Best Beaches near Orlando? (Gulf or Atlantic)

[Lanny]

Last minute planning...   I had suggested that we go to a beach, but our schedule is full, with park visits each day.  So, possibly we will do  a "Park 2 Park" one day, for 2 of the WDW parks, so we can include a trip to an ocean beach.  I believe there has been at least one recent thread about this. If someone can give me the link.  Or, to start another thread on this topic,  looking for recommendations, for beaches with great sand and calm water and hopefully no sharks.  Can be on the Gulf Coast (we will be staying West of Orlando) or on the Atlantic. This is for  next week (end of April)  so hopefully somewhere with warm water. .   TIA!

 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

We went to Cocoa Beach. It's a little over an hour drive, and it will put you by Cape Canaveral.

[Sasharowan]

Cocoa Beach is about an hour east of Disney. It isn't super clear water, but it is mostly calm and nice sand. If you follow the signs off 528(the Beeline) for Jetty Park, it is $5 a car and has nice bathrooms and a concession.

 

The gulf is a farther drive, much prettier water, the few times I've been it's been rougher but I'm not sure if that's the norm. They also have a reputation for more and better shells.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Siesta Key has one of the most beautiful beaches on the Gulf coast.  Its over 2 hours from Orland, but that fine white sand and that gorgeous blue water may be worth it, depending on how far it will be for you.  The gulf is usually calmer than the Atlantic.  If that is too far, I hear the Clearwater has beautiful beaches as well. 

[kroe1]

Just go sit on the sand around the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, or Yacht Club. Driving to a beach during a Disney trip is just too chaotic, in my opinion.

[creekland]

Pinellas County beaches are the absolute best in all of Florida - no exceptions.  This is on the Gulf Coast.  

 

Choose either St Pete Beach or Clearwater Beach if you want traditional "stuff" all around (restaurants, clothing shops, water rentals, etc).

 

Choose Madeira or Indian Rocks Beach if you want mainly condos around you without the commercial stuff (fewer people here).

 

Choose Ft Desoto and North Beach if you want a natural beach with very little development - and a bonus of the remnants of an old fort to explore.  Go up on top of the fort for a gorgeous view.

 

ALL of these beaches have white sand, are flat (great for walking), wide, tons of shells (number and variety), and there's a good chance of seeing dolphins.

 

By contrast Atlantic beaches are regular sand colored, not nearly as wide, are sloped (harder for walking), and have fewer shells (variety and number).

 

It's a shorter drive to the Atlantic, but IME, it's worth it to drive to the Gulf - esp since you're staying west of Orlando.  If you're in FL, you might as well see the best.

 

My bias has the best of the best at North Beach...

 

http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/article/fort-de-soto-park

 

 

[bettyandbob]

If you are planning to do WDW and Universal in one week I wouldn't add on a beach day. If your trip is 2 weeks then add in the beach.

 

I say this having visited WDW once and Universal once in separate trips, so im not an expert. Our most recent visit was Universal last August. We did three days with park to park passes (necessary to ride Hogwarts Express). I used the Universal App. You get that from their website free. My teens enjoyed being immersed in Harry Potter those three days. We had express tickets and didn't follow any tour plans except we arrived at the parks for early opening everyday and went right to Hogsmeade.

[Katy]

Pinellas County beaches are the absolute best in all of Florida - no exceptions.  This is on the Gulf Coast.  

 

Choose either St Pete Beach or Clearwater Beach if you want traditional "stuff" all around (restaurants, clothing shops, water rentals, etc).

 

Choose Madeira or Indian Rocks Beach if you want mainly condos around you without the commercial stuff (fewer people here).

 

Choose Ft Desoto and North Beach if you want a natural beach with very little development - and a bonus of the remnants of an old fort to explore.  Go up on top of the fort for a gorgeous view.

 

ALL of these beaches have white sand, are flat (great for walking), wide, tons of shells (number and variety), and there's a good chance of seeing dolphins.

 

By contrast Atlantic beaches are regular sand colored, not nearly as wide, are sloped (harder for walking), and have fewer shells (variety and number).

 

It's a shorter drive to the Atlantic, but IME, it's worth it to drive to the Gulf - esp since you're staying west of Orlando.  If you're in FL, you might as well see the best.

 

My bias has the best of the best at North Beach...

 

http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/article/fort-de-soto-park

 

This, except my bias is for Treasure Island for fantastic beach with less crowding, or Clearwater for crowds and sunset fun.

[creekland]

This, except my bias is for Treasure Island for fantastic beach with less crowding, or Clearwater for crowds and sunset fun.

 

True.  Treasure Island (just north of St Pete Beach and south of Madeira Beach) is also a gem.  ;)  It's tough to go wrong in Pinellas County on the Gulf side (vs Bay side) barrier islands.  You just have to pick what type of setting you prefer.  There are a few others I haven't named... but they're still good.

 

[StaceyinLA]

Gulf side is MUCH prettier IMO than Atlantic side. Treasure Island is where I spent most summer vacations as a child/teen and I loved it! I do think it is a lot to add to a Disney/Universal trip, but if you're looking for a down day break in the middle, it might not be too bad.

[creekland]

FWIW, my kids FAR prefer the beach to Disney and have for years.  Once they started traveling in the real world, Disney lost a bit of its appeal.  It's too fake.  A couple of years ago I gave our two youngest the option for a weekend at either place and it took them less than 5 seconds (independently) to tell me "beach!"  I thought they might want Disney since we hadn't been there in 7 or 8 years.

