Top 5 Best Secret Beaches of Florida to Visit
Florida being the Sunshine State it is not only popular for it pretty palm-lined stretches of sand, but for a beach experience that will take you away from the usual postcard-worthy haunts. You can access these beaches and your sights on Florida’s sublime spaces between them.
You can also reach the other nearby vacation meccas such as Miami’s South Beach and the Gulf Coast’s snowbird flocking grounds, including St. Petersburg Beach, here are the top 5 best Florida best secret and crowded but lesser-known beaches.
Secret Beaches of Florida to Visit
These beaches are amazingly beautiful and naturally abundant and thriving. You will be ridden with the wages and there is a unique beach a culture that lives on in small seaside towns that you might frequently pass by.
1. Sebastian Inlet, Space Coast
Sebastian Inlet, Space Coast
Sebastian Intel State Park has been the most attractive place for Fishermen where they can hunt — snook, redfish and mackerel, to name a few and are mostly more impressive than what the boats bring in from offshore.
If you are a beach lover, you would love the 3-mile stretch of pristine oceanfront here. On this beach, the surf crowds paddling out to catch the big waves and you’ll have the shore pound practically to yourself.
This park is located near Florida’s east coast where the water makes that subtle switch from midnight blue to Caribbean-like turquoise. Here the nature reigns and the Sebastian Inlet’s beaches are also considered as a major sea turtle nesting place and it is also the home to a great assortment of birdlife. Being a visitor, you will regularly spot bottlenose dolphins and manatees in the park’s waters. At this spot, the jetty attracts surfing enthusiasts with its annual contests that are occasionally held. Monster Hole, a break that needs a 1/3-mile paddle to reach, is one of the East Coast’s most respected proving grounds.
Situated on the park property at the site of 18th-century shipwreck survivors’ camp, you can also visit the McLarty Treasure Museum which you should visit to watch a real pirate booty fished from Florida waters. Surprisingly divers are still salvaging gold and silver from the 1715 wreck of a Spanish fleet, and a new heap of treasures is always being added to the exhibits.
2. Delray Beach, South Florida
Delray Beach, South Florida
Located between Palm Beach’s natural riches to the north and the amazing yacht culture of Fort Lauderdale to the south, Delray Beach can entice those who are in search of a true South Florida coastal beach with a natural vibe without the accompanying dose of attitude.
You will find preserved dunes, with beautiful, wide beaches that can be accessed through tangled arches of sea grapes. The town is a great treasure with some very cool boutiques and European-style sidewalk bistros on Atlantic Avenue. This will provide a cosmopolitan more-than-just-a-beach-town vibe while staying true to the area’s roots.
Known as Delray’s oldest residence, the Sundy House is registered on the National Register of Historic Places. This Sundy House was built in 1902 with a splurge for its lush grounds and freshwater “swimming pond” stocked with tropical fish.
3. Fort De Soto Park, West Florida
Fort De Soto Park, West Florida
Fort De Soto Park is listed on Dr. Beach’s 2005 list of the best American beaches, but a few tourists make it to this stunning swath of sand near Tampa ad it is rarely visited by anyone.
However this Bay Area is widely locals, Fort De Soto is considered as the best beach around. In the weekends, recreational boaters swarm within swimming distance of the sugary sands. But still, you can always find a personal spot to the sun on the wide beach itself.
As you drive in, the island park appears to be old Florida, and you will get lost exploring the 900 acres of bike trails, nature walks, and beaches. Fishermen throw nets into the mangrove shallows lining the road running through the park and from top of the 105-year-old fort, the beach dunes down below appear haunting and untouched.
Now leaving the parking location at North Beach and visit a completely natural beach known for strolling, shelling, or swimming in warm, shallow waters. Many of the folks congregate by the water’s bottom and a short stroll can get you to a private piece of paradise.
If you own a dog this is a great place for you as this place is a leash-free dog beach, dubbed the Paw Playground. Your dog can accompany you for a paddle in the warm Gulf waters.
4. Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville
Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville
The most populated one of Jacksonville’s 3 beach communities, Atlantic Beach located to the furthest north, was not discovered until 1899. It was only when railroad tycoon Henry Flagler purchased the local railroad than it started attracting the first snowbirds from the north. Today, the tight-knit seaside settlement near to the Florida/Georgia border has its personality that’s all Florida beach bum with a small part of Southern debutante fused in.
These beaches are immensely wide and crowded enough for pedaling a bike at low tide, and surfers are crowded to the north near Mayport Naval Station, where jetties make what was considered the best holiday destination on Florida’s north-eastern coast.
Here you will get beach cruisers which are the most preferred mode to roll on the neighborhood streets. The dunes are lined with wildflowers and gracious homes than the towering condos and chain hotels which you’d find to the south in Daytona and Cocoa Beach.
This is a perfect place if you are looking for a much-needed break from Southern seafood, as Al’s Pizza is the area’s best joint for New York-style pies.
5. Pass-a-Grille Beach, West Florida
Pass-a-Grille Beach, West Florida
This is one of the most secret beaches that Florida has. The locals here feel blessed sitting on the hidden treasure that is Pass-a-Grille Beach. Officially located in the city of St. Petersburg Beach in 1957, Pass-a-Grille, its residents will tell you, remains an enclave apart.
You can watch the pink towers of St. Pete Beach’s sprawling Don CeSar Beach resort from the broad white-sand beaches. To the south of Eighth Street, the sands are amazingly empty to the tip of the peninsula.
To visit this place, even the tourists here become locals of sorts, as they keep returning year after year, staying in the same hotel rooms and rental cottages. The city spread ways along the water and it is only 2 blocks wide from the bay to the beach. You will find the historical houses, art studios and unique eateries stuffed in the sandy lanes and all these can be best explored only barefoot atop a beach cruiser.
You must try breakfast on the bayside at the Seahorse Restaurant is a long-standing local tradition. Their delicacies are grits and pecan pancakes that are just out of the work experience.
Synopsis
These are the most popular yet somewhat secret beached of Florida! If you ever happen to take a tour of this kind, do not forget to pay a visit to these beaches at least once.