Popular Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches

This is the other Florida Atlantic, the one with a soundtrack: beach-town shores where the boardwalk, the pier, and the bars are half the point. Park once and walk to South Beach's pastel lifeguard towers, Daytona's hard-packed sand you can still drive on, Cocoa Beach's morning surf, and Fort Lauderdale's strip of cafes across from the water. Come for the crowds, the people-watching, and the easy day where everything you need is steps from the sand.

13 places · Florida Atlantic Coast

Must-see

Beaches

Must-see

South Beach

South Beach is the loud, bright heart of Miami Beach, where pale sand runs for miles past candy-colored Art Deco lifeguard towers and the Atlantic rolls in warm and easy. Ocean Drive hums a block off the sand with cafes, neon, and a steady parade of skaters, joggers, and sunbathers, and the boardwalk lets you walk it all the way from the inlet to the Setai. Come for the people-watching as much as the swim: this is the busiest, most famous stretch of beach in Florida, and it wears the crowds well.

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Miami Beach, FL Miami

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Must-see

Daytona Beach

This is the beach that put the cars on the sand: 23 miles of hard-packed Atlantic shoreline you can actually drive onto, anchored by the 1925 Main Street Pier jutting a thousand feet into the surf. The boardwalk behind it runs on a loop of fried dough, the Coquina clock tower, and a Ferris wheel turning over the dunes, while surfers work the breaks off the pilings. Come for the wide-open sand and the crowds, stay for the kind of summer-night noise that earned it the nickname World's Most Famous Beach.

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Daytona Beach, FL Space Coast

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Fort Lauderdale Beach

This is the Florida beach you picture when someone says spring break: two miles of soft Atlantic sand running straight up against the neon and patio bars of A1A. The signature white wave wall and brick promenade hug the shore from Las Olas to Sunrise, packed with skaters, joggers, and people watching the surf roll in off the warm Atlantic. Rent a chair, grab a frozen drink across the street, and settle into the kind of loud, sun-soaked beach day this town has been famous for since the 1960s.

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Fort Lauderdale, FL Miami

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More to explore

Beaches

Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach, FL · Space Coast

This is the Space Coast at full volume: a wide stretch of Atlantic sand where the 800-foot Cocoa Beach Pier juts into the waves, its tiki bars and live music drawing crowds straight off the boardwalk. The surf here is the gentle, rideable kind that turned a local kid named Kelly Slater into an eleven-time world champion, and the flagship Ron Jon Surf Shop two miles up A1A keeps the boards moving 24 hours a day. Come for sunrise over the breakers, stay for a sunset beer over the pilings, and time a clear evening right and you might catch a rocket arc up over the water from the launch pads just to the north.

Beaches

Jacksonville Beach

Jacksonville Beach, FL · Northeast Florida

This is the busy, salt-and-sunscreen heart of the Jacksonville Beaches, where a long concrete fishing pier juts into the Atlantic and surfers line up for the steady shore break beneath it. Wide hard-packed sand runs for miles, the SeaWalk Pavilion hosts free concerts and the Friday-night Deck the Chairs lights, and the bars and taco joints of the Beaches Town Center are a short walk back from the dunes. Come for a loud, easy beach day: paddle out, walk the pier for the pelicans and the anglers, then chase the sunset glow off the water with a cold drink in hand.

Beaches

New Smyrna Beach

New Smyrna Beach, FL · Space Coast

Thirteen miles of hard-packed Atlantic sand you can actually drive your car onto, with one of the most consistent surf breaks on the East Coast peeling just offshore. Flagler Avenue runs straight down to the water, spilling its galleries, raw bars, and live music onto the dunes, so the day moves easily from a dawn longboard session to fish tacos and a cold one by sunset. Surfer and National Geographic have both named it one of the world's top surf towns, and on a warm weekend the wide beach fills with boards, umbrellas, and trucks parked right at the tideline.

