, medical access, school or training options and the places you would use in an ordinary week—not only the best-known attraction.
The numbers that matter if you are moving
- Population
- 126,528Census estimate
- At the last full count
- 115,3782020 Census
- Median age
- 53.1
- Aged 65 and over
- 31.3%
- Under 18
- 16.1%
- Median household income
- $77,363
- Median home value
- $364,900what owners estimate
- Homeownership
- 83.0%
- People per household
- 2.39
- Average commute
- 27.4 minutes
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, published January 2026, read September 19, 2026. Survey figures are estimates; median home value is what owners estimate their home is worth, not a sale price.
COUNTY LIFESTYLE THEMES
Low-key coastTrailsRetirement
Relocation decision desk
Six checks before you choose a county.
Property cost, flood and wind, schools, healthcare, daily travel and storm readiness.
How to research a Florida county →Communities to compare
Begin with the county’s major places.
These are starting points, not a ranking. Add nearby towns and neighborhoods as you learn your daily route and housing priorities.
Flagler Beach
Use Flagler Beach to compare housing patterns, main-road access and the shopping or medical stops used during a normal week.
Bunnell
Walk or drive through Bunnell at different times of day to judge traffic, neighborhood character and access to outdoor space.
Hospitals in Flagler County
Two hospitals with an emergency room.
From the state's own hospital list. Each card opens the state's record for that hospital: its address, phone, services and inspection reports.
Palm Coast
AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway
100 licensed beds
The state's record ↗Palm CoastAdventHealth Palm Coast
99 licensed beds
The state's record ↗How do I compare hospitals in Florida? →How do I find a doctor who takes Medicare? →Search the state's hospital list ↗
Source: Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, FloridaHealthFinder, Locate a Facility (hospitals), read September 25, 2026.
Evergreen county experiences
10 places that reveal the county.
Use enduring natural, historic and cultural places to understand the area beyond a real-estate showing.
Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Washington Oaks Gardens State Park covers 425 acres on State Road A1A near Palm Coast, running from the Matanzas River across to the Atlantic. Louise Powis Clark, wife of the industrialist Owen D. Young, bought the land in 1936 as a winter home, named it Washington Oaks and laid out the formal gardens herself.
Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area
Gamble Rogers was a Florida folk singer and guitarist. On October 10, 1991, he was camping at Flagler Beach when a Canadian visitor got into trouble in heavy surf and a rip current. Rogers went in after him and both men drowned.
Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park
Bulow Plantation was established in 1821 and worked 2,200 acres of sugar cane, cotton, rice and indigo, which made it a serious economic force on this coast. Charles Wilhelm Bulow started it and his son John carried it on.
Princess Place Preserve
Princess Place Preserve protects Cherokee Grove, the oldest homestead in the county, first granted by Spain in 1791 and planted with orange trees. In 1886 Henry Cutting built a hunting lodge on it in the Adirondack manner, out of what was at hand: coquina, cedar and cabbage palm.
Florida Agricultural Museum
The Florida Agricultural Museum was set up in 1983 by farmers and historians at the request of Doyle Conner, then Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture. It started in Tallahassee and moved to Flagler County in 1997, onto 460 acres at 7900 Old Kings Road North, about 25 minutes from St. Augustine.
Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve
Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve covers 320 acres of mangrove marsh, mud flat and coastal upland at 815 Moody Lane in Flagler Beach. The parking area sits on an island inside the mangrove forest, with a picnic shelter and restrooms.
Marineland Dolphin Adventure
Marineland opened on June 23, 1938, as Marine Studios, built by W. Douglas Burden, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Sherman Pratt and Ilya Andreyevich Tolstoy, a grandson of Leo Tolstoy. It was the first oceanarium anywhere, built to display marine life and, just as much, to film it: Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot here in 1954 and its sequel the year after.
Flagler Beach Municipal Pier
The Flagler Beach pier opened in 1928, three years after the town was incorporated, as an 800-foot wooden structure. It became the center of the place: people fished from it, met on it, and the businesses along the seafront lived off the traffic it brought.
Flagler Beach Historical Museum
The Flagler Beach Historical Museum stands at 207 South Central Avenue, one block west of the fishing pier. Its purpose is simply to keep and share the history of Flagler Beach, and the range it covers is wider than the size of the building suggests.
Bulow Creek State Park
Bulow Creek State Park protects Bulow Hammock, described as the last significant strip of ancient hammock left along Florida's Atlantic coast, north of Ormond Beach off Old Dixie Highway. The Fairchild Oak is what most people come to see.
