Which beach?

[two-plus-twins]

We have one day in our schedule to go to the beach, but which one? My DH and kids, DD 11, DS 8, DS 5, DS 5, have never been to the beach so I want to give them a great experience! They want to swim, play in the sand, find shells, they want it all! I'm willing to drive a little ways since we will have a whole day. Thanks for your help!

 

[wkid87]

Either Cocoa Beach or Daytona Beach. Daytona Beach will be more crowded, but will have more features then Cocoa Beach, but Cocoa Beach will be less crowd with less features. If you have to pick between one, I will pick Cocoa Beach. Calm, peaceful, relaxing. Only about hour drive from Orlando, but the down side is that you want to take a shower before you leave, they are outside, and they don't have that many.

 

[jeffreyml]

We usually stay at Madeira beach on the Gulf side. The have a great shopping/ fishing area called John's pass. There are plenty of condos and hotel rooms to rent. You always can spot dolphins on the beach and the water is usually warm and calm. It's also a great area to look for shells.

I'ts about an 1 1/2 hours South West of Disney and easy to get to.

Madeira Beach-- John's Pass

 

[two-plus-twins]

Jeffreyml,

I looked at the website for Madeira Beach it looks great. Have you taken the Dolphin Watching Cruise? I think my kids would love that, even if they didn't see a dolphin they would like the boat ride.

Thanks!

 

[jeffreyml]

We have rented a boat and seen numerous dolphins while out in the gulf and back waters. Thy were swimming directly next to us. You can usually see dolphins from the beach every day. And they also are regularly seen in John's Pass.

Our kids DS10, DD9, DS5 love to walk the beach and look for shells. There are quite a few areas to park at, along with bathrooms, change rooms if you dont plan on staying the night.

When we stay at WDW, we usually try to head down to Madeira beach for a day. This year were doing the beach first(2 weeks) and then heading back to Disney for 4 days.

John's Pass is directly across the street from the Ocean and has numerous shops and resturants along with boat rides, rentals and other fun things. The kids also get a big kick out of watching the cleaning of the fish from the charters on the docks at John's pass.

Here is another link to a great candy/ice cream shop near the pass that everyone with kids usually visits.

Hope this helps!!!

The Candy Kitchen