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Cayo Costa State Park

Photo: Andrea Pauline / CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

🏖️ Beaches

Cayo Costa State Park

Boca Grande, FL · Southwest Florida

About

There is no bridge and no road, so you board a boat off Pine Island or Boca Grande and motor across the pass, usually trailed by dolphins, to nine miles of barrier island on the other side. Powder-white sand, sea oats bending on the low dunes, and a Gulf tide that keeps laying down fresh shells, sand dollars, and the occasional whole conch. Walk the tram path from the bay dock over to the Gulf and the beach mostly empties out, about as close as Florida gets to having a stretch of coast to yourself.

Highlights

Getting there

Island south of Boca Grande, Boca Grande, FL 33921

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Wild Florida Gulf Coast Beaches9 places

Wild Florida Gulf Coast Beaches

Florida's wildest Gulf beaches make you work for them: some you reach only by boat, others by a long walk past the last paved road. These are the undeveloped barrier islands and protected state-park shores with no resort strip and no high-rise wall, just sugar sand, dunes, shelling, and the kind of quiet you earn. Pack your own water and shade.