Beaches in Flagler County
Every beach, one clear card.
8BEACH DESTINATIONS
Each card gives the beach, its visit category and its next steps: the practical visit guide, the official site where the beach has one, and directions. Always verify current parking, fees, water quality, lifeguard coverage and posted rules before leaving.
STANDARD PUBLIC BEACH
Not identified here as clothing-optional. This category does not guarantee child safety, calm water or lifeguard coverage.
CLOTHING-OPTIONAL
Nudity is officially permitted in all or part of the destination. Read the current notice before taking children.
NUDITY ADVISORY
Nudity may be encountered in a remote area even without an official clothing-optional designation.
Marineland Beach
Flagler County, Florida
The shoreline at Marineland, a town of 12 residents at the northern end of the county, with about 10,000 acres of public land around it. The nearest public access with its own parking is the River to Sea Preserve, a few steps away over the St. Johns County line - very limited parking, open dawn to dusk, and a quiet beach of coquina shell.
Washington Oaks Gardens State Park Beach
Flagler County, Florida
The beach side of the park is a shelf of coquina rock rather than open sand. Coquina is limestone made in the Pleistocene, when rainwater dissolved the calcium in old shell beds and cemented shells and sand into stone; look closely and the individual shells are still visible, along with round holes worn by rain. Storms cover and uncover the shelf through the year. Open 8:00am to sundown, 365 days a year. $5 a vehicle for two to eight people, $4 for a single-occupant vehicle, $2 on foot or by bicycle, paid into an honor box that needs exact change.
MalaCompra Road Beachfront Park
Flagler County, Florida
115 Malacompra Road, Palm Coast, open dawn to 11:00pm. Plenty of parking, restrooms and an outdoor shower. Coquina rock runs along the shore here, and the county says the beach is not suitable for swimming - it is a place for fishing, paddling and watching for dolphins instead. Dogs are allowed. Nature trails and birding behind the dune.
Jungle Hut Road Park Beach
Flagler County, Florida
125 Jungle Hut Road, Palm Coast - two acres in the Hammock, open dawn to 11:00pm. Paved parking, restrooms, outdoor showers, picnic areas and a dune walkover. Rocks in the surf and the chance of strong undercurrents mean the county says it is not suitable for swimming. Shorebirds, gulls and pelicans work the water here, with hummingbirds in summer and gannets in winter. Dogs are allowed.
Varn Park Beach
Flagler County, Florida
3665 North Oceanshore Boulevard, Flagler Beach, open dawn to 11:00pm. Ample parking including accessible spaces, wheelchair-accessible beach access, restrooms with outdoor showers and a picnic area. A well-used spot for surf fishing - blues, whiting, flounder and snapper - and for watching shorebirds. Dogs are allowed.
Beverly Beach
Flagler County, Florida
A town of 490 people, one mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, sitting between the dunes and the Intracoastal Waterway. It was incorporated in 1955. Its public beach is used for surfing, swimming, fishing and boating.
Flagler Beach
Flagler County, Florida
Six miles of beach through a town of 5,182 people. Lifeguards cover the stretch from North 9th Street to South 9th Street, 9:00am to 6:00pm, on weekends from October to May and every day between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Dogs are allowed north of North 10th Street and south of South 10th Street, on a leash no longer than eight feet, and not on the beach between those two streets. The municipal pier is being rebuilt - 800 feet of concrete and wood, $16 million, due to open in early 2027. It will be free to walk on, dropping the $1.50 charge the old one carried, and it will have a lifeguard station where the bait shop used to be. No pets on it.
Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area Beach
Flagler County, Florida
Open 8:00am to sundown, 365 days a year. $5 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. Tall dunes hide the beach from the road, held in place by sea oats, railroad vine and beach morning glory. The sand here is protected sea turtle nesting ground - loggerhead, green and sometimes leatherback come ashore to lay.
Official planning desk
Check current public information before making the move.
Florida disaster preparedness mapsOfficial evacuation-zone, route and storm-surge planning maps.
Open official source ↗
Florida school accountability reportsCurrent state school and district accountability information.
Open official source ↗
Florida community health dataCounty-level public health indicators and community reports.
Open official source ↗
Florida housing resourcesState resources for homebuyers, renters and local assistance programs.
Open official source ↗QUESTIONS THAT NAME THIS COUNTY
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