🏖️ Beaches

Bahia Honda State Park

Big Pine Key, FL · Florida Keys

About

Three white-sand beaches share one narrow key here, with Calusa and Loggerhead facing the calm Gulf side and Sandspur stretching out toward the Atlantic, all of it fronting water clear enough to read the bottom from the surface. The old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge, a remnant of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad, arcs broken across the channel and frames nearly every photo people take from Calusa. The park runs daily snorkel boats out to Looe Key, a reef of elkhorn and star coral about seven miles offshore that many consider the best in the Keys.

Highlights

Three white-sand beaches: Calusa, Loggerhead, and SandspurSome of the clearest water in the Keys, shallow and swimmableViews of the old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge from Flagler's Overseas RailroadDaily snorkel boats to the Looe Key reef offshoreOceanside camping and cabins at mile marker 37First Florida beach ranked #1 on Dr. Beach's list (1992)

Related places

Smathers Beach Beaches

Smathers Beach

Key West, FL · Florida Keys

Smathers Beach runs a half mile along South Roosevelt Boulevard, a ribbon of imported Bahamian sand that the city trucks back in every time a storm hauls it off. The water sits calm and clear because the only living coral reef in North America breaks the swell seven miles offshore, so the shallows stay warm and easy for swimming, paddleboarding, or talking a vendor into a jet ski. It is the rare beach where you can watch the sun come up over the Atlantic and set behind the palms from the same patch of sand.

Clearwater Beach Beaches

Clearwater Beach

Clearwater, FL · Tampa Bay

Clearwater's wide ribbon of ultra-fine white quartz sand meets calm, bath-warm Gulf water, with a walkable strip of cafes right behind it. Every evening the free Sunsets at Pier 60 festival fills the sand with buskers and makers before the sky goes pink. It is the easy do-everything Pinellas beach day: park once and stay through sunset.

Siesta Key Beach Beaches

Siesta Key Beach

Sarasota, FL · Tampa Bay

Siesta Key Beach near Sarasota runs on sand that is roughly 99 percent quartz, so fine and white it stays cool underfoot even on a hot afternoon and squeaks as you walk. Spread a towel on the wide flats, swim the calm turquoise Gulf shallows, then ride the free trolley into Siesta Key Village for dinner. Drumming circles draw crowds to the soft sand at sunset.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Bahia Honda State Park.