Which way to the beach?

[jensen]

We'll have a rental car for our upcoming trip and I'm thinking about taking a day away from the parks and heading to the beach. I know it won't be beach weather in January, but I thought it might be fun to just go for a ride and check out the scenery. My question is where is the best place to go? Should we head East and go to Cocoa Beach? Or we head West to the Gulf?

 

[ColoradoLime]

I haven't been there yet, but we are planning on going to Cocoa Beach during our May trip. Another poster told me about Merritt Island National Refuge where they have a manatee viewing area. That will be fun for the kids!

http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Wildlife.html

 

[Aliceacc]

If you can spare the time, go East to the Atlantic Ocean. If you've never seen the ocean before (big assumption on my part, my apologies if I'm wrong here) there really is no substitute for the ocean.

If you have the time to spare, spend some time at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. It's absolutely amazing!!

 

[wtpfan]

We'll have a rental car for our upcoming trip and I'm thinking about taking a day away from the parks and heading to the beach. I know it won't be beach weather in January, but I thought it might be fun to just go for a ride and check out the scenery. My question is where is the best place to go? Should we head East and go to Cocoa Beach? Or we head West to the Gulf?

We spent the day at Cocoa Beach during our Oct 2003 trip and loved it. We rented a boogie board from Ron Jons, that was a big hit with ds8 at that time. We went to Clearwater Beach during our Mar 2007 trip and we loved it, too. They had these cabanas you could rent to sit under. It was cooler and windy that day and it really helped as it blocked the wind. Both beaches are beautiful.

We are planning to go to another beach on the east coast during our Mar 2009 trip. Does anyone have any suggestions? We will have a rental car and are willing to travel 90 min. max. Thanks for any suggestions...

 

[jenrein]

Some of my favorite beaches are Ormond- the red/orange sand is so beautiful and it is fairly quiet with mostly homeowners on the beach. You can pull up close to but not on the beach and park and there are decent restrooms right there as well. Daytona is fun for the shops and the pier can be fun to walk out on. Last time we were there they were working on it and there wasnt much to see. I also love Cocoa. Living here and visiting beaches often, my favorite will always be Clearwater. Although a hike to get to, and terrible traffic and parking, I love the soft white sand!

 

[bigkid@disney]

We have only been to one beach out of 4 trips to Florida. But, we loved it so much last year, that we are doing 2 beaches this year in June. We did St. Augustine Beach in June. Wasn't crowded, plenty of activities, great hotel location right on the beach and plenty of sightseeing in the area to keep busy for a couple of days. Spent a total of 5 days here.

View from hotel balcony.



View out on the beach. As you can see, very few people and the Pier in the background.


Figure the next trip to Florida, we'll have to split the time with Disney World and the beach.

 

[SarahKate]

We went to Daytona Beach this trip (less than 1.5 hours from Disney) and loved it. You can drive right on the beach to park!!! It was really cool. Not a lot of shells, if your kids are into that. But the sand there is SO soft.

Last year we went to the Tampa area and there are some REALLY great beaches there. Lots and lots of shells, and water is very blue.

We are talking about going back to Daytona next time because we didn't get to stay there for long.

 

[jensen]

Thanks for all the input... I've never been much of a beach person, but you are all making it sound so great that I'm having a hard time deciding where to go...