beaches

[alac1980]

we're arriving in Orlando on December 3rd. any suggestions as to a decent beach to go to in December (weather provided, obviously).

 

[wendybeth75]

I like Daytona if you are doing the beach for the day and aren't going to be staying on the beach for the simple fact that you can drive on the beach and park. This makes it easy. Its been several years since I did this, so double check that you can still drive on the beach. New Smyrna is a nice quiet beach and CoCo beach is nice as well. On the gulf side there is St Pete/Clearwater but you are going to have more of a drive to get to them.

 

[Ksquared]

depending on the weather, you probably want to go south to St. Pete, Clearwater beaches. Probably about a 2 hour ride.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We really enjoyed our day at Cocoa Beach. It was an easy drive for a day trip.....only about an hour each way.

We parked at Lori Wilson Park. Parking was free, and there were washrooms and shower facilities right off the parking area. The beach was clean and surprisingly not busy (we visited in August). The water was super warm too .

After we had had our fill of beach time, it was fun to explore Ron Jon's Surf Shop, which was just up the street.

 

[GoodbyeKitty]

We visited Cocoa Beach in 2008 as part of our Disney World honeymoon, and we thought it was fantastic. It was packed because it happened to be a day of a space shuttle launch! If you can catch one of those, I highly recommend it, it was amazing to watch even from far away. But traffic afterwards was pretty bad. I don't remember how long the drive was from Disney World, but I don't think it was more than an hour or two.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

We were just there and visited both Cocoa beach and Honeymoon Island (near Clearwater).

Honeymoon island was prettier but we really enjoyed our day at Cocoa. The waves were rolling in and it was fun to stand in them. Also to watch the surfers. Like Gina we too parked at Lori Wilson park and called at Ron Jon's on our way home. It is an easy drive to Cocoa too

 

[alac1980]

We were just there and visited both Cocoa beach and Honeymoon Island (near Clearwater).

Honeymoon island was prettier but we really enjoyed our day at Cocoa. The waves were rolling in and it was fun to stand in them. Also to watch the surfers. Like Gina we too parked at Lori Wilson park and called at Ron Jon's on our way home. It is an easy drive to Cocoa too

we're looking at doing some time between Clearwater beach and honeymoon island. Clearwater for playing, honeymoon island for simply walking along and enjoying beauty

what are your thoughts on caladesi area? the kids would get a real kick out of taking a ferry.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

we're looking at doing some time between Clearwater beach and honeymoon island. Clearwater for playing, honeymoon island for simply walking along and enjoying beauty

what are your thoughts on caladesi area? the kids would get a real kick out of taking a ferry.

I never looked into going across on the ferry so I'm sorry I can't answer your question. The website says it takes 20 minutes, runs every 30 or 60 minutes depending on the time of year and costs $14 per adult

Forgot to say, when we were at Honeymoon island there were stingray in the sea (apparently it was mating season so you had to be careful). We also saw dolphins just off the coast.