 

YMMV

[StaceyinLA]

My kids are all adults and generally can't choose between the beach and Disney. I doubt they'd ever want to have to pick one over the other. We usually do at least one beach trip a year and one Disney trip a year. We are warping the grandchildren too, so they like both as well. ;-p

 

We are actually doing a "day trip" to Pensacola Beach tomorrow and a couple days at Disney mid-May. I struggle with being obsessed with both the Disney vacation, which isn't really relaxing, and the beach which is like second nature. I love them both (along with lots of other destinations).

[Lady Florida.]

West coast beaches are beautiful. And I live on the east coast. 

[Ottakee]

We just back from St Petersburg/Clearwater. While we did not visit many beaches, I liked Upham beach park in St Pete Beach. It is Sunset and 68th Ave. Area. It was not very crowded, had easy parking, and important to me....FLUSH potties near by that were clean. There was also a live local music group which was nice.

 

It Clearwater we stayed at the Wyndham Garden hotel....way on the south end of gulfview Blvd. Their beach was tiny but nice. I hear the public beach is much bigger but also very crowded. Traffic in that area was not great and it took forever to get anywhere.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Ottakee

[Lanny]

Thank you, to everyone who replied above this!  Much appreciated!   I copied and pasted all replies up to post #14 into a Text file.  When we print out the Boarding Passes this morning, we will also print out that file and some other things I have ready to print.    I agree that adding a Beach visit into an already packed week is a lot.  When I suggested the possibility of going to a Beach, in mid March, at that time, I was thinking we would go to Universal Orlando one day, to Epcot one day, and to Kennedy Space Center one day. Then, about 2 weeks ago, DD added several additional WDW parks.  The trip is for DDs 15th birthday (the BIG one for girls in Latin America), so we will do as much as we can.  My guess is that we will want/need to check into a Spa, after we return.  Thanks again, for your comments on the beaches, etc., which are much appreciated!   I am going to  suggest that they consider swapping the idea of an Ocean Beach, for a day split between the Beach at the Timeshare, and visiting a Shopping Center, which is also something they want to do.  If not, we will study the comments and select a Beach to go to. 

[creekland]

Have a great trip!  It's tough to go wrong with the oodles of options you have. 

[Lanny]

Thanks again to everyone who replied and for all of your suggestions and thoughts!  Much appreciated!

 

I'm really happy with the seats the airline assigned to us.  We are probably on the lowest fare I have ever seen for that route of (USD$301 from Cali to Orlando, round trip, including all the taxes and service charges). For our party of 4, their computer assigned two (2) Window Seats for us, on the flight from Bogota up to Orlando. 2 people in one row and 2 people in the row behind.  If we had selected our seats, we would have been in one row, with 1 Window Seat and 2 Aisle seats.   The airline did a better job for us with that!   :hurray:   Time for Breakfast and then I need to pack. My other laptop and the magicJack and the phone we use for the magicJack are in the bag with the laptop.  

[ktgrok]

Honestly, I'd drop the trip to Canaveral. Unless she's REALLY into space, it's not worth it. Or do the beach that day....Canaveral for a few hours, then while you are on the coast go to Canaveral National Seashore. 

[Lady Florida.]

Honestly, I'd drop the trip to Canaveral. Unless she's REALLY into space, it's not worth it. Or do the beach that day....Canaveral for a few hours, then while you are on the coast go to Canaveral National Seashore. 

 

:iagree: The cost of admission is really only worth it if you're a big time space travel/exploration fan. Otherwise save your money - it's overpriced. 

 

As others mentioned, the beach at Cape Canaveral/Jetty Park - north of Cocoa Beach - is nice. Or if you want totally unspoiled (but bring your own water because there's not a drop to drink) go to Titusville and then out to Canaveral National Seashore. There is an entrance fee though because it's a national park.

 

Have fun! I really think you'll have so much to do inland that you'll forget about the beaches. 

[Guest]

Depending on how far you want to go, Venice is about an hour more than Siesta. It's the Sharks Tooth Capital. Caspersen beach on the edge of town is a great place to find them at low tide. We also like Gasparilla Island.

[bettyandbob]

My parents went to Canaveral recently. My dad loves that stuff. However he said he felt like this was the new way to get funding for the space program. It wasn't just an entrance fee, there were fees for lots of little and big things. That visit was a big disappointment to my dad.

[Lanny]

Honestly, I'd drop the trip to Canaveral. Unless she's REALLY into space, it's not worth it. Or do the beach that day....Canaveral for a few hours, then while you are on the coast go to Canaveral National Seashore. 

 

My wife and I are *huge*  fans of NASA.  We were on KSC on 19 May 2000, and had the thrill of watching the launch of  Space Shuttle "Atlantis", STS-101.,   For those of you who live in that area, that was a "normal" thing, but for us, it was a spectacular experience.    I have been reading the comments about the Gulf Coast beaches and they sound really beautiful, but I mentioned to my wife, and I think she thinks this is a good idea, that we shorten our visit to KSC and then go to Cocoa Beach, the same day,  which according to TravelMath.com is 37 minutes from KSC.  I'm sure that depends on the traffic...  Combining those 2 things will allow us to "kill 2 birds with 1 stone".  "Atlantis" is at KSC now, so that will be a "plus" for us.

 

OT: On this trip, my wife gets the award for "traveling light".  Her bag is about the size of the Laptop bag I will carry in the cabin.  It is a bag I bought from Lands End that has stood up well.  Amazing that she is taking such a tiny bag...  The friend that is going with us showed up with a bag that is too big to go in the cabin, so her bag will need to be checked.So I am taking one of the smaller suitcases. It will be about 1/3 to 1/2 empty, because my wife and DD want to go to an Outlet Mall and I'm sure they will fill it up..Each of us is allowed 2 checked bags, but going up to the states, there will only be 2 checked bags to watch for in the Baggage Claim..