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By Cherie Graves
Coasting with Florida’s Online Beach Guide
Every season is beach season in Florida. Folks travel for hours, along interstates, or back roads or flight paths, to get to Florida beaches. Luckily, once you cross the Florida state line, there’s a multitude of get-to-the-beach options within walking distance or just a short drive away from the place where you spend the night. State parks and city, county and federal lands provide more than 2,000 points of entry where visitors can enjoy Florida’s defining natural resource - the coasts.
Most locals and frequent visitors have favourite go-to beaches, but for those who want to venture off their familiar path, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, with funding assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has compiled a list of Florida’s public beach access points and put them online.
Divided into three regions – panhandle, Atlantic coast and southwest Florida coast – the beach guide provides useful information to help you craft your coastal plans.
The three sections feature an overview of coastal counties in that region and includes a list of state parks, coastal cities, rivers, paddling trails and other points of interest. So, for example, if you’re in the panhandle and want to spend time on the Gulf Coast, you may want to visit St. George Island State Park, Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve or the St. Vincent National Wildlife Reserve. The Gulf Islands National Seashore offers lots of beach time. Nearby, Big Lagoon State Park provides full facility camp sites, a boat ramp and an awesome view of the coast.
On the Atlantic coast, Nassau County’s 60 beach access sites include Amelia Island and Ft. Clinch state parks. While you’re in the area you might want to visit the Timucuan Ecological and Historic National Preserve. A couple of counties further south, the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve provides access to the beach as well as to hiking and biking trails. The research reserve’s environmental education center provides an opportunity to learn about the local coastal ecosystems. On most Saturdays, guided nature hikes or beach exploration provide further information-gathering opportunities.
The Florida beach guide also provides a comprehensive list of beach access points in each county, and the amenities each access point offers. This is useful for those who want to know if there’s a lifeguard on duty, a boardwalk, some shade, a place to cast a rod or a place to shower sandy feet.
Those who like to know exactly where they’re going can use the guide’s interactive map to get a pelican’s point of view of the coast. Zoom in or out to search for beaches by city or county. You can also use the map to identify amenities like boat ramps or marinas at public access sites across the state. The map also provides latitude/longitude coordinates for each site.
You can find out if eats are available onsite or if you should pack a picnic. You can even find out if a site provides covered shelters for your picnic. Search by amenity to find public fishing piers along the Atlantic coast in case you want to fish your way from Jacksonville to Miami.
You can search for marinas or beaches with ADA parking spaces. In case you want to camp at the beach, you can use the map’s “Filter by Amenity” option to find a campsite in the area you want to explore.
Fortunately, beach lovers in Florida have quick access to cool breezes, a dash of salt in the air, and places to get some beach on your feet. Whether you want to walk in, drive in, paddle in or sleep over, Florida has a beach for that.
Check out the online beach guide and learn more about your beach options at www.dep.state.fl.us/cmp/beachaccess/.