Beaches

Vero Beach

Vero Beach, FL · Treasure Coast

This is the Treasure Coast at its most easygoing: a barrier-island beach town where Ocean Drive's low-slung shops and cafes sit a sandal's walk from the wide Atlantic sand. The 450-foot boardwalk at Humiston Beach spills families onto soft swimmable surf with lifeguards on the flags, and the dune-backed shoreline is part of one of the busiest loggerhead and green sea-turtle nesting coasts in the hemisphere. Come for the kite-flying afternoons and the gentle waves; stay for the Saturday farmers market and a slow stroll back up the strip.

Beaches

Pompano Beach

Pompano Beach, FL · Palm Beaches

Pompano Beach is the wide, busy stretch where the Fisher Family Pier juts nearly 900 feet into the Atlantic and curls into the shape of a pompano fish at its tip, with a cutout eye you can peer through to spot what is swimming below. At its foot sits the Fishing Village, a packed beachfront strip of raw bars, taco joints, and the Pier 6 rooftop where you sip a cocktail over the surf line. The sand runs broad and lively under the lifeguard towers, the kind of beach where everyone shows up and the waves keep rolling in.

Beaches

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL · Palm Beaches

This is the rare South Florida beach town you can walk end to end in flip-flops, where Anglin's Pier juts off the sand at the foot of Commercial Boulevard and the whole place orbits a short, sunny strip of cafes like the Aruba Beach Cafe. Drop your towel among the umbrellas and you are a hundred yards from the first ledge of a three-tier coral reef, close enough that snorkelers and shore divers just wade in from the beach instead of chartering a boat. Come morning the sand fills with sunbathers and the surf rolls in clear over the rocks, and by lunch the SeaSide tables are loud with people who walked over barefoot.

Beaches

Delray Beach

Delray Beach, FL · Palm Beaches

Two miles of soft, wide sand run straight off the east end of Atlantic Avenue, so you can walk from a downtown lunch into the surf in about five minutes. Lifeguard towers, beach volleyball, and rented cabanas keep the public stretch busy from sunrise swimmers to sunset crowds, with warm Atlantic water and an easy break that suits boogie boards and first-time surfers. When you have had enough sun, Atlantic Avenue waits a block back with its sidewalk cafes, galleries, and a nightlife that runs late.

Beaches

Hollywood Beach

Hollywood, FL · Miami

Hollywood Beach is where South Florida puts on a show: a brick-paved Broadwalk runs 2.5 miles along the sand, lined with palms, pastel Art Deco hotels, oceanfront cafes, and a constant parade of cyclists, joggers, and skaters. The wide golden beach drops straight into warm Atlantic surf, and the crowds pull toward the bandshell, the rental beach cruisers, and the ice cream and key lime stands within steps of the water. Come for a lively, easygoing beach town that earns its spot on America's best-boardwalk lists and stays busy from sunrise jog to live music after dark.

Beaches

St. Augustine Beach

St. Augustine Beach, FL · Northeast Florida

Anastasia Island's main beach runs wide and walkable below the 1,300-foot St. Johns County Ocean Pier, the kind of beach town where you can drive onto the sand, cast a line, or paddle out to the steady pier-break swells that draw Northeast Florida's surfers. Wednesday mornings the pier park fills with 60-some farmers market vendors, and summer nights bring the free Music by the Sea concerts and a splash park for the kids. It is the lively, easygoing counterpart to the old fort and cobblestones a few miles north, with surf shops, beachfront bars, and shrimp baskets within a barefoot walk of the water.

Beaches

Lake Worth Beach

Lake Worth Beach, FL · Palm Beaches

The William O. Lockhart Municipal Pier reaches almost a thousand feet over the Atlantic here, and the sandbars it kicks up give Lake Worth Beach the most reliable surf in South Florida, so you will find longboarders trading waves while families spread out on the wide white sand. Behind the beach the 1920s-style Casino Building anchors a boardwalk of taco counters, an ice cream window, and a saltwater pool, all a short walk from the funky galleries and Friday street parties downtown. Pay the pier toll to walk out past the anglers for the long view back at the surf, the swimmers, and the crowd.