The Best Beaches in South Florida You Must Visit

Sand bar with ocean on both sides and a flock of white sea gulls flying

Spending a lot of time somewhere allows you to see more of that place. We’ve been to many beaches in South Florida and these are by far my favourite beaches and I’ve listed them in order of favourites.

Florida beaches are actually very much underrated. The beaches here are all so unique from the North to the South of the West and East coast. The West coast of Florida has the softest whitest sand that’s like flour and the East coast has golden and grey sand.

If you love collecting shells, then Florida’s West coast is the best for that. There are so many treasures you can find without even trying. You will find lots of marine life including lots of fish, manatees, dolphins and sea turtle nests.

We’ve never actually seen sea turtle's but when you go to the beach you will see little areas with wooden sticks and yellow or orange tape to block off the area where they have their nests. The Florida government is very strict to protect the sea turtles they list all the rules on signs at the beach and there is even a phone number to call if you see someone tampering with the nests.

Twice we saw a huge manatee swimming in the ocean when we were in the water at Naples Beach and Anna Maria Island! Don’t worry they are totally harmless. You can see dolphins if you take a boat out or even on sea doos further out in the ocean.

There are amazing water activities you can do if you get bored of suntanning, like kayaking in the little rivers behind the beach, sea dooing, boating, deep-sea fishing, parasailing, doing a romantic sunset cruise, jet skiing, and paddle boarding.

Boca Raton Beach

This is definitely my favourite beach! It’s amazing how the beach changes as you drive from Miami to Boca. The water is an unbelievable emerald greenish-blue colour, so clear all the way to the bottom and the sand is a greyish colour that looks so beautiful together with the water.

You’ll find many families at the beach, it doesn’t have that party vibe like at Fort Lauderdale or Miami. The water is the perfect temperature to keep you refreshed in the 40 degree summer heat of Florida. I found so many fish swimming around our feet constantly when we were in the water! Bring your snorkel gear so you can see them.

Lovers Key Beach State Park

This beach is in a national park and there is a $10 fee to enter which covers parking as well. Depends which part of the beach you want to go to, the walk can be long so they have a trolly that will take you to the furthest part of the beach which is where I took this photo. When you exit the trolly you have to walk a good 5 minutes to the left where there is the least amount of people and you should be able to see a long sand patch that goes out with water on both sides. It’s worth the walk!

The last trolly leaves at 4:45 pm. We stayed to watch the sunset which was a mistake because it was a 15-minute walk back to the car and we got eaten alive by no-see-ums! They’re tiny little bugs that bite you but you can’t see them. The bites are worse than mosquito bites and last a whole week where you’re applying hydrocortisone. So my tip is not to stay past 4:45 pm and take the trolly back because these no-see-ums come out around sunset and very early in the morning.

If you use bug spray you might be ok because we used bug spray when we went to the everglades on a rainy cloudy day and didn’t get one bite.

Anna Maria Island

The beach here reminds me of Lovers Key. The water was super wild and wavy and this is where we saw a huge manatee swim right beside us! We went to the part where you can see the drastic colour change. The dark colour of the water means it’s very deep there and when we were in the water we can tell how fast it went deep. So just be careful if you’re in that area since the dark blue area is so deep that’s probably where the manatee came from and there are probably sharks there. We didn’t see any sharks luckily.

We went to the end of the island but note there isn't any parking where we were you had a small area to park on the street. So if you want to go there it’s best to go during the week to find a parking spot which is what we did.

Naples Beach

Naples beach is amazing. White soft sand and greenish-blue water. Lots of parking but it gets full on the weekends so go early or late around 3 pm you’ll get a spot around that time. The best part is you’re close to all the beautiful restaurants that I recommend in my blog post about the Best Restaurants in Naples.

The closer you are to the pier the more people will be there so if you’re not into large crowds just walk down further. We like to park a few parking lots away from the pier.

Lido Beach

This beach reminds me of Varadero Cuba! The water is much more clear and soft white sand. Of course in Varadero, the beach is a different colour but this is the closest beach in Florida that resembles Cuba. I also love this beach because it’s on the St Armand Key full of amazing restaurants and shops.

Fort Lauderdale Beach

Fort Lauderdale is more of a Miami party vibe if you’re close to where all the restaurants are but you can find part of the beach that is more chill if you drive away from the restaurant area. I really love this beach because the water is a stunning turquoise greenish-blue colour, so clear & clean with golden sand! I couldn’t believe how beautiful the beach was here. It’s so different from Miami. The water is the perfect cool temperature just like in Boca Raton that keeps you refreshed in the 40-degree heat.

Key Biscayne

It’s interesting how much better this beach is compared to Miami even though it’s so close to South Beach. Key Biscayne is overall very clean and beautiful, high-end with great restaurants. There are a few public beaches with parking. I highly recommend this beach. Golden sand, and greenish-blue clear water! Perfect if you’re looking for a more laid back relaxed family vibe.

Even the beach at the Key Biscayne Causeway is very nice & clean.

Sanibel & Captiva

This is such a cute and laid back island off of Fort Myers. It has that small Florida Island vibe, lots of cute restaurants and there are many beaches you can go to. The beach near the lighthouse is so beautiful and you can keep driving up north to Captiva as well. This is a great place to look for shells.

Siesta Key Beach

The sand here is unbelievable, so soft and white like flour. The beach is very large and the water is clear and wavy. It was cloudy the day we were here but still so beautiful. A great beach for family or couples or friends. Very laid back and there is a small little town with lots of shops and restaurants to explore after you’re done at the beach.

Barefoot Beach

We nicknamed it turtle beach because it’s full of gopher turtles! They’re everywhere so be careful when you drive and before you drive away check under your car. Yes, they might be there, I’ve seen them. To get to this beach you will drive through all these beautiful homes and condos and at the end is a large parking lot. The fee to get in is $8 and covers the parking. The beach is just beautiful, very similar to Naples beach.

I would say if you plan to stay past sunset at any of the beaches, have bug spray with you so you avoid the no-see-ums biting you.

If you haven’t yet been to any of these beaches you will love it! Florida is truly a great place to live or visit.

Come say hi on Instagram and let me know which beach in Florida is your favourite!

Happy travels,

Asya