Beaches

[bcnancy]

Hi,
I need some help in finding a nice beach to visit for a day. We will
have a car but don't want to be driving hours to get anywhere.
Have any of you nice people been to a fun beach, I have 2 teenaged sons.
I thought maybe Cocoa Beach or Daytona?
Help! Wwe are leaving June 21st.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Nancy

 

[ChisJo]

but here goes again.
I went to Cocoa Beach in 1999, 2 days before a huge hurricane hit. Now, I have to say that I found the beach to be extremely dirty and the sand incredibly rough. There were cigarettes and garbage everywhere. Unfortunately, it was so windy and cloudy that I do not believe that I gave the beach a fair chance. The weather was too horrible and we were just getting over food poisoning. We managed to find a spot that seemed cleaner than the rest of the beach. It tended to have a lot of locals and teens hanging out there.
Because of the wind, there was quite a few surfers hitting them, and it was kind of interesting to see them all.
All in all though, next time I try to find a good beach, it won't be there!
Jo

 

[Scratch42]

If you don't want to spend hours driving you will have no choice but to head over to the Atlantic Side. I find the Gulf much nicer.

Are you planning on doing an overnighter? Then I would suggest you head to the Gulf then.

There is also New Smyrna Beach. It's nice from what I remember but that was back in the 80's.

Scratch

 

[maryliz]

What about Clearwater Beach on the Gulf side? It's beautiful, at least the last time I was there which was a number of years ago. I highly recommend it over Daytona. Not sure how long a drive it would be ... I'm thinking not even 2 hours.

Mary Liz

 

[DisneyLisa]

Your sons would probably love Daytona Beach...cars can drive on the beach so there's lots to watch (besides the girls ). We try to spend at least one day there each trip. It's only about a 45 min - 1 hour drive from WDW.

We also love Clearwater Beach (Gulf side) but it's a bit farther to drive (about 1/1/2 - 2 hrs) and we find it way too hot in the summer (you don't get that nice ocean breeze that you get at Daytona).

Hope that helps a bit with your decision making. Have great trip.

 

[MommaBear]

I am partial to St. Petes, Treasure Island beaches. My parents have a condo on St. Petes beach and we love it there. In 2002 we spent 3 days at WDW and then drove over to condo. I recall leaving at 11 a.m. and arriving at 12:15 so it's really not that far.

The beaches are white, clean and expansive. Our favorite time was to go down in the evening (5:30 p.m.). Kids would play in water while we watched from lawn chairs. Then we would walk up the beach to collect shells. Even saw dolphins come in for feeding. Everyone was quite friendly and we even met quite a few locals. I have several crystal vases filled with our seashell collections which are on display on our mantel.

Almost forgot - the Sunsets are amazing and I took many great 'sunset pics'. I even have a Kodak Panorama pic on my monitor at work of my children standing on the beach watching an amazing sunset. Almost makes me want to leave right now!

You can leave from Orlando early and spend the day there or why not book a room for one night and spend two days!

 

[bcnancy]

It may be a hard decision. I really like the idea of Clearwater, but
Daytona for the boys also sounds fun. Thanks for responding!
Nancy

Only 6 more sleeps!!!

 

[mom_rules]

We were thinking of Cocoa Beach only because it didn't seem that long of a drive (an hour?)

Which Beaches (other than Cocoa) are about an hour away and is there a good site to get some directions from?