Closest beach
 

We were thinking about going for a day at the beach tomorrow. Where is the closest one that does not require a permit?

Clearwater Beach is a nice one. 1 hour 59 mins. 103 miles.

Daytona is 73 miles. 1 hour 38 mins.

Fort Island Gulf Beach, Crystal River

50 Miles, 1 Hr 17 Minutes

West End of Hwy 44

Google Maps Directions: from The Villages to Fort Island Beach


Fort Island Gulf Beach - Crystal River - Reviews of Fort Island Gulf Beach - TripAdvisor


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I like Honeymoon Island State Park for a nice beach. I also like Pass-a-Grille down by Clearwater for a nice day's outing. I know New Smyrna Beach is a little closer but the rip tides are sometimes strong there.

If you want the ocean New Smyrna just below Daytona is our favorite. You can park on the beach for about $5. Couple of eating places on the beach also. It is the shark capitol of the US so you may get lucky and spot one, I did;)

If you go to New Smyrna Beach and enjoy great burgers, you need to hit Breakers:

The Breakers Restaurant and Lounge | New Smyrna Beach

Bill :)

I hope you were not in the water when you spotted the shark. :shocked:

I am much more a fan of the Atlantic .... it is an actual ocean. The Gulf is more like a big salty bathtub most of the time.

Yes, NSB is the shark bite capital of the entire world, however 99.987% of those are withing 100 yards of the inlet on the extreme northern end of the beach.

NSB due to the nature of being cut off to the north by Ponce Inlet (Daytona is on the other side) and to the south by The Canaveral National Seashore (which goes all the way south through Kennedy Space Center) has no through traffic. As such it has remained a fairly quaint Fla beach town ..... virtually unchanged from the 70's.

Actually I was. Chest deep, waiting for a wave, ( body surfing), looking out at the swell's I noticed a silver fish about a foot long racing through the water, breaking the surface. I figured it was chasing something to eat. As the swell rose , and the sun behind me, I could see a shark, about 10 feet in front of me chasing the fish! Happened so fast all I could say was "neat". I called to my wife "come look" but she declined. As the other poster said further north by the inlet you would have a better chance of spotting one.

I just looked at NSB and will be adding it my road trip from TV list.

Also a great place is Chase's, a few miles south of the town,on the beach. They have valet parking, two or three bars, swimming pool with pool volleyball, decent food, live music and you can walk down to the beach

Chases on the Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Cool story but I have to side with your wife. :22yikes:

I've been in Fla. since 1953 and never heard of a "permit" for a beach. The real beaches as far as I'm concerned are on the east coast and worth the drive. I prefer the waves of the Atlantic as compared to the calm of the Gulf.

I agree the Gulf just don't do it!, except out on the panhandle those are nice beaches and waves.

For us Highlanders any beach il do. :beer3:

When we lived in Boca Raton, there were some beaches that you had to be a resident of the town to get on. The one that comes to mind is red reef park. We had to go to city hall and show proof of residency to get our permit. I always assumed that this was the norm, but maybe it was just unique to Boca Raton.

Beaches
 

The OP is from CT and so was I. Towns on the Long Island Sound require their residents to get permits. Some beaches might be public but most not.

I've been to Red Reef Park and didn't have to show anything, but that was more than 15 years ago. At the time I lived in Deerfield Bch., but later moved to Boca.
Actually from what I've read, the beach from the high tide water line to the water is free to anyone for the entire state of Florida. Hotels will try to make it seem that it is private beach, but in fact they don't own past high tide water line into the ocean. Of course you can't set up a blanket above that point as they do own it.

Not exactly true .... the beach from the "mean high tide line" (that is a 1 year average of the daily high tide line) to the ocean is owned (in most cases) by The State of Florida. From that same mean high tide line to "The Coastal Setback Line" (this is the line in front of which construction can not take place and the location of this line varies by municipality / county but they must have one by State statute) is owned by that same municipality / county.

Now how they enforce that "ownership" is up to each respective municipality / county. In some cases they do allow private business to act as owner agents, allowing them to "own" a portion of the beach. Thankfully, this ridiculous "ownership" is becoming less and less common and is pretty much only a S. Fla thing these days.

Their are same cases were the beach is all Federal land. Such as The Canaveral National Seashore. Or State land, such as various ocean front State Parks ... or even municipality / county land, again various ocean front parks. In most of these cases a fee is required to enter the park .... that is a park entrance fee and not a beach access fee as such.

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