Southeast Florida's best beaches
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Florida beaches tend to be open from 9 a.m. to sunset, and most charge $4 per vehicle. None allow alcoholic beverages or pets on the beach. Many beaches looked basically the same. Three score way ahead of all the others.
The quest for the best beach began in the north at Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach and went south. The beach is secluded but uncrowded. There's snorkeling just offshore, some picnic tables, a playground and changing areas. It's also the only beach in Palm Beach open to the public.
Lake Worth Municipal Beach just south of West Palm Beach is exceptional. It's sometimes called Casino Beach, but the casino never opened. There is a 1,300-foot fishing pier (entrance fee, 50 cents; three-pole limit; no shark fishing) with the open-air Benny's On the Beach mini-restaurant at the shore end. Quick food and cold drinks are the attraction. Lake Worth Beach also has an Olympic-sized freshwater swimming pool, surfing just off the pier and a golf course. Boynton Beach Municipal Oceanfront Park is a good-for-kids beach. There's lots of room and some shade, but no food facilities.
A few miles south, however, is my second notable beach: Atlantic Dunes Beach in the pleasant town of Delray Beach. There is oceanside parking on the highway, but rarely any open spots. The parking lots across the street are a better bet.
The beach hides behind an extensively landscaped entrance with a wide boardwalk under overhanging tree branches. The boardwalk provides a cool, tranquil introduction to the deep beach of fine white sand. The shoreline is undeveloped in either direction. Another nice touch: It costs you to feed a parking meter in the lot, but the beach is free. Travel Holiday magazine has named this the best swimming beach in the Southeast, while South Florida Parenting called it Palm Beach County's No.1 beach.
Boca Raton has a pricey reputation and so does its Spanish River Park -- $10 per vehicle on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays. It is Boca's largest and northernmost beach, but it's not that special. The park has an entrance to the Intracoastal Waterway and fishing is popular. (No fishing license is required in Florida for saltwater fishing from the shoreline).
Fort Lauderdale is justifiably proud of its six consecutive years of Blue Wave Beach awards from the Clean Beaches Council, a not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C., devoted to sustaining America's beaches.
The Blue Wave Beach award means the beach is safe, clean, beautiful, user-friendly and managed with the environment in mind.
Fort Lauderdale Beach marches seven miles along the city's palm tree-fringed shoreline, but the best of that beach is found in the central portion, separated from the concrete city by a 2-mile, undulating "wavewall" and a pedestrian beachfront promenade that attracts walkers, joggers, in-line skaters and others. Beach activities range from wind-surfing to volleyball, and include snorkeling and nice views of the cruise ships leaving nearly Port Lauderdale. The tire tracks in the smoothed-out sand show the efforts that are made to keep the beach primped and trashless. The beach also has patches of palm trees and many picnic areas. This was the beach that launched Spring Break Fever after it was shown in the 1960 movie "Where the Boys Are."
Fort Lauderdale's Hollywood Beach has five miles of medium-soft sand that is bordered by the Broadwalk pedestrian path. It's another Blue Wave Beach that's worth a look for a tanning excursion.
At the northern end of the entrance to Port Everglades is the 180-acre John U. Lloyd State Park. There's a narrow beach with coconut palm trees, a promenade along the sand and a self-guided nature trail that takes 45 minutes to complete. The surf is gentle -- these are wavelets rather than surf -- and sometimes manatees show up.
At Haulover Beach just north of Miami, nothing at the beach turnoff, in the parking lot across the highway from the beach or in the tunnel under the highway indicates that you are entering a buck-naked zone. At the first break in the hedgelike plants guarding the beach is a sign saying: "Attention. On the beach area beyond this point you may encounter nude sunbathers."
The majority of the perpetually tanned at Haulover Beach wear only sunscreen and a smile. They play nude paddle tennis and nude volleyball, nap nude on blankets, read books nude, walk nude at the water's edge and have picnics in the nude. The lifeguard wore a bathing suit.
The clothing-optional north end of Haulover Beach, by Lifeguard Station 24, attracts 5,000 to 7,000 people on Sundays, the regulars report. Most are middle-aged. No children were evident. Haulover Park's "regular" beach is off to the south and is known for kite flying and its kite shops. Kayaks and bicycles can be rented.
Farther south, past Haulover Beach, A1A turns into Collins Avenue and Dade Boulevard before crossing the Venetian Causeway into downtown Miami. The key to a very good south Florida beach and the best beach of all is the Rickenbacker Causeway that spans five miles of water to Key Biscayne. It's a $1.50 fee worth spending.
At the end of the causeway on Virginia Key, Virginia Key Beach is favored by wind surfers, but it isn't exceptional. It used to be the segregated beach for Miami's blacks.
At the end of Crandon Boulevard that bisects Key Biscayne is Bill Boggs Cape Florida State Recreation Area. This may be the best bargain -- $4 -- in south Florida. The vegetation in the 400-acre park may be scrubby and unattractive, but the Atlantic Ocean-side beach is exceptional for swimming. Visitors can rent Sunfish sailboats, kayaks, pedal boats and four-person four-wheel bicycles with fringe on the top.
The beach also has an 1825 lighthouse that was burned during the Second Seminole Indian Wars and now is a navigational beacon. Park rangers take groups of 10 people up the 109 stairs a couple of times a day.
Smack in the middle of Key Biscayne is the best beach of this tour -- Crandon Park. The widest and cleanest beach on this tour, Crandon Park has two miles of tawny sand and shifting offshore sandbars that allow visitors to wade out in knee-deep water about 500 yards. Palm tree groves support shaded hammocks for nappers and picnickers.
The park is a favorite of Conde Nast Traveler magazine's beach guides and frequently shows up on lists of best Florida beaches. The huge paved parking lot with room for 3,000 vehicles attests to the park's ranking as one of the most popular recreation destination for Miami residents. The beach is so broad, though, that it doesn't look crowded.
A former coconut plantation, Crandon Park was the original home of the Miami Zoo and now has a Family Amusement Center with a restored antique carousel, dolphin-figure splash fountains for children and a free outdoor roller rink.
There's also a Nature Center, marina, tennis center and a golf course (the only public course on the bay) with the world's largest tee, seven lakes and mangrove thickets. It hosted the recent Senior PGA Tour.
On the Florida Gold Coast, beaches don't get any better than this.
