Happenin’
Places › Florida › Space Coast › Sebastian Inlet State Park
Sebastian Inlet State Park

Photo: Larry Crovo / CC BY-ND 2.0 · source

🏖️ Beaches

Sebastian Inlet State Park

Melbourne Beach, FL · Space Coast

About

Two long jetties run out into the Atlantic at the mouth of Sebastian Inlet, where the tide rips through and surfers line up at First Peak, the most reliable break on Florida's east coast. Anglers work the rocks for snook and Spanish mackerel while the calmer Indian River Lagoon side stays quiet enough for kayaks and wading birds. Two small museums sit inside the park, one telling the story of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet that wrecked just offshore, the other the local fishing trade, and the campground stays open around the clock.

Highlights

Two Atlantic fishing jetties at the inlet mouthFirst Peak, one of Florida's most consistent surf breaksCalm Indian River Lagoon side for kayakingMcLarty Treasure Museum (1715 Spanish fleet) and Sebastian Fishing MuseumThree miles of Atlantic beachAround-the-clock campground and boat ramp

Getting there

Related places

Canaveral National Seashore Beaches

Canaveral National Seashore

Titusville, FL · Space Coast

Twenty-four miles of barrier-island sand run unbroken here with not a single condo, snack bar, or resort wall in sight, just dunes stitched with sea oats, the Atlantic on one side and the still water of Mosquito Lagoon on the other. Park at a numbered lot, walk ten minutes past the last umbrella, and you can have a whole stretch of empty shoreline to yourself, the kind of solitude where sea turtles nest in summer and shorebirds outnumber people. On a clear morning you can look south down the beach and see the rocket gantries of Kennedy Space Center rising over the wild dune line, the only thing on the horizon for miles.

Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge Beaches

Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge

Melbourne Beach, FL · Space Coast

This is the wild Atlantic that A1A development never reached: twenty undeveloped miles of dune and dark sand running south from Melbourne Beach toward Wabasso, with no resort wall, no boardwalk strip, just sea oats, coastal scrub, and the open ocean. It is the most important loggerhead nesting beach in the Western Hemisphere, so on a summer dawn the sand is crossed with the tractor-tread tracks of mother turtles that hauled out overnight to lay. Park at the Barrier Island Center, walk the dune crossover, and you will likely have a long stretch of empty shoreline to yourself, the kind of quiet Florida beach that feels like a place rather than a parking lot.

Cocoa Beach 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.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Sebastian Inlet State Park.

Florida State Parks26 places

Florida State Parks

Florida's park service runs about 175 state parks, and these are the ones worth planning a trip around. Wild barrier islands and sugar-sand beaches, deep springs and dark caverns, 19th-century forts and prairies where bison still roam, from the Panhandle's emerald coast to the coral reefs of the Keys. The definitive short list, not the whole directory.

Wild Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches14 places

Wild Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches

The Atlantic coast keeps its wild stretches tucked between the beach towns: undeveloped barrier islands, a national seashore, and refuge shores where sea turtles still outnumber people. Walk past the last parking lot at Canaveral and the crowds vanish; wander Big Talbot's boneyard beach where storm-felled oaks bleach white in the surf. No high-rise wall, no boardwalk, just dunes, driftwood, and open ocean. Bring water and shade, and leave South Beach to everyone else.